Friday Photo - Prague

I've just returned from meetings in Prague, Czech Republic. This is a view toward the Charles Bridge, from this past Tuesday.

Photo by Patrick L Jones - Prague, CZ, 26 June 2012

Indiana Now Searchable in 1940 Census

FamilySearch has updated their states with searchable indexes for the 1940 US Census today, as Indiana can now be searched. Woohoo! Thanks to those who helped index the census.


https://familysearch.org/1940census/1940-census-indiana/

I have a ton of names to look up for Indiana, so I'm looking forward to diving into this index.

Wordless Wednesday - Galveston, 1971

Alma Oyler Jones - Galveston, TX, Feb 1971

First Grade, Thorntown

My daughter begins First Grade in August. This photo is of my Gumpy's First Grade class in Thorntown, Indiana (date approximately 1925 or 1926). He is on the bottom row, in the middle (with hands under his chin).

1st Grade, Thorntown, Indiana

WWII Draft Card for Arthur Jones

On Monday I wrote about the Confederate pension application for Martin Van Buren Jones. Martin's son, Arthur Eugene Jones, appears in the World War II Draft Registration Cards. This is a fascinating find.

Arthur was born in Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana on 31 December 1879. In April 1942, he was living at Atlas Peak, Napa, California.

Atlas Peak is a designated American Viticultural Area (AVA) or appellation. According to the Atlas Peak Appellation site, the first vineyard in the area after the end of Prohibition was planted in 1940 on Mead Ranch. At this point, I don't know if Arthur Jones worked on Mead Ranch or if he was involved with replanting Atlas Peak with wine grapes.

Map source - AtlasPeakAppellation.com

In March 2010, I wrote to the estate manager at Antica Napa Valley, who helped establish the Atlas Peak AVA. He pointed me in the direction of Cecelia Setty, who wrote a book on the history of the Atlas Peak area titled Atlas Peak... History of a Napa County Settler. Cecelia replied, and said that since Arthur's box number in the draft card was 415, then he would have been her family's neighbor.

Cecelia said the only winery on Atlas Peak in the early days was on the Harker Ranch, which in 2010 was the Sutro Ranch. She also said it is possible that Arthur worked on the ranch of Charles Warren, whose address was Box 400 Atlas Peak. At the time the road was known as Atlas Way. Cecelia knew Mr. Warren when she was a child, and recalls that at this time there were only 5 ranches above the address at 400 Atlas Peak, and these ranches did not have grapes or even an old winery on them (at least not in 1942). Cecelia says they had walnut trees & dairy cattle.

I'll have to include Arthur Jones in my search of the 1940 Census index for California once it becomes available (California is showing as 100% indexed on FamilySearch, but the index has not yet been released).

Arthur died in San Joaquin County, California on 12 April 1952.

Greetings From Bass Lake

This postcard was in pictures at my parent's place in Indiana. It was sent to my Gumpy, Keith D Jones, on 8 July 1957. I don't know who sent it, but I'm glad they did (and that it was kept all these years). It looks like the postcard was sent to Gumpy's work address, at the US Naval Avionics Facility, Department 225, at 21st & Arlington Streets in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Indiana Historical Society has some information on the Naval Avionics Facility [pdf link] in Indianapolis. Apparently the US Government commissioned the plant in May 1942 to produce a top secret bombsight.

The facility was located at 6000 East 21st Street, Indianapolis. The Naval Avionics Center, Indianapolis (NACI) was closed with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. It was featured in the December 1968 issue of Naval Aviation News (available online at http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1960s/1968/dec68.pdf).

Military Monday - The Confederate Pension of Martin V Jones

During the Civil War in Tennessee, the Jones family was also split along Union and Confederate lines. In January I wrote about Corporal Francis Marion Jones, who died in present-day Hamblen County, Tennessee during the Civil War. He had enlisted in the 9th Tennessee Calvary on the Union side. I also covered his commanding officer, Captain John Thornhill, nephew of Elizabeth Thornhill Jones. Captain Thornhill died in June 1865 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

Francis' younger brother Martin Van Buren Jones enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and served in Company F, 61st Mounted Tennessee Infantry with his brother, my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Thomas Jones.

Martin submitted a Confederate Pension Application on 30 August 1913 from Erath County, Texas.

The image below comes from page 8 of Martin's Confederate Service Record, viewed on Fold3.com.

Martin was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee in June 1842. He married Mary Francis Kersey at the age of 20 in 1862 (Mary's brother J.W. Kersey was a witness on Martin's pension application). They had at least the following children:
1. Martha Ellen Jones, born in Jefferson County, Tennessee about 1864
2. Elizabeth Jones, born in Jefferson County, Tennessee about 1868
3. John W. Jones, born in Jefferson County, Tennessee in May 1869
4. Alice G. Jones, born in Jefferson County, Tennessee in 1871
5. Arthur Eugene Jones, born 31 December 1879 in Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana, died on 12 April 1952 in San Joaquin County, California

Martin died on 2 February 1918 in Erath County, Texas.

