I'm "Ancestor Approved"

A couple of months ago, I linked my blog to "Geneabloggers," a group of bloggers dedicated to sharing their family histories.  As a result, I've had many more readers besides my immediate family.  In addition, I've been able to get new ideas from other bloggers I've been reading who approach the same task in many different ways.

Yesterday I found out that Jenn, of Roots and Stones, had selected my blog to receive the "Ancestor Approved" Award. The
"Ancestor Approved" Award was created in March 2010 by Leslie Ann Ballou of Ancestors Live Here as a way to show how much she appreciates and enjoys "blogs full of tips and tricks as well as funny and heartwarming stories..."


Recipients are to list ten things which surprised, humbled or enlightened them about their ancestors, before passing it on to ten other bloggers.  After 10 years, now is probably a good time to reflect on what I've learned, so here is my list.

1. I was surprised to discover that the Jones Family ancestry in America extends back to pre-Revolutionary War times.  We could be members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  You can read about Vincent Wainwright in this post.  Click on Wainwrights and the Revolutionary War
2. I didn't realize the degree of poverty experienced by both my German and Irish ancestors.  The Vonderheides were "Heuerleute" or non-landowning peasants who shared living space with farm animals. See Past vs. Present - Part I  The Ryans left Ireland at the height of the Irish Potato Famine.  America wasn't much better.  Hugh Ryan initially made his living as a "brickmaker" in Evansville, Indiana -- an occupation described on one web site as "slave." See Hugh Matthew Ryan and Mary Ellen McInerney
3. I always said that I came from a long line of strong women.  However, I had no idea how difficult life was for three young widows in my line.  Among these women are Rosa Gross, Lucy Cronin, and Rose Ryan.  
4. I am amazed by what I did not know about my own grandfathers.  "Fred" Jones ran a "tight ship" when it came to his "car barn" -- a maintenance facility for streetcars (and later buses).  He received numerous awards and recognitions.  See Modesty.  I was also unaware that my maternal grandfather, Roy Ryan, was such a proficient "duplicator."  According to Aunt Evelyn, her father could retrieve toys and other items that had been placed out in the trash and restore them to "like new" condition.  He particularly did this during the Depression.  It should also be noted that he had to drop out of school to help support his family when he was just 13 years old and his father died of pneumonia. See Roy Ryan - Part I
5. I did not realize that I have six ancestors who served in the Civil War.  I've written at length about Britton Wainright, but I've since discovered five other ancestors who served.  I am currently preparing materials to add to the blog on each of them.
6. I'm amazed at the integral role that the Ohio River and boating has played in the history of my family.  Four generations of Joneses have lived within a couple of blocks of the Ohio River.  Boats have been a part of every Jones generation.  One of my goals is to write a separate blog on this topic.
7. Genealogy is NOT a solitary hobby.  Researching my family history has enabled me to reconnect with several of my cousins and find new cousins who have played an integral role in my research.  Cousins I've "discovered" include:  Martha Darby Rutter, Barbara Pharo, Betty Hodges Arnett and numerous Vonderheides.
8. I had no idea that my grandmother, Norine Dailey Cronin Jones, was raised in an orphanage in northern Kentucky.
9. Researching my family has encouraged me to travel to my "homelands."  Bill and I have traveled to Germany, Ireland, and Hungary to visit the homelands of our ancestors and the homeland of our son-in-law's family.
10. I've discovered how much I like to write.  Last year I submitted two articles to Writing Contests sponsored by the Ohio Genealogical Society.  Both were published.  I recently submitted a new article for consideration this year.

Our ancestors could not have imagined the largely healthy, happy and productive Joneses that would descend from them. Although I've posted this picture before, I think it is appropriate to post it again. 

Jones Family, Christmas 2010

On the next post, I will nominate 10 more family history bloggers for the "Ancestor Approved" Award. Thanks again, Jenn, for thinking of me.

