VI Genealogy and Pedigree of the Thomas Jones Family

Building the pedigree of Thomas Jones’ descendants starts with recognition that five of his children, Nancy Jane Jones Mathis, WDJ, JLJ, ITJ and JJJ and their descendants lived in a cluster on Clear Creek in what became Marshall County in 1842. Thomas appeared there in 1836 and the male children appeared afterwards in their birth order in the county tax rolls. Nancy Jane Jones Mathis moved there from an unknown location in Tennessee circa 1843. All of his early children were accounted for in the 1850 Marshall County census except for ITJ and JUJ who were living in Calloway at that time. 

In fact JUJ was the exception in that he apparently never lived near his father and siblings on Clear Creek. This may be because he was very close to his grandfather and chose to live near him in Calloway County. His departure for McCracken County very shortly after Isaac’s death would support this idea. 

After JUJ’s departure the entire Thomas Jones Clan could be found living on Clear Creek in the 1860 census and tax rolls and they continued to live there perhaps until they can last be located in the 1870 census as the "Wadesboro" district in which they are listed in 1870 does not necessarily mean that they had moved. 

In contrast all of Isaac Jones’ other children and grandchildren spent their Kentucky years living in Calloway County KY with perhaps the exception of Burrell Jones who paid land and school tax for four years in Marshall County. It is interesting that from Burrell's days in Lincoln County TN until he relocated to Arkansas he was the most mobile of Isaac's children often listing himself in more than one county or state either at the same time or nearly so. Despite the fact he owned land in McCracken County it is hard to believe that he would have paid school tax in Marshall County if he did not live there.

But back to the genealogical nuggets found in public records that pertain to the descendants of Thomas Jones. We have already reviewed the fact that Mary M Jones a daughter of JLJ and SAW Jones married Mr. Wm Brown on 24 Dec, 1861. But this is only the beginning, there is much more information to be gleaned from this record. The marriage was solemnized by one W. D. Jones JP, MC. who until now has been referred to in this discussion as William D Jones. This man, WDJ was commissioned a Justice of the Peace by L. W. Powell the Governor of Kentucky and on 6 June 1853 he was affirmed to that position in District 1 of Marshall County by the County Court. (Marshall County Court Order Book # 2, part 2 pages 92-95). This means Mary M Jones' marriage was solemnized by her uncle.

Witnesses to Mary’s marriage included G. (likely”T”) N. Jones and Amid (likely Arch) Jones. It is significant that T.N. Jones and Arch Jones are known sons of WDJ and in 1861 they were 23 and 21 years of age respectively. This record documents that two of Mary's cousins served as witnesses to her marriage which again confirms the close relationship of this family. Moreover, T(Thomas) N(Newton) Jones’s bit part in the ceremony heralds the critical role he will play 32 years later in proving the long suspected relationship between JLJ and WDJ.

The link between JLJ and WDJ

In his will JLJ appoints his nephew Thomas Newton Jones (1838 KY - 1894 KY) to be executor of his estate. In 1860 Thomas N Jones made his first appearance in the Marshall County Tax Rolls on Clear Creek next to W D Jones. The well established pattern of parent and child association on Clear Creek is consistent with numerous historical facts including the family bible that clearly established that T N Jones was William D “Button” Jones’s eldest son. Therefore the fact that JLJ appoints this nephew to be executor of his will is proof that he and WDJ were brothers. Coupling this with the strong circumstantial evidence already reviewed we can safely conclude that JLJ and WDJ were sons of Thomas Jones. 

Parenthetically, if T N Jones had not himself died the next year in a Typhoid Fever epidemic perhaps the final records of the settlement of JLJ’s estate would have added more to this story.  

Sufficient evidence including the numerous deeds, sequential tax rolls, marriage licenses, wills, census data, and occasional tombstones has thus been accumulated to permit a careful analysis of Thomas’ family. These data permit a reasonable person to draw firm conclusions as to Thomas’s children.

