Last of the Line

It's a very depressing thought to realize that in many ways your family will end with you. It occurred to me as I began the feat of typing up a new Jones family history and decendency list that I am the only record keeper that I know of for the Jones family. This of course may be a misnomer since I am removed from some of my Jones cousins and they may also be researching as well. I do have researching relatives that I just discovered for the Mills family through my Grandmother. These second cousins however are researching thier surnames Bryants and Mills as a main focus however. My Great Aunt Arvilla is also a genealogy hobbyist but she too is removed in her focus from me by being a child of the Wismer and Craig families. Recently she did show me a indirect relationship to the Jones but for the most part her research is Wismer centered. My cousin once removed follows his father's tree for the Kettlewell family.

David, my father and Joseph my grandfather had focused most of their energy strictly on the paternal line for Grant's so once my Father dies that will be it. I doubt it would do much good for me to pick up that research since the majority of it is taken up by Day and Morford researchers anyway, both popular families. In fact recently a Day family third cousin contacted me out of the blue for acquiring a photo of his grandfather. I must admit he was quite rude considering we haven't met. There is also the more personal side to this that I am the last of the Grant children carrying the Grant genetic line or more likely the Street family genetics. My Father once thought that neither my sister or I would have children and it truly broke his heart to think that he had failed to continue the family somehow.

Here I sit however the only researcher that I know looking into the Jones family. All of my Grandfathers generation has now past and most of the children are lost in time in my mothers age as well. I have yet to find a close relative my own age who researches which seems such a shame. In a way then I guess it is fate that I have such good instincts with the Jones/Boussey line since I might be the last to devote time to it.

Importance of DNA

The consolidation is going well for those that read me regularly. At this time I am about 200 people short (mostly in the Day family) of incorporating all of my Father's currently discovered ancestors. The other day I received a surprising message on Ancestry.com from a professional Genealogist (Dee Dee King) looking to find the family of my 1st cousin thrice removed on the Jones side. Within a few minutes search I verified the identity of cousin Freddie and had expanded my general knowledge of him. In fact his name had only shown up on a single census so far when I researched his parents and had been referred to as Fred.

Dee Dee did not present a very pleasant picture at first since she did not tell me why she wanted to contact next of kin or if perhaps she was a "lazy genealogist" going to let me do all the research for her. My Grandfather experienced a bit of this when working with a 'professional' on our published family history, at least she sourced him. After a message back and forth I finally opened the link that Dee Dee gave me and discovered her purpose for researching Freddie was much more noble than just getting paid. Ms. King is under contract it seems with the US Navy to research the men who died aboard the USS Oklahoma that was sunk in Pearl Harbor. The Navy it seems is still hoping to identify the remains through DNA sampling from living relatives.

Freddie Jones, (MM1c) is not the first war hero that has been in my tree. Most of the men born at the turn of the century served in WWI and in fact one of them was even willing to serve in both WW's despite his old age. Unfortunately I am a hop and skip relation to Freddie myself and could only have at best a 3-5% match on the M-DNA. The grand-kids of Freddie's sister Grace Jones seem unwilling to help or at best haven't had time to respond to Ms. King. I'm sure within the week or so they will have gotten back to her since the female relations would match well.

Speaking of DNA, last week I talked a bit about the Street family. It seems that the Mental defects are X-linked for the most part. The men not having a second X to counteract the deletion/mutations suffer the worst. It seems my grandfather's family all suffered a degenerative condition; Dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons, respectively by age. My father has made comments to my sister and I that we must get our bad health from his Mother's side because of a Uncle who suffers depression yet the evidence of inheritance says other words. Discovering Dementia and Alzhiemers so close to my generation is a recent development and no doubt a conversation I will have to have with my own Neurologist. This is especially pertinent since the degenerative diseases have shown up in at least 1 child each generation and my Aunt Debbie is the carrier in my Father's generation thus moreover proving the likelihood of a X-mutation.