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

SNGF: Count Your Trees

Who doesn't enjoy a little Saturday Night Fun? Especially when it involves genealogy. Randy Seaver offers up his weekly SNGF via the always fun Genea-Musings and for once, Saturday night finds me at home where wireless high-speed Internet resides so I can participate.


This week's challenge:


Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Open your genealogy database in the software of your choice, and use the Help function to determine if your software can count the number of separate family trees you have in that database.

2.  Follow the directions if the program can do it, and Count Your Trees.

3)  Tell us about how many trees you have, and who is the "root" person in the biggest tree.  Tell us if you have any big surprises - did you find any disconnected trees that should not have been disconnected?

4)  Write your own blog post, write a comment on this post, or write a Facebook status or comment.


"Well ... Isn't this a timely genealogy mission?" she says with a smile.


Having lived my past life on the side of the PC world, I recently became apple-cored. My conversion was totally unexpected - iPhone, iPad followed by FTM for Mac for my new MacBook Pro. Having new techie toys is almost as much fun as finding the document that either gets you through the brick wall, over the pond, or points the way to gr-gr-gr-grandmother Abigail's resting place. With that in mind I couldn't wait to open my FTM program (feeling smug that I knew exactly where to find it!) and count my trees.


So much for the walls of Jericho tumbling down ...


If you have read Randy's post, you will have all ready surmised that Family Tree Maker does not have a function to perform this sort of task. But it was a good way to delve into the upgrade of FTM as I was running an earlier version prior to making the upgrade in order to migrate my family information to the Mac.


While I was unable to complete my "mission" it was fun to participate in SNGF. As always, thanks Randy!

Wordless Wednesday: Easy Does It

"Easy Does It." Digital image. Undated. Original photograph privately held by

Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. Copyright (c) Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. 2011

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Week 7: Toys

As a girl growing up in the 1950's and 60's, some of my fondest memories center around playing Barbie's with my friends. No matter where we lived, I could always count on finding common ground as the "new girl in the neighborhood" thanks to Barbie and Ken. Packing up Barbie and Ken in my white Barbie trunk and heading off to a friends house for the afternoon helped me fit into a new community, making new friends with Barbie as the mediator. 


I recall having one of the early Barbie dolls: blond hair in a pony tail with a black & white zebra striped swim suit, open toed shoes (never to be seen again) and sunglasses. Later on, I received a Barbie that came with three wigs: blond, dark brown and red. While I still have this Barbie, sadly, only one of her wigs remained with the doll.


When I was younger my most treasured Barbie outfit (beside the wedding dress) was the ice pink satin gown that came accessorized with a faux fur stole, opera length white gloves and, as I recall, a white pearl choker. 


But after forty-plus years, I am thankful to have one of the outfits lovingly made by my Grandma Bergeron. Even after all these years, the sweater and pants fit Barbie like a glove and if I do say so myself, she is stunning as she prepares to head down to the fire pit after an day on the slopes. 


I don't know how she does it - she doesn't look a day over 19.




Copyright (c) 2011 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Wordless Wednesday: Before There Was Super Bowl Heisman Was King

"Before There Was a Super Bowl Heisman Was King." Digital image. Undated.

Original photograph privately held by Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. (c) 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Logging In Wisconsin Early 1900s

"Logging in Vilas Township (WI) early 1900's." Digital Image. Undated. Original photograph

privately held by Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. (c) Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski. 2011.

Tombstone Tuesday: Olive Space Kesler

Olive Mabel Space, born 26 March 1878, in Merrill, Lincoln, WI; the only child of Zephaniah Allen Space (1826-1902) and Harriet Armanda Fryer (1854-1940).


Zephaniah and his first wife, Margaretta Ann Shankle were one of the early pioneers who immigrated to Wisconsin's northwoods "pinery" in the mid 1840's prior to Wisconsin's admission as the 30th state in the union. They established one of the first hotels in Jenny, now Merrill, WI; the couple divorced in 1877.

Harriet Fryer was the third of Francis Fryer (1829-1907) and Lucinda Hart's (1831-1912) eight children. Francis and Lucinda were married in Frankfort, KY, in 1850. The couple came to Wisconsin, settling in Oshkosh before immigrating to Minnesota before the family settled in Langlade county. Harriet married Stephen Dunbar in 1873; the couple had one child, Royal Ainsley Dunbar born 14 May 1875 in New London, Waupaca, WI. Following his mother's marriage to Zephaniah, Royal was adopted by Zephaniah and he took the Space surname. It is unclear if the adoption was part of any official process as no documentation has been located.


Zephaniah, Harriet, Roy and Olive settled in the township of Morley in Langlade county. Morley's modest beginnings were as a log building built by Edward and Jean Morley in 1881. The two brothers operated a post office, stage stop and store. The "Morley Territory" was located in what is now the Town of Vilas and the western portion of the Town of Peck and a small portion of the Town of Ackley. It was also a part of the Town of Pine River, Lincoln county. Still later, it became a part of Ackley, Langlade county before finally being subdivided into the towns of Vilas and Peck. (A nightmare for genealogists researching their family connections in this part of the county!)


Like her father, Olive taught school and was interested in historical events and served as the "custodian of the Historical Society Museum" in Antigo.


Olive was married to Willard Lloyd (1869-1906) in 1897, the couple had two children, the youngest was 16 months old at the time of Willard's death. Olive married Lafayette Kesler (1866-1937) in 1915 and had two children including a daughter, Harriet Lethe Kesler named for Olive's mother.

Olive Space Lloyd Kesler died at the Langlade Memorial Hospital on Sunday, 28 January 1968 and is buried in the Antigo Cemetery.

"Tombstone: Olive M. Kesler." Digital image. Undated. Original photograph

privately held by Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski as part of the Space Family Papers.