Margaret Parx Hays in the Family Tree

Last week I mentioned how I was busy adding my second great uncle, Charles Neilson Jones, and his descendants to my genealogy database. He had many kids who had many kids, so this was no easy task.

One of those people who joined my database was Charles' granddaughter, Margaret Parx Hays. By genealogical calculations, she is my grandmother's second cousin.

I did a quick search online for Margaret Parx Hays to see if I could find any other information to add to her profile. Boy, did I hit paydirt. She was quite the accomplished lady!

Margaret Parx Hays

Margaret Parx Hays was born in Gainesville, Texas in 1912 and passed away in 2008. The dash between those two dates is filled world travel and service to others. Her obituary provides a good timeline of her life.

She has a college building named after her and an entire museum website dedicated to her. She also the creator and benefactor of an historical image collection. Oh, and as far as I know, she's the only ancestor in my tree that's in the Congressional Record.

The "Parx" in Margaret Parx Hays is her father's name. It appears she never married or had children. 

I spent a good hour fascinated and distracted by all I was discovering online about Margaret Parx Hays. She needs to have a book written about her. Perhaps I will put it on my list. I have a lot of potential books on my list as my number of intriguing ancestors continues to grow.

Another Jones Surprise, or Why Genealogists Should Blog

In my last entry about Keeping Up With The Joneses, I shared that I was learning about my Jones line. I discovered that they spent some time in Cooke County, Texas, but that I had yet not found the time to learn about the area and its genealogy resources.

In the comments section of that blog post one of my friends and faithful readers, who also happens to be a very smart librarian, shared with me a link for a Jones Cemetery and asked if these were my Jones folks. They were!

Many of the names in the cemetery are familiar. Duckett and Bostick stand out. Probably anyone from Asheville, North Carolina has a connection. However, what stood out on that page was a grave marker transcription for:

JONES, Harriet Elizabeth 8 Oct 1859 - 18 Aug 1861
dau of R. M. and Sarah Neilson Jones note: no longer found

This entry got me excited because R. M. and Sarah are my great-great-great grandparents. Harriet was a child I did not know of! My great-great grandfather, Frank Wiley Jones, had another sister! I went to enter her name in my files and I stopped...

She was born on the same day as my great-great grandfather. He was a twin.

The only evidence I had that Harriet even existed came from the Jones Cemetery transcription web page. I've yet to find them in the 1860 census. I'm wondering if they were en route from North Carolina to Texas then.

The only reason I now know about it is because I blogged about my Jones line and someone took the time to comment and share what she knew.

This is why all genealogists should blog. We are not islands. So many other folks out there have information to share. You don't have to be an expert writer. Just get your surnames out there. You'll be surprised at what you find...or who finds you.

[Edit, January 15, 2010: I have found further information that refutes the birth date of Harriet. It seems someone transcribed her brother Franklin's birth date in place of Harriet's. She is Franklin's older sister, having been born in 1856. --Amy]

Keeping Up With The Joneses

I played around with my Jones line last night and made some decent progress. That family had been a brick wall for some time. I couldn't get past my great-grandfather Frank Wiley Jones. Then someone contacted me and shared that Frank's father had been killed in the Civil War. That prompted me to go to the scene of the battle and find the memorial at the courthouse. I wrote about that discovery here.

So for a while, I knew Richard Jones' death date, but that is all. I assumed he was born in North Carolina like everyone else in his family. When I went to the NGS conference in Raleigh, I joked at all the genealogy booths "I'm looking for a Jones in North Carolina. Have you seen one?" I suspected Richard Jones was from Buncombe County, since his son Frank was born there. However, there was no record of Richard. There were lots of other Joneses in Buncombe County, but without a name I was out of luck.

Two weeks after the NGS conference, I got a name. I was researching Frank Wiley Jones and I found a book that listed his grandfather as Wiley Jones. Bingo. Richard's father was Wiley Jones. I had to research the grandson to find the grandfather. Once I looked up Wiley, research got easier from there.

Wiley's parents are Ebed Jones and Mary Wells. Last night, I found their cemetery photos on Find-a-Grave. These are my 5th great grandparents and their photos are just sitting there on the Internet. How crazy and cool is that?

The rest of last night I spent learning more about Wiley Jones and his children. Wiley and wife Anna Duckett are supposedly buried in Jones Cemetery in Leo, Texas. Since there isn't much to Leo, Texas, I'm wondering if the cemetery is overgrown and forgotten. I live 5-6 hours away, so I probably won't have my answer until I can plan a trip to get it.

Also, last night I learned that Wiley's son, my great-great-great grandfather Richard Jones was the oldest son. He had many brothers and sisters. The Jones family have quite a history in north Texas. And here I thought I was the first in my family to move to the state. We've been here for ages.

Welcome to the Family, Wiley Jones

Yesterday, my Jones line was a brick wall. I knew they were from North Carolina, but couldn't make the connection. Have you ever tried to look for a Jones without a birth date? Doesn't work too well.

Today I no longer have a Jones brick wall. In fact, not only did I knock a hole out, I drove a path back 100 years in North Carolina. Here's what happened:

I was putting together a little profile for Frank Wiley Jones. He's one of my favorite ancestors: part cowboy, part businessman, all gentleman. I Googled his name to see what I could find about his days in Duncan, Oklahoma and Indian Territory before that.

Up pops this chapter from "A History of the State of Oklahoma: 1908" (scroll down 1/4 page to see the entry for Frank Wiley Jones.) I knew most of the information on the page, but at the bottom it lists his grandfather as Wiley Jones. I know Frank's father was Richard Manson/Monson Jones, but I never knew the next link up. Now I do. It's Wiley Jones.

I found Wiley in the 1860 census in Cooke County, TX, just where he was supposed to be according to the book. Two doors up from him is Josiah Jones. I know these people came from Buncombe County, North Carolina, so I started digging for a records online that may have a Wiley and Josiah Jones in the same family. I found one led by Ebed Jones. Then it goes back another generation from there.

Just like that. No big discoveries. Just a simple mention of a man's grandfather in a 100-year-old history book.

I've started gathering censuses and various records to verify all this information. So far, it's looking good. I've now pushed far enough back in this line that there is a great deal of documentation.

The sad part of this is that last week I spent about 30 minutes in the western North Carolina genealogical societies booth at the NGS conference in Raleigh. I whined to the booth staffer how I knew my Jones' were from Buncombe County, I just didn't know enough to act on it. I sat there and looked at all the great books they had. I saw many Jones entries, but didn't know which if any were mine. A week later, I know so much more and no longer have access to those books.

For my family, just know you have at least 100 years of Jones history in North Carolina (1750-1850), then 40 years in Texas before the move to Indian Territory / Oklahoma.