Sunday's Obituary - Leo Morris Reid

The following obituary is for my grandfather, Leo Morris Reid. This was published in the Indianapolis Star in June 1985.

I previously posted a photo of Leo with his fellow pilots, in training during World War II in 1944, and also two photos of Leo and Lydia Campuzano Reid.

Grandpa Leo was born on 10 June 1920 to parents Elizabeth Lois Whitley and Alvin Read. I'll have more on Leo in future posts. I am looking forward to finding him in the 1940 US Census once the index for Indiana is available.

Father's Day Photo

The first shot is my Dad with our little guy Silas in Santa Monica from October 2009. The second is from Disneyland dated 16 July 2011. Happy Father's Day!

Sepia Saturday - Blanche Lamon O'Brien

In March I posted a photo of a much younger Blanche Lamon O'Brien, my great-grandmother on my Dad's side. Here's an undated photo of Blanche in her later years:

Blanche Lamon O'Brien - photo source Keith D Jones

An Earlier Arrival in Boone County

I have noted in earlier postings how several of the children of Robert Thomas Jones & Elizabeth Thornhill Jones (my fourth-great-grandparents) migrated from Jefferson County, Tennessee to Boone County, Indiana. Previously I understood that the migration occurred around the death of Elizabeth Thornhill Jones in February 1879. It now appears that at least two of the siblings, Martin Van Buren Jones and Sarah Melissa Jones Daniel (with her husband William Gilbert Daniel and their children), arrived in Boone County by 1872.

Ancestry.com has a searchable resource from Boone County called The People's Guide, A Business, Political and Religious Directory of Boone County, Indiana by Cline and McHaffie, dated 1874. The book is very useful, and provides a directory in Boone County of each township. Below is from page 201, in the directory for Sugar Creek Township:

This shows Martin Van Buren Jones, a farmer born in Tennessee in 1842, and that he settled in Boone County (4 miles northwest of Thorntown) in 1872. This also shows that he was a Democrat.

Nearby and also in Sugar Creek Township is an entry for William Gilbert Daniel, husband of Martin's sister Sarah Melissa Jones:

Joseph Thomas Jones does not appear in the directory, so it appears that he and family arrived in Boone County after 1874.

As a side note, I also found my third-great-grandfather, David Armstrong, in The People's Guide in Jefferson Township. I previously wrote about David's land in February, and a copy of the 1870 US Census entry for David appears in my writing on Easter Vail Armstrong.

As with the other finds, the entry on David Armstrong is very helpful, as I did not know he had settled in Boone County so early (he appears in the 1850 Census at the age of 15 in nearby Franklin Township, Montgomery County, Indiana with his parents John and Sarah Armstrong).

Another note - The People's Guide was found using Ancestry's Card Catalog feature. If you haven't tried this before, I recommend it as a way to find resources you might have overlooked. I filtered by USA, then by state (Indiana), and then county (Boone). Under Boone County, The People's Guide appears as a match from the Schools, Directories and Church Histories collection. I tried this for Montgomery County too, and have found other useful records, which will be featured in later posts.

Friday Photo - One Year Ago

Photo by Patrick L Jones - 15 Jun 2011, Musée du Louvre

Travel Tuesday - Fayal to Norfolk, 1826

In January I wrote about my third-great-grandfather, John O'Brien, who may have fought in the War of 1812 in the Battle of Lake Erie for the American side, or for the British. I have been looking for port and ship records from the period of 1808-1831 for any potential matches for John O'Brien. This post is on a potential interesting match.

In the Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists 1820-1873 and 1893-1959 database on Ancestry, there is a record for an arrival on the Brig Callao in the port of Norfolk and Portsmouth on 14 March 1826.

The Callao had departed from Fayal in the Azores. John O'Brian (perhaps a misspelling) is listed on the passenger list as a seaman, age 28, from the United States. Although John was born in Ireland, by 1826, he may likely have been claiming the United States as "the country to which belonging", as recorded on the passenger list.

The next step is to see if the Callao kept records which may shed more light on whether this is my John O'Brien.

Writing Reminders for June and July

I have been busy moving last week and this week, so writing has been sitting to the side. I also have some extensive travel coming up at the end of the month, which will make June a slower month.

On my return I have an overnight layover in Amsterdam, and if I am lucky I will have time to find a museum. My 9th great-grandfather, Joost Jansen Van Meter, was born in Meteren, in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands (in the part of the province located south of Utrecht). His parents came to America on the ship D'Vox on 31 August 1662, from Amsterdam to New Amsterdam (New York). I'll have more on the Van Meters later in the year.