I believe that Thomas Jones (1788 NC - >1873 KY) married Nancy Brown (1790 NC – 181? ??) on 15 Dec 1811 in Surry County North Carolina and they had issue,

1.    Nancy Jane Jones Mathis (1813 NC – 1860 KY), and

2.    William D Jones (1814NC – 1891KY).

Evidence indicates that Nancy Brown died sometime between WDJ’s birth in 1814 and when Thomas married his second wife, Mary MNU (?? - ??) . It seems likely this marriage took place in North Carolina because the birthplace of their first know child,

3.    John U. Jones (1817 NC – 1856 KY) was listed both in the 1850 census and on his death registry as being born in North Carolina. The Thomas Jones family moved to Tennessee in the interval between 1817 and 1819 when

4.    James L Jones (1819TN – 1893KY) was born. They also had at least six additional children, four of them in Tennessee including;

5.    Isaac T Jones (1820 TN – >1860??),

6.    Joshua J. Jones (1827 TN – 1907 KY ),

7.    Malvina Jones Ross (1831 TN – 1870 KY),

8.    Elizabeth A. Jones Tatum, Swiney (1833 TN – >1870??),

9.    Martha Jane Jones Tatum (1836 KY – >1852??),

10. Frances Emiline Jones Tatum 1841 KY–>1873??).

Regarding Thomas Jones and his wives it is worth mentioning once again the peculiar one year he was absent from an otherwise thirty year (1836 to 1866) string of county tax records. You will recall that his son Isaac T Jones replaced him on the tax roll for that single year. Since he used a surrogate on the tax roll it is tempting to speculate that Thomas was away for an extended time for some special and unique reason. We do know that his last known child with Mary was in 1841 (Frances Emiline Jones) and it appears his first child with Martha A Nunley was in February of 1846 (Andrew K Jones). Perhaps he was away in 1845 to mourn or bury Mary (in her native North Carolina?) or more likely traveling and courting Martha Ann Nunley who, also from North Carolina, was to become his third and final wife.

Martha A Nunley (1823 NC – >1870??) Martha Nunley is a "quite" mystery; we don’t know where she came from in North Carolina, if she had been previously married and widowed or where she and Thomas married. After the 1870 Calloway Census, she a relative young widow at 47 years of age simply vanishes from the record. Three years later, in 1873 her husband Thomas gave written consent for their daughter Sarah L Jones to marry Mr. T. H. Ellis. Was Martha Ann Nunley Jones still alive at that time? It should be noted that Thomas was a literate man and always signed his own name on legal papers and that included his consent for Sarah to marry Mr. Ellis. After that note of consent for his baby daughter’s marriage Thomas Jones vanishes from the record. But before that he and Martha had,

11. Andrew K. Jones (1846 KY – >1900

12. Wiley Madison Jones (1849 KY – 1883 KY)

13. Burrell T. Jones (1851 KY – 1852 KY)

14. Lucy F. Jones (1853 KY –>1870??)

15. Thomas J. Jones (1855 KY – >1920??)

16. Sarah L. Jones Ellis (1858 KY – 1873??

In conclusion it appears that Thomas Jones was married at least three times and fathered at least 16 children. His date of death and place of burial are not know, sadly the same is true for all three of his wives.

Y-chromosome Testing of Isaac Jones’s known descendants It is common knowledge that Thomas and Wiley Jones were the oldest sons of Isaac Jones. This is important because two 4^th generation male descendants of Wiley Jones and one 5^th generation descendant of Thomas Jones have had Y-chromosome testing done that shows the three of them share identical alleles in the first 25 test positions. These results mean at the 80% probability that these men share a common progenitor within the last 6 generations. When combined with the detailed paper trail discussed above this data renders their linkage through Isaac Jones certain.

Y-chromosome testing of a descendant of John U Jones shows this man to share identical alleles with the three descendants of Thomas and Wiley Jones mentioned above. This latter subject’s test results were measured at fewer loci but the data again confirms the paper trail discussed above above proving that John U Jones is a son of Thomas Jones.