Kathy

Christmas, 2010

Merry Christmas

Bill and Kathy Reed 
2010

Fred and Norine's Crib

It's 4:44 PM on Sunday, December 12th. I spent my day putting together a photoshow with pictures of Fred and Norine Jones. I've wanted to do it for a long time and use one of Norine's favorite hymns, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, for the background music.  I'm not totally satisfied with the end product because the music I downloaded sounds a little old-fashioned for my tastes.  You can give me your opinion. Click on this link:  Fred and Norine's Photoshow

The Christmas cards are starting to arrive, and I realized it's been several years since I've sent any.  So please accept this effort as a Christmas card from Bill and me.

The snow is gently falling outside of my window, "Soundscapes" music is playing in the background, and I just finished putting up some new LED lights along with the fake greenery that lines the top of our television entertainment center.  The dog is in my lap as I type and I am grateful for another year of blessings leading me into this season.

While thinking about this blog, I wanted the pictures to be "Christmasy".  I looked through last year's Christmas cards to see if anything jumped out at me.  I think you would agree that I hit the jackpot with this picture of Mae and John Casebere sent by Adam and Melissa (and reprinted here with their permission).

I know Santa is holding John, but for all the world I see a baby Jesus in a manger when I look at it.  It makes me realize, once again, how precious life is, and how blessed we are as a family to have so much of it.

I'm sure I'll end up writing some other posts before the New Year, including posts that picture my grandson and his parents, but for now -- please know that Bill and I are grateful  for each and every one of you.

Merry Christmas

With love . . . 

Betty's Box - Part II

As mentioned in the previous post, my second cousin Betty and I have yet to meet in person.  Last May Betty started scanning in pictures from her mother's box.  One of the first priceless pictures she sent was this one of her family.  From left to right are pictured Don, Edith Jones Hodges (sister of my grandfather Fred Jones), Wyvetta ("Betty"), Mary Lee and Betty.  Betty told me that she is the only one in the picture who is still living.  She also has a younger brother, John Patrick, known as "Pat" who was not yet born when the picture was taken.  It is the elder Betty who was responsible for holding onto all of the documents and pictures in "The Box."

There were several "priceless" pictures in Betty's Box.  One pictured my grandfather, Fred Jones (Pop) with his two siblings:  Edith and Leo.  I had never seen a picture of him as a young boy.

 

Edith, Leo, and Fred 

Britton Wainright and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Darby had two daughters and a son who lived to be adults.  There are numerous posts on this blog about Britton (you can use the search function to read about him) who died of heatstroke while traveling with a unit of Home Guards to confront John Morgan of Morgan's Raiders.  He left a widow and three children.  One of his daughters, Rachel, is the great-grandmother of both Betty Arnett and the descendants of Fred Jones.  I was such an admirer of Rachel and never thought I would see a picture of her.

Because Ruth was the older of the two girls, we believe that from left to right are pictured Rachel, Thomas, Ruth, and their mother, Mary Elizabeth Darby Wainright.  Rachel was "Pop's" mother.

Through the wonders of Ancestry, I've also been in contact over the years with another cousin, Rhonda.  She descends from Ruth's side and was able to help with the identification of the grandchildren of Mary Elizabeth from the Hutcheson/Hutchinson side of the family.  Ruth Wainright married a Hutchinson.  One of her sons was a photographer and took this picture.  The Hutchesons lived in Evansville, IN.  Through a "cousin collaboration", we were able to identify all six of Mary Elizabeth's grandchildren.  Moving in a clockwise direction from the bottom are:  Mary Olive Hutchinson, Charles "Fred" Jones, Mary "Edith" Jones, Leslie T. Hutchinson, Thomas Harvey Hutchinson, and Leo Wainright Jones.

As I don't want to lose the picture record, I think we'll just have to have one more post from "Betty's Box".