Writing reminders for June and July:

- Jones family in the 1940 US Census in Indiana
- Whitley & Wheatley lines in Kentucky
- On Borders & Crossings (and the pending US Supreme Court case Arizona vs the United States)
- Update on AncestryDNA results
- More photos from my grandmother Blanche O'Brien Jones and her O'Brien and Lamon lines
- Revisiting the research on Company G, 5th Tennessee Volunteers in the Mexican War
- More on the Campuzano and Portillo families in Arizona and Sonora
- A follow-up on the Read house north of Culpeper, Virginia

1940 Census - Indiana Now 100% Indexed

FamilySearch is showing Indiana's records from the 1940 US Census as 100% indexed. The index is not yet searchable, but should be any day now. This is a big achievement for the research community involved in indexing the records for Indiana.

The 1940 Census has already resulted in some great finds for me in Arizona, so I'm very interested in seeing the Indiana results.

Wordless Wednesday - Mexican Sunrise

Photo by Patrick L Jones. Playa del Carmen, MX, 21 January 2005

1940 Census Update

Here's an update on the status of indexes for the 1940 Census for the states I am researching:

- On FamilySearch, Indiana has been sitting at 99% indexed for a while. I'm waiting for the index so I can see where my Jones family was living in Indianapolis after the moved from Boone County. I have quite a few other branches on my Dad's, Mom's and wife's family lines in Indiana. So I wait for the index.
- Arizona is complete and the index is available. I found my great-grandparents Plutarco Campuzano, Manuela Portillo, their children and great-great-grandmother Teresa Diaz de Portillo. They misspelled Plutarco and one of his sons on the index, so I'm hoping they offer a way to suggest corrections at some point in the future.

For other states:
- Kentucky is at 40%
- Illinois is at 30%
- California is at 99%
- Texas is at 38%
- Tennessee is at 27%

For more information, see the 1940 Census page.

Mappy Monday - Town of Potomac

The Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia was previously the Town of Potomac. The area was its own town between 1908-1929, until it was annexed by the City of Alexandria. The map below is from the City of Alexandria website (pdf).

Map source: City of Alexandria

On Moving

I'm in process of moving a mile and a half this week (testing the Blogger mobile app with this post). On one of my short trips to move stuff from one place to the next, I remembered other moves over the years, and thought it might be good to add some information that the Census will miss.

Between the 1990 Census (when I was in my parents household in Indiana) & the 2000 Census, I lived at 5 different addresses. I moved 7 times (2x to return to my parents' place after college).

Between the 2000 & 2010 Census, I've lived at 5 different locations in 3 states, including on both coasts and the Midwest. That didn't feel like a lot of moving at the time. I'm hoping we'll be in this place for a few years.

We're going on our third address in Alexandria, VA. The brother of my 4th-great-grandmother lived in Alexandria in the 1820s into the early 1830s. I wonder if she visited him in Alexandria, and walked along some of the same streets we take in Old Town. I'll have more on Alexandria's history and family connections to it in July.

Postcard from Indiana Dunes, June 1938

This postcard was sent on 15 June 1938 to my great-grandparents Edgar and Alma Jones by my Gumpy, Keith D Jones. At the time, he was 17 years old and working as a lifeguard at Indiana Dunes State Park. The postcard was a great find, it shows the address for the Jones family at 133 West 20th Street, Apartment 12 in Indianapolis, after they had moved from Boone County (which I didn't have before finding the card at my parent's place back in April).

My Dad has provided me with the original postcard. It is pretty cool that this small note sent almost 74 years ago was still around.

Indiana Dunes is about a 3 hour drive, depending on traffic, from Indianapolis. I don't know how long the trip would have been in 1938. Pictures and information about the park can be found at http://www.indianadunes.com/ and http://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/maps.htm.

Friday Photo - Blanche Allene O'Brien

Blanche Allene O'Brien - Photo source, Keith D. Jones

The beautiful woman in this photo is my grandmother, my Dad's mother, Blanche Allene O'Brien Jones. I have previously posted bits on Blanche in a 21 May 2012 look back at the O'Brien family and a Wordless Wednesday photo of Blanche at 1 week old in 1912.

Blanche was almost 29 years old when she married my Gumpy, Keith D. Jones, in Indianapolis on 11 October 1941. According to my Dad, Blanche owned a successful beauty salon. Her brother Lowell was working at the Allison Engine plant in Indianapolis, and my Gumpy took a job there as WWII broke out, building engines for planes that flew in the war. My Dad says that Gumpy and Blanche most likely met through Lowell. Blanche was Gumpy's first wife. She passed on 29 November 1960.

Photo source - Mike O'Brien

I am looking forward to finding Blanche in the 1940 Census once the index for Indiana is available. In the meantime, I'll be posting more photos from the sets provided to me by my Dad and his cousin Mike O'Brien.

Blanche at White River, Photo source - Keith D Jones