Saturday, April 14, 2012
Isaac Jones in Virginia???
The first obstacle one must get past when examining the whereabouts of Isaac Jones prior to 1801, is the illusion that Isaac was in Surry County, North Carolina as early as the 1780's. This belief finds it's origin with the presence of an Isaac Jones on the 1790 Census for Surry County, in addition to, several deeds going back to the 1780's involving an Isaac Jones purchasing land in the far northern part of the county around Tom's Creek and the Dan River. This same Isaac Jones is believed to also have purchased land and resided at times across the state line in Grayson County, Virginia leading some researchers to even speculate that Isaac, the subject of this blog, had come to North Carolina from Virginia. Upon closer examination, the truth of the matter is that the Isaac Jones in Surry County records prior to 1801 was in fact a Quaker father and son team both named Isaac Jones. The elder of the two resided in Grayson County, Virginia while his son lived along Tom's Creek in Surry County, North Carolina until his death on March 12, 1791 as recorded in the Westfield Meeting minutes serving the Quaker community located on Tom's Creek. Quaker records also show that this particular Jones family arrived at the Cane Creek Meeting House in Orange County, North Carolina before 1762 and were eventually granted certificate to relocate to the Mount Pleasant Quaker community in Grayson County, Virginia on December 4, 1773. Not long after this is when you begin to see an Isaac Jones pop up in the Surry County land records involving land purchases near the Quaker settlement along Tom's Creek just across the border. The younger Isaac's death in 1791 and the absence of any Isaac Jones on the 1800 Census for Surry County is further evidence that this is nothing more than a case of mistaken identity.
The 1850 Federal Census
There's probably no better place to start than the 1850 Federal Census for Calloway County, Kentucky.
It's really only one of a couple known documents to exist that even remotely addresses the earliest origins of Isaac Jones and is the most common document for people to cite as a source of this info. But how accurate is it really and how much should it be taken at face value?
When the federal census was first designed and laid out in Article 1 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution back in 1787 and eventually finalized in the passing of the Census Act in 1790, it originally called for U.S. marshals and their assistants to act as enumerators and required they travel the countryside collecting info from house to house; a task that took 18 months when first done in 1790 with a population return of 3.9 million people. The original bill also set the rate of pay for assistants at one dollar for every one hundred and fifty names returned if the people resided in the country and one dollar for every three hundred names returned if the people resided in a city of five thousand or more people. The U.S. marshals were given a one time single payment of anywhere from one hundred to three hundred and fifty dollars. With a system designed around the premise of more names equals more money, if you weren't home when the enumerator happened to come by, your information was most likely obtained from your nearest neighbor regardless of how many miles away and mainly to the best of his knowledge. It wouldn't be long before further legislation had to be passed in an attempt to curtail the massive amounts of false census entries being created by enumerators, but even this wouldn't guarantee the government that they would make every effort to go from house to house. Evidence of this abounds in the various census records taken over the years, with birth years shifting from census to census, frequent name variations being used, and birth locations that vary and jump all over the map.
Speaking of birth locations that vary.....you actually run into this situation in regards to that of Isaac Jones. While the 1850 Census states Isaac was born in Maryland, fortunately for future researchers, his youngest son Joshua Douglas Jones lived to see the 1880 Census. The significant difference between the 1880 Census and all prior census years is that it was in this year that the birth location of your parents was included into the line of questioning. Oddly, Joshua states that both his father and mother were born in North Carolina, not Maryland.
But why put equal weight of truth in the statement of his son as in the words of the man himself? Closer examination of the information presented in the 1850 Census begins to throw up even more red flags pointing even further to the possibility that this info was delivered from a second source who may not have had their facts straight. For starters, how about Isaac's wife? Kissara? When you consider that her name was actually Keziah, and in some instances spelled Kesiah or Kisiah, Kissara barely falls into the realm of even being phonetically correct. In no other instance is it ever spelled like this. Could the enumerator's hearing or spelling really have been that bad? One would think that if this info came directly from her, the spelling would be phonetically closer based on pronunciation alone. Having been able to read and write, it most certainly wouldn't have come from Isaac. The next issue arises with her stated age of 78, which would put her as having been born around 1772. Considering her oldest child, Jane A. Morris, from her one and only prior marriage to James Morris was born in 1817; are we really expected to believe that she had her first child at age 45 and continued on well into her 50's? While I guess not impossible, it's highly unlikely. The 1840 Census even shows her age as being as much as 10 years less than stated in 1850.
With Isaac himself having died at some point between the taking of this census on August 5, 1850 and March of the following year when his estate was being probated, county land records show that he or the family may have known the end was near as early as July of 1849. It is at this time that a deed is drawn up between Isaac's son Joshua and Isaac's son-in-law John Jeffrey who are acting as "the lawful attorneys for Isaac Jones" and Isaac's wife Keziah in which she "relinquishes all claims to his property in exchange for the right to reside until her death on the 160 acre parcel of land they currently live on." Could it be that Isaac had possibly become ill or incapacitated as early as 1849, leaving us with the possibility that someone else provided the data on the 1850 Census? What you're essentially left with here is what amounts to a fifty percent chance he was from Maryland and a fifty percent chance he was from North Carolina. Having examined the possibilities under both contexts, it would seem to me that it's more likely Isaac Jones was born in North Carolina and not Maryland as commonly stated and widely believed. Evidence of this fact I believe can be found in Isaac's involvement with the Methodist religion and his whereabouts prior to arriving in Surry County, North Carolina in 1801.
