The Joneses and the Gossetts come together in my family tree with my father's parents. On February 14, 1931, Albert Marion Jones and Juanita Mae Gossett married at New Vienna, Ohio. This section of my website is dedicated to my Jones ancestors.
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| Elmer Jones with his wife, the former Pearl Rose, and their son Emerson. Christmas 1907. |
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The Jones name is difficult to trace because it is such a common surname. The U.S. Census Bureau ranked Jones as the fourth most common surname in the United States. Only Smith, Johnson and Williams ranked higher. By contrast, Gossett was 2,877th on the list while Gosset with one "t" ranked 72,484th. The search is made more difficult by the fact that most of the given names were equally as common. Because of this, my earliest known Jones ancestor is James B. Jones and his wife Mary who were from New Jersey.
James B. & Mary Jones
James' parents, as yet, are unknown. A common surname like Jones, with a popular given name such as James, produces hundreds of possibilities, making it unlikely his parents can be accurately identified. There are several Jones families from New Jersey living in the Warren County, Ohio, area, Clinton County's neighbor to the west, but a connection has not been found.
James is first found in the census records in 1820 for Dearborn County, Indiana. He is 27 years old* and has established his own household near the town of Laughery in southeastern Indiana. His family includes his wife Mary, age 26*, and three children, two boys and one girl, all under the age of ten. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about these children. The first identifiable child of James and Mary is David who, being born about 1822, is too young to be included in this first census for the family.
The 1820 Indiana census cites one person "not naturalized" living in the household. The record shows only two adults: a male between the age of 26 and 45 and a female of the same age. These two persons are assumed to be James and Mary, both of which were born in New Jersey. It's possible the census worker marked the wrong column, but the same thing occurs in 1830 when again a person "not naturalized" was counted.
The 1830 census for the Joneses includes a man aged 60-70 years, and it is this person who is likely foreign born. Extended families frequently shared one home, especially in the wilderness of early 19th century Ohio, making it likely that this man is a relative, perhaps the father of James or Mary. It's unfortunate that the names of household members were not included in this census, leaving the identity of this man a mystery. His appearance with the Joneses in 1830 suggests that he may have been a part of the home in 1820, and as such, was the person identified as "not naturalized" in that census.
Travel into the newly opened Ohio valley frontier was rugged and difficult. Most went overland until they reached the Ohio River, then traveled by boat to their final destination. It's likely this is how James and Mary arrived in Dearborn County, Indiana, just west of Cincinnati.
The date of their arrival in Indiana is yet to be determined, but they were there by 1820 when the census was taken. They left Indiana sometime after their son David was born in 1822 and settled in Ohio sometime before their son James (Jr.) was born in 1828. The family is found in Clermont County, Ohio for the 1830 census and Clinton County for the 1840 census.
James and Mary worked and lived as farmers and remained in Clinton County for the rest of their lives. An exact date of death for James is not known but is believed to have occurred between 1850 and 1870. He can be found with Mary in the 1850 census but by 1870, Mary is living with their son, David. While marital status is not reported in this census (1870), it is reasonable to assume that she is a widow because she is not with her husband and is living with her son. James and Mary have not been located in the 1860 census so it is possible that he died before 1860. A search of death records at the Clinton County Records and Archives in Wilmington, Ohio, could not produce a death record for James.
Mary is found in census records for 1870, but not 1880. This places her death date sometime between 1870 and 1880. Though a search of death records in Clinton County did not produce a record for Mary, either, it's likely that both she and James died there. Their burial place hasn't been identified, but that, too, is most likely in Clinton County.
Census records indicate James and Mary may have had as many as 12 children, but only six have been identified. Those children are David, James, Paul, Ira, Elizabeth and William.
*James' and Mary's age is based on information found in the 1850 Federal Census. The 1820 census gives only an age range of 26 to 45 years.
