Sunday, May 22, 2016

The parents of Sidney Cornelia Jones

I have been looking for the mother of Sidney Cornelia Jones, wife of Agustus Kennon Ward, for several years but until today with no luck.  She married in Telfair County, Georgia and lived the rest of her life there.   She did not have a social security number, no obit has been found for her and her gravestone has nothing more than her name and dates.  And her maiden name was Jones.

Knowing when she was born and when she married, there was only one census where she might have been in her parents' household and that was 1880.  Searching in there for Sidney or Cornelia brought me no hits, so I just started looking at all the white Jones girls born in 1872.  There were none in Telfair county that looked like it might be her, so I extended the search to the entire state.  There was a Sydie Jones of the right age with parents Sidney and Henrietta.  I was skeptical because they were in Putnam County which is quite a distance from Telfair, but started looking at them anyway.  I discovered the following:

- Sidney B. Jones died in April 1900 but I can't find a tombstone or obituary listing for him.  Putnam county records show no will and his estate does not list heirs beyond his one minor child.  Putnam marriage records indicate his wife was Henrietta Lewis.
- Henrietta Lewis Jones died in Telfair County.  According to her death certificate, she was born in Putnam County and her husband was Sidney B. Jones, making it probable she was the same Henrietta.  She is buried in the same cemetery as Agustus and Sidney Ward.  And her middle name is Cornelia.
- Hezekiah Jones, listed in the 1880 census as a son of Sidney and Henrietta, lived in the same town as the Wards and had married one of Agustus' cousins.  He was also buried in the same church cemetery.
-In 1875, when Sidney Jones was appointed administrator on his father's estate, one of the securities on his bond was Paschal Ward, who was Agustus Ward's grandfather, showing an earlier connection between the families.

This evidence makes it highly likely that the parents of Sidney Cornelia Jones were in fact Sidney B. Jones and Henrietta Cornelia Lewis.  

Saturday, May 7, 2016

1837 Bridge petition, Crawford County

Found in the loose records in the Georgia State archives, Morrow.

To the Honorable the Superior Court of Crawford County We the undersigned citizens of the county aforesaid humbly sheweth to your Honour that we labour und[er] a serious inconvenience for want of a Bridge across Spring Creek where the road leading from Knoxville to Travelersrest crosses said creek this is a road of great publick utility as well as to those living in the lower part of this county Your petitioners therefore humbly hope your honors will grant an order for building said Bridge and appoint commissioners for that purpose and your petitioners will ever pray.  Jany 31st 1837.
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F. Buzbee                            Jacob Fudg Senr
Jesse Harper                        James Spires
R. H. ?Harper?                    John Spires
Jacob Slppy                        Henry Wells
David Wells                        Daniel Goodman
George Lowman                 Luke Goodman
William Grey                      Jacob Spizey
William A. Slappy              Wm W Whittiker
Henry Slppy                        Eml. W. Whittiker
Saml Clark                          Isaac Free
? Crouch                              Joseph Powel
Casper Parham                    W. B. Carr
James Gray                          F. Bacon
Thomas Gray                       N. Horne
Jonathan Ross                      Daniel Culpeper
Green Duke                         Jacob Weaver
Luke Johnson                      ?Micael? Welch
E.M. Dennis                        S. N. Slattery
? Walker                              S. W. Hicks
?I? McGarity                       L. B. Ogburn
William D. Tucker              John Tidwell
Ken Delland                       G.F. Matthews
Enoch Shivey                     John Andrews
J.S. Harman                        Alfred Coleman
Thos Livingstone               Luke Roberts
John Walpole