Finding John J. Jones

Submitted by: GFSMel@aol.com

Researching the Jones family was enough of a challenge considering the commonality of the surname. Thomas and Margaret (Kelly) Jones made it even more difficult by giving their children very common first names. Locating their son, John, was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Family members remembered little about John. Each story contradicted the others. He was said to have worked for the "Emporium" as a comptroller. Some said he was shot to death, others said he died of appendicitis. Some said he had twins, others said he had no children. No one was in agreement.

Records proved just as difficult to find. The 1880 Census found John living with his parents and the 1900 Census found him with living with his in-laws. It was impossible to find him in 1910 and 1920. He was lost among the hundreds of other heads of household named John Jones.

The California Death Index proved to be a lost cause. There were too many John Jones who died in San Francisco County. Each obituary and death certificate proved to be the wrong person.

I decided to take a different tack. I felt I had made the mistake that many genealogists made...I had too little information and was trying to jump too far. I knew that he lived in San Francisco and his wife's name was Matilda "Maud" (McCullough). I decided to stake out a corner of the Oakland Public Library and plow through city directories. With any luck, I would find him in the later years when his wife would be listed. Earlier directories would show how long they lived at one address. And, I could go forward until they no longer appeared.

The San Francisco city directories proved to be my saving grace. In the 1915 directory, John J. and Maud E. Jones lived at 1281 5th Avenue, San Francisco. He was a paymaster for the Emporium. From there I was able to trace the family from 1902 to 1935. I was also able to identify his two sons: Gerald Jones who was a bookkeeper and lived at the same address until 1923, and John Jr. who was a musician and lived at the same address until 1940 -- when he and his wife, Genevieve appear.

There was no more trace of John or Matilda after 1935. Since the son, John Jr., took over the address around 1940, I decided to take another stab at John's death certificate. I requested a search from 1934-1940. This time I struck gold! John J. Jones died 5 Oct 1937 of appendicitis (not a gunshot wound). He was a widower. His son, Gerald, was the informant (who lived in Fresno at the time).

City directories may seem like nothing more than today's phone books with vague names and addresses. From these directories, you can often narrow down a search for other records such as death and marriage. You may also be able to find clues to families that may be impossible to locate in more popular records such as the census. Taking this longer route may have been more time consuming, but I now feel I know a little bit more about John which is the fun of genealogy. Despite my original difficulties, I was able to locate John by changing my perspective.