A Fantastic Find

I have been researching my 4th-great-grandfather Robert Thomas Jones Sr going back to the beginning of the blog. I previously posted the widow's pension file of his wife Elizabeth Thornhill Jones in 2012 (see Part 1 and Part 2). Bounty land application files are currently in the process of being indexed at the National Archives, and since I recently found a bounty land application for my 5th-great-grandfather Thomas Jones, I thought I might find applications for some of Thomas' siblings in Tennessee. Today was a fantastic find - the bounty land application for Robert's widow Elizabeth.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Discharge papers, US National Archives.

The file contained the original discharge paper for Robert, something that was not included in Elizabeth's pension application. It's an amazing document to hold.

Photo by Patrick Jones.

From a review of the small file, Elizabeth applied on the 16th of September 1848. Looks like the application was approved 24 July 1849, for 160 acres. This really made my day to see this, after reading her widow's pension file and the rejected mother's pension file for her son, Robert Thomas Jones Jr.

The application states that Robert T. Jones was Fourth Corporal in Captain John Reese's Company of the Fifth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers. Her statement recounts the story of Robert falling overboard on the Mississippi River north of Memphis sometime between 21-25 July 1848. It also lists his surviving children: Eliza Jane, Catherine, Caroline, Emaline, Adaline, Joseph, Martin, Francis Marion, Mary and Sarah Melissa. All of these names match up except for one - Eliza Jane, a previously unknown daughter.

The application was supported by the affidavits of Josiah Rankin, James Newman, Ewen J. Newman, Benjamin Zirkle and William Coulson. Ewen Jefferson Newman served in the 5th Tennessee with Robert, and later married his daughter Margaret Caroline Jones in February 1849. Rankin and Zirkle's affidavit listed Eliza Jane Jones as Eliza Jane Barbee.

Elizabeth's application was witnessed by her brother Richard Thornhill.

I'm thrilled to find to this.