Tombstone Tuesday: Charles and Gertrude Jones

The progenitor of my Jones family line is Charles Jones, born June 1802 in Lancashire, England. Charles's known marriages were to (i) Jane and (ii) Gertrude. My family line descends from James H. Jones, the oldest son of Charles and Jane.

Charles and Jane are found in the 1841 census UK (England), living on School Lane in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. Their listing in this census is one of the few lucky happen-stances; the family immigrated to the United States in 1842 and, to date, I have been unable to find them in any of the federal census records until 1860 when the family is found living in Winchester, Winnebago, WI. 


The listing in the 1841 census confirms Charles' wife as Jane and confirms that their youngest child is daughter Jane.


Listed in the New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 list on Ancestry.com, is the family of Charles Jones age 40,"Mrs [ditto]"age 40, James age 20, Susan age 17, Joseph age 9, Edward age 6, Abraham age 4 and Jane age 1. The family arrived in New York City on July 1, 1842, on board the ship The Importer.


The next record documenting Charles Jones doesn't occur until the 1860 federal census when Charles Jones is found living in Winchester, Winnebago, WI, with wife (ii) Gertrude, and children Charles, Alice and John.


While there has been a lot of speculation about the migration of the family from the time they disembarked The Importer, there is no documentation as to where the family spent those 20 years. A popular theory written and published by other Jones family researchers is that this family line settled in Worcester County, MA, near the family of Thomas Ashworth.


Edward Jones, brother to Charles, formed a business partnership with Thomas Ashworth. While there is a collateral connection, there is no documentation that the family of Charles Jones spent time living in the area or working at the Ashworth & Jones woolen mill.


A clue may be found in the listing of New York as the place of birth of John Jones, youngest son of Charles Jones. However, I believe there is an error in this census, recording Gertrude's place of birth as England when other sources cite her place of birth as New York. Could it be that John's place of birth is in error as well?


Charles and Gertrude continued to make their home in Winchester for another 20-years until Charles's death on March 17, 1885. According to his obituary in the March 18, 1885, issue of the Neenah Times: Mr. Jones, of Winchester, and father of Receiver Jones of Menasha, died yesterday from the effects of a fall from a sleigh. His age was 84-years. He was well known and highly respected in this county. The funeral is on Friday morning."


Gertrude survived her husband for almost 4-1/2 years; she died on August 8, 1889. Both Charles and Gertrude are buried in the Winchester Cemetery, also known as the Jones Cemetery, on Grandview Road in Winchester Township.

Copyright (c) Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. 2011