Jan and Pop - Part II

As stated in the last post, Tim and I went and met with Fred and Marge to get another perspective on our grandparents. We were not disappointed. Jan could best be summed up as a homemaker and a homebody. She loved to cook, sew and manage her family. She was not interested in traveling and always wanted to be home by dark. Fred told us that he and Rosemary were frequently the excuse for why Jan needed to leave early. She always cited the need for them to go to bed as the basis for leaving and getting home before dark. Fred joked that she was still using that excuse when he and Rosemary were teenagers.

Everyone knows that Jan had a clear preference for little girls. Fred said that every Tuesday Jan would get on the East End street car, transfer to Rt. 68 on Delta Ave., and climb the steps from Mt. Lookout to their home on Kinmont. He was bored to tears because the day would generally be spent with Jan sewing clothes for Rosemary -- not exactly an exciting time for Fred. He felt even sorrier for his younger brother, Bob, who was seven years younger. He was too young to be included in the travels that he and Pop would undertake and not a girl -- thus missing out on the attentions of his grandmother.

When I told Fred about the difficulty Mary Elizabeth Wainright confronted raising three children in a pre-Social Security era, we all recognized the similarities between Mary Elizabeth's plight and Edith's plight three generations later. The difference was that Edith and her children could at least get Social Security. As Fred said, "I was a Social Security baby and now I'm on Social Security."

Even though they lived in a house that had been purchased outright, Social Security was not enough. Aunt Edith worked at the Mt. Lookout Five and Dime, later called Ben Franklin's. Fred said that Aunt Edith had a teapot she kept in a hutch and that anytime one of the uncles from either side of his family stopped by, $20 would mysteriously be found in that teapot. Aunt Edith never saw anyone put any money in, but would always find it there. Fred said that money in that teapot was food for them.

We shared other stories, like the time Tim walked with Pop down to the Fisher's, the small neighborhood grocery where for the first time he saw can goods priced at 13 1/2 cents in an effort to make you buy two of everything. Fred told of being sent down the street to the neighborhood saloon as a child to bring back a pale of beer for his Dad and Pop. He better have not spilled any on the way back. (It was a common practice to send kids to get beer on both sides of the river at that time. I've been told the same stories by the Hellmanns in Covington. It amazes me in light of the 21st Century laws that kids were frequently sent to pick up beer and cigarettes for their parents).

Pop was ready to go anywhere at anytime. Fred said he was good friends with the Rhodes, the funeral home directors in Mt. Lookout, and that they would ask him if he wanted to ride along if they got a call to pick up a body in Indiana or other locations. Pop was happy to go.

Fred told us of frequently being called in the middle of the night because Jan would get up to go to the bathroom and fall. Pop could not get her up alone and Fred was called upon to assist. As someone who has experienced the debilitating effects of arthritis and had knee and hip replacements, I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that both of them experienced just trying to get around.

Patty told me the story of the time that she and Tom placed Pop on the back of a motor cycle with a helmet on and took his picture. They did it just to aggravate Aunt Edith (Sis) with whom he was living. At the time, everyone knew that he was nearly blind with macular degeneration. Patty said she was visiting him at one time and she got all teary as she observed him holding that picture to the side and trying to get it within his limited field of vision.

She also said his favorite flavor of ice cream was butter pecan. It must be in the genes because it is my favorite flavor, too.

One final comment -- Fred was well-known for handing out silver dollars. My brother, Tom, is his Godson and frequent recipient. Tim was always jealous. On Fred's 70th birthday, celebrated at General Butler State Park in Kentucky, Fred gave everyone in attendance a silver dollar. Tim took his home and framed it. When we met with Fred and Marge and Tim brought up that story, Fred said he's now into two dollar bills. The picture in the previous post is of Tim holding his two dollar bill. Fred suggested Tim pass it on to his grandson, Will, and when Tim said he was keeping it, Fred gave him a second one to give to Will. It was great fun starting a new tradition.

Modesty (continued)

So who knew? I certainly didn't. Article after article made me aware of just how much pride Pop took in his work and the amount of recognition he received for it. When he retired, he was the guest of honor at a dinner where his mechanics were recognized for going 250,000 consecutive hours without a disabling injury. The article said that Fred "Butch" Jones had been Foreman of the men for the entire period in which they made this record.

