My Quest to Find John Jones - Part V - What Do We Know about John's Family?

Unfortunately, the earliest record that can be definitely linked to our John Jones is his marriage record to Sarah Sumpter in 1790. We do not have any information of where John was born, his birth date, or where he was living before his marriage (or even at the time of his marriage as discussed in the previous post.) 

There is a saying among family historians that "Genealogy without documentation is Mythology." I proudly admit to being a stickler for proof on my pedigree lines. When I put a name or a place or a date on a pedigree chart or a family group record, I want to be reasonably certain the information is accurate and has proof to back it up. 

From time to time someone will find a record of a birth of a John Jones somewhere in Virginia and conclude that they have found the correct John Jones and will post the information on online family trees. Others interested in family history will see it, assume it must be correct because someone has listed it, and so they copy the unproved information to their own pedigrees. Perhaps one of these births is the correct John Jones, but I have never seen anyone who linked the birth record to documentation that ties to our John Jones. Thus, so far we have no conclusive information on his birth. 

The fact that he is listed in probate records as about age 77 at the time of his death in 1847 and in the 1840 census of Jackson Township, Randolph County, Indiana as between 60 and 70 years of age are the only pieces of information I have to give a clue about his birth date. That information puts his approximate date of birth as 1770.

If John had lived until 1850 when he would have had a birthplace listed in the census record (the 1850 US census is the first census to record birthplaces), we would have that information with more certainty. The region of Virginia where he was married was an area of new settlement. I think most of John's descendants assume he was born somewhere further east in Virginia. He might have been. (His father-in-law George Sumpter can be traced through land transactions as moving further and further west in Virginia.) 

It is thought that John's father was named David Jones. I have an early family group record from my grandmother Celecta Ottley Haroldsen that says John's parents are David Jones and Mrs. David Jones.  Another record from my grandmother lists David Jones with a question mark after it. I have long wondered exactly what was her source of information for that name, but I assume it was originally from James Stapleton Lewis.

As stated in an earlier post, much of the information we have about the Jones family comes from John Jones' son-in-law James Stapleton Lewis (JSL) and much of that comes via JSL's granddaughter Clara Lewis Hall. Before James' marriage to Anna Jones in 1833, both were living in Randolph County, Indiana - James with his brother Joel Lewis, Jr. and Anna with her father John and step-mother. James knew John Jones, Anna Jones, and possibly some of Anna's siblings as well. (We know he knew John and at least one daughter Elizabeth who married Henry S Jackson because they are mentioned in JSL's journal but do not know how well he knew them.) Presumably Anna spoke to James about her family at various times in their married life as well. Therefore the information we have on the Jones family is second hard and may not be completely correct, but it is the best we have to work from.

Clara Hall wrote the following which she seems to indicate came from a journal of JSL. She has it in quotation marks. (This quotation is found in writings of Clara Lewis Hall transcribed around 2010 by Carol Moses, a great granddaughter of Wilford Woodruff Lewis.)

"John Jones was born in the state of Virginia about the year 1770 and died in 1847 in Randolph County, Indiana. He was connected with the wealthiest families of Virginia and was a man of sterling qualities. Confiding to a fault, but when faith was broken, it was a severe tax on his natural temperament to renew confidence again. He was a preacher of the Baptist Faith. In early life his beliefs and active views traveled faster than his congregation. They would not keep up with him and though [should this be thought? LM] he had gone wild and the shortest way out of the trouble would be to let him go and take one who would stay with them whether they traveled or remained in the same spot. He married Sarah Sumpter, daughter of a prominent Virginia Family. By her, he had eleven children. She died in Clinton, Ohio. John Jones had three sisters and one brother. [I don't think this is correct. LM] His brother Leven, was connected with the War of the Revolution."

This information, assuming it to be accurate, reinforces the 1770 birth date for John. It also indicates that his birthplace was Virginia. In the absence of conflicting info for the birthplace, I have looked for documentation of a birth in Virginia in about 1770. However, I have to remain open to the possibility that JSL may have been mistaken on the place of birth.

In 1959 Clara Lewis Hall wrote a manuscript titled "From Monarchs to Mormons: Ancestors of James Stapleton Lewis and Anna Jones Lewis." Unfortunately she didn't give documentation for what she wrote nor did she indicate what came from JSL's journals, what was family tradition, or what were her own conclusions. In some places she added dialog which probably was her way of making the writing more interesting but which might have added a bit of fiction to her narrative. She probably would have heard family stories from her father Wilford Woodruff Lewis though he died when she was about 28. She mentions having traveled to Albion, Idaho to read her grandfather James Stapleton Lewis' journals. I think the family owes much thanks to her efforts to collect family information, but I also believe we need to keep in mind that she was compiling that data from memory and secondary sources and without access to information or people to verify it.

Clara wrote the following about John Jones in "From Monarchs to Mormons."

"John Jones, son of David Joens [sic], was born in the state of Virginia in 1770. John died in Randolph County, Indiana in 1847. He married Sarah Sumpter, daughter of George Sumpter of Virginia, in about 1795 [this is an error since we have documentation that the marriage was in 1790]. She was born in about 1775 in Virginia and died in Clinton, Ohio in about 1828. They are the parents of eleven children." 

I will discuss their children in later posts. Then Clara had a section about The Family of David Jones.

"David Jones was born in Virginia in about 1747. He was married in about 1771, but his wife is unknown. Their eight children are [note this differs from Clara's earlier statement that John had four siblings] :

1. Reverend John Jones born about 1773 in Virginia and died in Randolph, Indiana in 1847. He married Sarah Sumpter in about 1795 in Virginia.

2. Leven Jones, born in Virginia in 1775. He was an officer in the War of 1812 [War of 1812 makes more sense than the Revolutionary War reference above if he was born around 1775] 

3. Solomon Jones, born in Virginia in 1777.

4. Mary Jones, born in Virginia in 1779. She married James Burton in about 1815.

5. Mercy Jones, born in Virginia in 1781. She married Francis Smith in about 1811.

6. Teresa Jones, born in Virginia in 1783. She married Joseph Trout in about 1813.

7. Anna Jones, born in Virginia in 1785. She married Joseph Tyler in about 1815.

8. Karisah Jones, born in Virginia in 1787. She married Charles Burton in about 1817."

I presume the list of children's names were originally from JSL information since I can't imagine any other source for it. It is a common genealogical research practice to look for children in a family to be born about every two years. Obviously, that is what Clara did with this list. I don't know what her source was for the birth order. I also do not know what her source was for the names of spouses, but I assume it had to have been records of JSL.

I have mentioned that looking for surnames of family members or known acquaintances is a common research practice. I applied that strategy to find out more information on the David Jones family.

Using this list as a basis, I looked in Franklin County, Virginia and its surrounding counties for these surnames and for marriage records. I also kept an eye open for references to men named David Jones. Since I don't know where John Jones was before his marriage, I also don't know if his father was still living in 1790 nor if he was living in the same locale as John. 

A descendant of Mercy Jones (who went by the nickname Massa or Massy) listed as child 5 above and Francis (Frank) Smith told me that the tradition in their branch of the family is that David's wife's name was Sarah. So I have also kept that in mind while looking for possible David Joneses. Again there is the difficulty of researching for such a common name. 

In the next post I will explain the information James Stapleton Lewis had in his family records about the John Jones and David Jones families as well as what I have found on John's siblings and about an interesting possible David Jones in the area.