But first......a little background.
It all started while dining with the family over the Christmas holiday in Orlando back in 1994.......
At the time, I was working on my degree in American history out in northern Arizona and had agreed to rendezvous with the family in Orlando that winter for a trip to Disney World. While visiting the main park at Disney, we had noticed a vendor located in the base of Cinderella's Castle selling family coat of arms. My paternal grandmother had been into genealogy and traveled the world, so needless to say, my siblings and I had heard a few stories concerning our Scottish heritage and supposed ancestral castles. Prompted by these past tales we decided to see if they had a coat of arms for our surname Crookston, which to our excited surprise they did!
Later that evening over dinner, the topic of the coat of arms came up and the question was posed to my father, "if we were to travel to Scotland, considering there's an ancestral family castle and all, how would we be received by our Scottish relatives?" To which my father replied, "well for starters they wouldn't think anything special of you being a Crookston because you're an American, and it doesn't matter anyway because you have no blood relation to that name. That came from my stepfather."
NO BLOOD RELATION TO THAT NAME??? Apart from the sound of a few jaws dropping, you could have heard the proverbial "pin drop" at that table. All I can say is it's quite strange going through the initial 20+ years of your life thinking something is an absolute truth when it turns out it's actually not. Without even having had a chance to recover from the initial shock of it all, my mother decides to follow that up with, "oh yeah, and your grandfather Frank isn't my biological father either, my parents got divorced when I was a young girl." The irony of the situation could hardly escape me. At that moment it became clear to me that I was a historian who didn't even know his own history.
Up until that particular point in time, I honestly held zero interest in genealogy despite it's close association with studying history. I'd done the grade school family trees in the past and pretty much figured the stories had all been told and what's known is known. Now with 50% of my ancestral history a relative unknown, how could I resist such a mystery and challenge? Initially I started out with looking into my father's biological father and immediately ran into a brick wall due to the fact that my grandfather had been born out of wedlock to an unknown male, so I decided to switch over to my maternal side which is where I ended up coming across the name Jones.
My mother knew very little about her biological father's family due to her being at such a young age at the time of her parents' separation, so she directed me to her younger sister Jean who had rekindled her relationship with my grandfather in his later years prior to death. My Aunt Jean had fortunately had the interest and foresight to gather as much of the family's history as she could during her visits and was kind enough to send it my way. The bulk of the information pertained to two surnames, one of which was Jones, which had apparently been added to my family mix via my great grandmother Ollie Drucilla Jones. It appeared most of my work had already been done for me because her lineage had been clearly laid out going back to her great great grandfather (my 5th great grandfather)........Isaac Jones.
Born circa 1769 in Maryland, apparently spent some time in North Carolina, and eventually went east to Kentucky where he died in 1851. End of story. No wife, siblings, or parents listed. Even a subsequent internet search at the time produced little more than a person or two referring to him as the Reverend Isaac Jones and a few others having tacked "Sr." to the end of his name. Some even believed that he had lived in Virginia prior to coming to North Carolina. A quick look at the 1850 Census produced a wife named "Kissara" and confirmation that he was in fact a Methodist clergyman who apparently owned quite a bit of land. Still no siblings or parents. Strange considering his apparent level of success, not to mention the number of other individuals/researchers also searching out this same info. Why the big mystery?
By this point in time I had relocated back to North Carolina, so what better opportunity to test my chops as a historian than to take a crack at solving the mystery of Isaac Jones' origin? I'm only living two counties over from where he resided back in the early 1800's....how hard could it be? Little did I know at the time that this would end up ultimately being a 10 year journey, taking me from the foothills of western North Carolina, through the rolling hills and horse pastures of southern Tennessee, and further westward to the fertile farmland of western Kentucky and Calloway County. Along the way I was able to unearth a substantial amount of information regarding the life of Isaac Jones which helped correct several widely held misbeliefs, solve a number of mysteries, while at the same creating a few more needing to be solved.
As many of you who already know me are aware, my initial plan was to get this all published into book form. After having spent the last few years working on that, I've decided that the more practical route to take is instead putting it out here in a blog format. Why the change of heart? Well, there's a number of reasons behind it. With the genealogical world turning more and more every day towards the internet and the cost of quality publication being what it is, it just seemed more practical and cost-effective to go this route. Why publish a book that will most likely only end up in a few relevant libraries that only a few people would have the opportunity to access. With well over 100 written documents pertaining specifically to Isaac Jones alone, I couldn't possibly incorporate them all into a complete work without being forced to price the book as if it were some fancy coffee table book. By going this route, it's readily and freely available for all to see and benefit from while allowing me more freedom to present it in it's entirety.
