Finding Jeremiah

With a name like “Jones”, how difficult could it possibly be to find Jeremiah Jones, who lived from ca. 1770 until around 1850-when he was no longer to be found on the Federal Census records?  Well, I can tell you, it has not been an easy task! 

 Some Jones researchers have worked at it for 30 years or more, trying to fit together the jigsaw puzzle of his life.  Was he the Jeremiah Jones, whose wife nursed Davey Crockett back to health at Bear Meat Cabin?  Was he the Jones, who, along with his wife, Eliza Brown and his in-laws, helped to settle Jones Valley?  Or was he the Jeremiah, with a wife and three daughters, on the Mississippi Territorial Census, before Alabama became a state?  Did he serve on a jury in Morgan County, AL, in early 1820?  Did he move from Bledsoe to Hamilton County, TN and live there the rest of his life?  Was he one of the Jeremiah’s who died in the 1840’s in Wilcox County, AL; or Mississippi; or Hardin County, TN?  And there were even more!   Why would I even want to know and identify Jeremiah Jones and his wife, anyway?  Well, Jeremiah Jones and his wife are my great, great, great, grandparents; I carry their DNA on in my cells.  My children, who descend from them on their father’s line also, have a double dose of their DNA in their genetic makeup! (and no, I didn’t marry my first cousin!)

When we examine the actual information that we have about our Jeremiah, we don’t have much.  He was listed on both the 1830 and 1840 Blount County, AL Federal Census, (but not in the 1850 Census), with a female who was probably his wife.  However, in the 1850 Census, his son, James Jones, had a female, Mary Jones, age 84, born in Maryland, living in his household.  Fortunately, around 1861, some of Jeremiah’s heirs filed a lawsuit in the Blount County, AL court, asking for their share of his 80 acres of land.  (Interstate 65 goes through the 80 acres, north of the highway 91 exit.  No record of his deed to that land has been found.)  This is where we got lucky, because all of his children, both living and dead, were named.  Other clues to our Jeremiah’s location were in the Morgan County Courthouse.  Several of his children had married in the county, including his son, our William Jones and wife, Cynthia Hill.  It is possible that the Jeremiah Jones who served on a Morgan County jury in early 1820 and the Jeremiah who recorded a stock mark at the Courthouse in 1824 is ours.  Starting in 1850, all of his living children told the Census taker that they were born in Tennessee, and on the 1880 Census, they said that their father was born in Virginia. This Jeremiah Jones puzzle became very difficult because researchers combined bits and pieces from several Jeremiahs and threw them into the mix.

About a month and a half ago, Angela Jones Harlan, a descendent of Jeremiah, sent me a copy of a bounty land warrant, No. 52446, issued to Mary Jones, widow of Jeremiah Jones for his service in the War of 1812.  I immediately went to the National Archives website and placed an order for a copy of her application.  I received it in the mail last Friday 25 November, 2011.  Her application was dated 21 Aug., 1851. This was recorded by Justice of the Peace, J. H. Craft, and in Mary’s own words:

Marey Jones aged 86years aresadent of Walker County in the State of Alabama who being duly swone according to law declars that she is the widow of  Jeramiah Jones deseasd who was a privet in the compeney commanded by Captan Prestan in the war with Grate Britan …that her said husben was a volunteer from Ray County in the State of Tenasee and served for the term of three monthes in said war and was honerable discharged in Washington, Ray County in the State of Tenasee…   She further ses that she was maried to the said Jeramiah Jones in Knox County in the State of Tenasee about the year 1786 by one Parson Reno and that hur name before marege was Marey Swisher that hur said husban dide in Blount County in the State of Alabama on the 22^nd day of Aprile 1847 and that she is still a widow…

Family research is like a jigsaw puzzle that you try to put together without having a picture of the finished puzzle to guide you. It is hard work, but so exciting when it all fits together. Now a new puzzle begins… where is Mary Swisher’s family? Who are they? Can we find Jeremiah’s family in Virginia? Where do we look?