Finding Grandad Jones and his brother Lamonte Jones.

 My Most Exciting Genealogy Research Find by Susi Pentico

Alas I have several over the years. This is on Dad’s side JONES

Of course those whom attended our Research Meeting in July heard about one that my Dad started when we finally on our own in Northern California.

Dad’s parents had split, he was looking for his father in Wyoming and his Uncle in Northern CA. 

We found his Dad when I was between Freshman and Sophmore year of High School in Casper, Wyoming working as a shepherder  when his health would permit it.

The day before our research meeting the family he was hunting for contacted me, though his father was gone, it was a terrific feeling to have found family my Dad remembered from when small. 

You see Dad remembered playing marbles with his cousins on the dirt floor of a grocery store in Waterloo, Ia.  The families split,  Dad knew his Uncle had come to California  and his Dad he last heard was somewhere  between Colorado, Montana and Wyoming.   The two  boys were the youngest of the Grandparents sons.

Dad was 8 when his father left finally due to many reasons.  Packages came from his father to Dad and his siblings but the items were given away in spite.   Dad was the oldest.  He remembered many things and I watched the results when it was presented years later.

It is sad when religion can cause people to get twisted minds and ideas. Thankfully

The family was mended by Dad, prior to everyone’s (Siblings) death.  But for years it was a sad event for a Father’s Day or Mother’s Day activity. Amongst his siblings and later learning also between his Uncle’s and Aunts.

Things we did  to have answers.

1     Many road trips reading mail boxes,

2     Many phone calls to JONES in Northern Ca

3    Trips to Wyoming to try to find Grandad, side bar saw places I probably would not have.

      Found Grandad Jones when I was in High School by a friend of Dad’s that he had worked with in Wyoming.

5    Grandad came to visit us in California.

6   We continued looking for Uncle Monte.

7     Found connecting descendants via, calls, letters, posts, and persistence.

       Family finally reached back to us., After Dad’s death.

9    Their lives had been no better than Dad’s.

1   The Split in family was over who was the wealthiest and had the most.

1    Utterly unbelievable but so very true.

1    One side  supposedly owned a bank the other owned quality horses and walnut groves and sold the trees for gun stocks.  I know that the horses and walnut is true,  Thought the other raised wheat and grains but may have also been in banking at one point. Need more research on him, he disappeared.

1   The great Grandmom’s got in, as a distant cousin said,  A Pissing contest and it affected every child in the family., for two and some 3 generations of family. The men were already gone or deceased.

When your parent looks as hard as mine did to find family he knew he had, it becomes a life making mark to break the barrier.   His brother my Uncle shared many more interesting tidbits about their life when in Wyoming, since I lived near him and took care of his wives and himself in their end times.

 I am thankful for all the kin whom I now in contact with and share some family data.  Dad would be very happy to learn this, I even think he has helped us find each other.  

 Dad had an Uncle whom was killed in a saw mill in Florida. Never learned if culprit caught. He only had one Aunt. He knew Nora a bit.  Dad really knew his Uncle Charles family downline better for they moved to Wheatland, Wyo and raised their children there. I last talked to Ducima Drew about 7 to 9 years ago.  Charles Jones daughter married a DREW and they moved to Wheatland before Dad's parents did.  I suspect if I remember right Grandad came from IOWA and worked for them then got job on another cattle ranch and Grandma and Dad came out on a train to Wyoming.