While primarily focusing on the life of Isaac Jones, I'll definitely make a point to address each of his seven children, a few of his more interesting grandchildren, a number of the related families, and a good dose of historical perspective to help put it all into context. Hopefully somebody will find some benefit in my work, either now or down the road, possibly presenting that one little clue or shedding that new angle of light that helps you solve your own family mystery.
Happy Hunting!
At the time, I was working on my degree in American history out in northern Arizona and had agreed to rendezvous with the family in Orlando that winter for a trip to Disney World. While visiting the main park at Disney, we had noticed a vendor located in the base of Cinderella's Castle selling family coat of arms. My paternal grandmother had been into genealogy and traveled the world, so needless to say, my siblings and I had heard a few stories concerning our Scottish heritage and supposed ancestral castles. Prompted by these past tales we decided to see if they had a coat of arms for our surname Crookston, which to our excited surprise they did!
Later that evening over dinner, the topic of the coat of arms came up and the question was posed to my father, "if we were to travel to Scotland, considering there's an ancestral family castle and all, how would we be received by our Scottish relatives?" To which my father replied, "well for starters they wouldn't think anything special of you being a Crookston because you're an American, and it doesn't matter anyway because you have no blood relation to that name. That came from my stepfather."
NO BLOOD RELATION TO THAT NAME??? Apart from the sound of a few jaws dropping, you could have heard the proverbial "pin drop" at that table. All I can say is it's quite strange going through the initial 20+ years of your life thinking something is an absolute truth when it turns out it's actually not. Without even having had a chance to recover from the initial shock of it all, my mother decides to follow that up with, "oh yeah, and your grandfather Frank isn't my biological father either, my parents got divorced when I was a young girl." The irony of the situation could hardly escape me. At that moment it became clear to me that I was a historian who didn't even know his own history.
Up until that particular point in time, I honestly held zero interest in genealogy despite it's close association with studying history. I'd done the grade school family trees in the past and pretty much figured the stories had all been told and what's known is known. Now with 50% of my ancestral history a relative unknown, how could I resist such a mystery and challenge? Initially I started out with looking into my father's biological father and immediately ran into a brick wall due to the fact that my grandfather had been born out of wedlock to an unknown male, so I decided to switch over to my maternal side which is where I ended up coming across the name Jones.
My mother knew very little about her biological father's family due to her being at such a young age at the time of her parents' separation, so she directed me to her younger sister Jean who had rekindled her relationship with my grandfather in his later years prior to death. My Aunt Jean had fortunately had the interest and foresight to gather as much of the family's history as she could during her visits and was kind enough to send it my way. The bulk of the information pertained to two surnames, one of which was Jones, which had apparently been added to my family mix via my great grandmother Ollie Drucilla Jones. It appeared most of my work had already been done for me because her lineage had been clearly laid out going back to her great great grandfather (my 5th great grandfather)........Isaac Jones.
Born circa 1769 in Maryland, apparently spent some time in North Carolina, and eventually went east to Kentucky where he died in 1851. End of story. No wife, siblings, or parents listed. Even a subsequent internet search at the time produced little more than a person or two referring to him as the Reverend Isaac Jones and a few others having tacked "Sr." to the end of his name. Some even believed that he had lived in Virginia prior to coming to North Carolina. A quick look at the 1850 Census produced a wife named "Kissara" and confirmation that he was in fact a Methodist clergyman who apparently owned quite a bit of land. Still no siblings or parents. Strange considering his apparent level of success, not to mention the number of other individuals/researchers also searching out this same info. Why the big mystery?
By this point in time I had relocated back to North Carolina, so what better opportunity to test my chops as a historian than to take a crack at solving the mystery of Isaac Jones' origin? I'm only living two counties over from where he resided back in the early 1800's....how hard could it be? Little did I know at the time that this would end up ultimately being a 10 year journey, taking me from the foothills of western North Carolina, through the rolling hills and horse pastures of southern Tennessee, and further westward to the fertile farmland of western Kentucky and Calloway County. Along the way I was able to unearth a substantial amount of information regarding the life of Isaac Jones which helped correct several widely held misbeliefs, solve a number of mysteries, while at the same creating a few more needing to be solved.
As many of you who already know me are aware, my initial plan was to get this all published into book form. After having spent the last few years working on that, I've decided that the more practical route to take is instead putting it out here in a blog format. Why the change of heart? Well, there's a number of reasons behind it. With the genealogical world turning more and more every day towards the internet and the cost of quality publication being what it is, it just seemed more practical and cost-effective to go this route. Why publish a book that will most likely only end up in a few relevant libraries that only a few people would have the opportunity to access. With well over 100 written documents pertaining specifically to Isaac Jones alone, I couldn't possibly incorporate them all into a complete work without being forced to price the book as if it were some fancy coffee table book. By going this route, it's readily and freely available for all to see and benefit from while allowing me more freedom to present it in it's entirety.
While primarily focusing on the life of Isaac Jones, I'll definitely make a point to address each of his seven children, a few of his more interesting grandchildren, a number of the related families, and a good dose of historical perspective to help put it all into context. Hopefully somebody will find some benefit in my work, either now or down the road, possibly presenting that one little clue or shedding that new angle of light that helps you solve your own family mystery.
Happy Hunting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)