I also learned of his honesty. The News said that Pop ended a dispute between he and Bert Maddock that was the result of a mistake Pop had made in ordering an item -- thus clearing the air.

In the short time I was at the library I also happened upon birth announcements for both me and my brother, Tim. Since our Dad was also working at the bus company at that time, both the father and

grandfather were recognized. Mom always told me that she thought I was going to be a boy because of the way she was carrying me. Little did I know how much they really expected a boy.

Tim's December 31st birthday is also acknowledged.

I was wondering where Pop's motto, "Modesty Becomes a Young Man" originated. The quote is attributed to Plautus, a Roman playwright who lived a few hundred years B.C.E. I was also surprised to learn that Pop did not retire until the age of 72. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. I know he suffered from arthritis, and unlike his granddaughter, he couldn't look forward to the relief from pain that a knee replacement can provide.

I know I've only begun to scratch the surface, but I feel that I was so fortunate to get to take a peek into the work-a-day life of a strong, loving man I wish I could have known better. The next posting will discuss family life.

The "wave of the future" -- this picture was taken in 1957, the year following Pop's retirement.

A Tribute to Lillian

When I first became interested in the history of the Joneses and my German and Irish lines, I had a couple of things going for me. First of all, my mother gave me a folder of family information she had collected over the years. A lot of her notes were the result of conversations she had had with Margaret Ann Scardina, my Dad's sister. (A few years back, Patty and I compared notes and found out that she had the same record -- her mother must have shared the information with mine). In the folder was a copy of a letter from Lillian Mears to Edith Breving.

As I was new to all of this, I called Rosemary Kramer and asked her to explain what she knew about the letter. Much to my surprise Rosemary told me all about Lillian, who was our grandfather's first cousin. She told me she lived in Harrison and was about 95 years old.

I called Lillian and despite macular degeneration and being somewhat frail, she invited Patty Volz and me to lunch at the home she shared with her daughter in Harrison, Ohio. She could practically quote all of the details in the letter, which had been written in 1978.

With a name like Jones, you need all of the clues you can get, and Lillian had a lot of them. Lillian was a retired school teacher who had graduated from Miami University. She had great stories about the lengths her parents went to to fund her education -- now I wish I had written them down. A lot of the things in her letter have now been documented. There were a few inaccuracies, but they were largely based on the recollections of her mother whose father (Alexander) died when she was only two years old.

As I write this history as I know it, I will often include quotes from her letter. Thank goodness that Edith Jones Breving asked Lillian to write down what she knew and my mother was given a copy. When Patty and I visited her she also gave us a photocopy of the Jones Family in 1916. Despite it's poor quality, it's one of my favorite items.

This picture was taken at Lillian's home in Harrison in 1916. The adults from left to right were:

John Lewis Amiss (husband of Elizabeth Jones Amiss)

Elizabeth Jones Amiss (daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth)

Leo Jones

Melissa Jones (wife of Leo)

Tom Jones

Norine Jones (wife of Charles Fred - our grandfather)

Ella Jones (wife of Tom)

Margaret Jones (wife of Harley)

Fred Jones (our grandfather)

Harley Jones

The children from left to right were:

Lillian Amiss Mears - daughter of John and Elizabeth

Edith Jones Breving - my aunt

Charles Jones - my uncle

Irma Jones - daughter of Margaret and Harley Jones

At least I had the good sense to have Lillian identify the people in the picture.

Lillian died just short of the age of 100 after suffering a fall in her home. She, too, is buried at New Haven Cemetery near Harrison.

More pictures from the luncheon:

Lillian, Patty Volz and Laura (Lillian's daughter)

Back Row:

Laura, Rosemary, Sue, Jeanne,

Front Row:

Patty, Lillian, Nan

Bottom Row: Kathy and Sue's son Spencer