My Quest to Find John Jones - Part I
My grandparents lived a quarter of a mile from the home in which I was raised, so I often walked to visit them as I was growing up. Grandpa Oliver Haroldsen was a farmer, and Grandma Celecta Ottley Haroldsen was a housekeeper in every sense. Her house was kept immaculately clean. My father told of the hearty meals she prepared for farm work crews when that was the way things were done, especially at harvest time. She made bread and canned food, much of it from her large vegetable garden. She cared for beautiful flower beds around her house and did all the yard work since Grandpa was working in the fields. She crocheted lovely afghans and did embroidery (she claimed it was her way of keeping arthritic fingers more nimble.) I have two quilts she made during World War II for which she was always apologetic because she felt the fabric was not of the best quality and that her hand stitching wasn't as dainty as other women sewed. So I often found her in the middle of one of these activities when I visited.
However, my favorite activity to "interrupt" was when she was working on her genealogy. She would explain what she was trying to accomplish, show a letter she had recently received in reply to one of her genealogical queries, or answer questions and tell me stories of these marvelous ancestors. Without realizing it, I was being given a priceless gift. She made the ancestors real to me, and she passed on the joy of doing the research and putting together the puzzle pieces of ancestry.
But John Jones eluded her. John Jones is Grandma's second great grandfather. He is the father of Anna Jones who married James Stapleton Lewis. Grandma remembered Grandfather James, as she called her great grandfather, who died when she was six years old. So John Jones didn't seem very far removed from Grandma nor even in my mind from me. Grandma had obtained a copy of John's will from 1847 in Indiana, a record of his marriage to Sarah Sumpter in 1790 in Virginia, and some information about John's children and probable siblings. But she had hit what we call a "brick wall" which describes a point in research when you can't seem to break through to find other information.
Genealogical research in Grandma's day consisted mainly of correspondence or copying information that someone else had obtained. The Genealogical Society of Utah (forerunner of today's Family Search) would act as an assistant in research. The Society was accumulating copies of records which someone would search for you, and it would also act as go-between in hiring someone in a specific locality to go to libraries, cemeteries, churches, or courthouses to do research for you there. You paid a fee for this service. I have letters sent to Grandma by the Genealogical Society dated in the 1930s and 1940s detailing the results of her research requests.
But Grandma couldn't find out more on her John Jones. Where and when was he born? Who were his parents? When did he leave Virginia for Ohio and then Indiana? What happened to his wife Sarah? Grandma searched for forty years. Near the end of Grandma's life, she and I decided that when she was on the other side, she would find John Jones and get some answers. The plan was that then somehow she would lead me to know where or how to look to find the necessary records to break through this brick wall.
Well, I haven't completely found him either. I have also been looking for forty years. About 15 years ago I started doing descendancy research on John's line in hopes of finding someone from another branch of his family that has information I lack. In that process I have made other discoveries about his children and their families. I have met, in person or online, "cousins" who descend from John's children or from his siblings. I have felt him close by me a few times. He is one of the people I can't wait to meet in person when my time in this life is finished.
I haven't added to this blog for a number of years. I have decided to share with you my search for John Jones and Sarah Sumpter - what I've found, what I haven't found, and what I think might be correct or the next place to look.
This is the pedigree.
Lyn Haroldsen Misner > Fred Haroldsen > Celecta Ottley Haroldsen > Abigail Celecta Lewis Ottley > John Alma Lewis > James Stapleton Lewis and Anna Jones Lewis > John Jones and Sarah Sumpter Jones > possibly David Jones
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