Tech Tuesday - Flipboard

I have been using Flipboard since it was introduced for iPad, and it has completely changed the way I read news and articles. Increasingly I have been using the application to follow genealogy blogs and other sites of interest. If you have an iDevice (iPad, iPhone, iPod) or more recently an Android device, Flipboard is a must-have app.

After downloading the app from iTunes or an Android app store, create an account. This will enable your profile to be viewed across multiple devices. You can then add sites to your favorites (these are displayed as tiles). I have several genealogy-specific tiles. You can have a tile that is simply "tweets mentioning genealogy" and it will pull from the Twitter feed with the term #genealogy. This is great for reading articles without advertising or for following specific terms. I will add that Flipboard on the phone is a surprisingly easy app to use and read.

I added my own blog as a tile and it pulls from the rss feed, displaying articles and favorite blogs in an easy to read, magazine-style format.

Flipboard has also been an essential application in my professional field, helping to stay current with real-time news with tweets mentioning my organization and other events.

Flipboard has also added the ability to pull from Google+ and YouTube, in addition to earlier feeds from Facebook and LinkedIn. If you sign into YouTube through Flipboard, it will pull from your YouTube profile and display videos from your subscriptions.

*I don't have a financial interest in Flipboard and I am not paid to use their product. It is awesome though, and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Military Monday - Draft Cards for Edgar Jones

Before locating my great-grandfather, Edgar Jones, in the 1940 Census, I found him in the World War I and World War II Draft Cards. These were helpful records and can be found on Ancestry.com.

World War I Draft Card

This card shows Edgar Lawrence Jones was born on 15 March 1896 in Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana. He was a farmer at this time in June 1917, recently married on 3 September 1916 to Alma Maude Oyler, daughter of Charles John Oyler and Agnes Lydia Allman.

World War II Draft Card

This is a great card as well. It shows Edgar and family had left Boone County and relocated to Indianapolis. The address, 102 North Kealing Avenue, is located on the near east side of Indianapolis.

The personal details are nice here: height, weight, eye color, complexion and clear signature.

Recapping the Jones Line

One of the consequences of writing the family history out of order is occasionally overlooking individuals and their stories. It is helpful to see who has already been covered and which stories may be missing.

My Jones line was in the East Tennessee area before it became a state, possibly as early as the late 1780s and certainly by the early to middle 1790s. I previously covered Thomas Jones as a founding member of Dumplin Creek Baptist Church in Dandridge, Tennessee. Based on what I currently know, here is the direct male line on my Jones side:

- Thomas Jones (born approximately 1760, died about 1836), 6xgreat-grandfather
- Thomas Jones (born in 1778, died 1857), 5xgreat-grandfather
- Robert Thomas Jones Sr (born 1808, died 22 July 1848), 4xgreat-grandfather
- Joseph Thomas Jones (born April 1837, died 21 January 1910), 3xgreat-grandfather
- Thomas Robert Jones (born 23 March 1860, died 1 November 1937), 2xgreat-grandfather
- Edgar Lawrence Jones (born 15 March 1896, died 12 February 1965), great-grandfather
- Keith D. Jones, my Gumpy, still hanging tough at 92
- Keith D. Jones (Dad)
- Patrick L. Jones (me)
- Silas Patrick Jones (my little guy)

The Jones family was in the Jefferson County, Tennessee area from the late 1780s/early 1790s until migrating to Boone County, Indiana between 1872-1879. My 3xgreat-grandfather Joseph Jones returned to Jefferson County sometime before 1897. He married second wife Martha Cordelia Hart on 1 December 1897 in Jefferson County.

Once in Indiana, the family lived primarily in Boone County, but also in neighboring Montgomery County. It bugs me a bit that I spent four years of college in Montgomery County without knowing the history of my family in that part of the state.

Source: stats.indiana.edu county & township map

Edgar Jones and family moved from Boone County to Indianapolis in the late 1930s, leaving behind the farm life of Thorntown.

In more recent decades, including moves made by my parents, our Jones family has lived in Morgan County and Johnson County, Indiana, El Paso and Houston, Texas, Northern and Southern California, Germany, and Northern Virginia. My family and I have lived in Alexandria twice, from 2001-2006, and currently since 2010.

Upcoming Stories
Now that I have recapped the Jones line, I can see I am missing stories on my 2nd-great-grandfather and great-grandfather, so this will be updated in July. I have some additional writings from my Gumpy's collection of short stories coming, along with photos of his artwork. I will continue to mix in photos from my travels.

Since these stories are not just for me, but a record for the kids and others in the family, I will soon begin to introduce some branches from my wife's side of the family.

Last Collegiate Race

The London Olympics are three weeks away. I can't wait to watch the events with our kids, particularly sports not typically shown such as swimming. In my day I wasn't anywhere near the caliber of Michael Phelps, or Michael Gross, "The Albatross". I was average for Division III at best, but swam the 200 Fly, 400 IM and various other events, all four years of college. The picture below is from my last race in college, at our rivals DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Photo by Keith D Jones, February 1996

Friday Photo - Camping

This undated photo is from a fishing and camping trip that my Dad took with his parents, Keith D Jones and Blanche O'Brien Jones. This is probably around 1950.