Jesse W. Fox Sr.

This is your 3rd great grandfather.  His name is Jesse W. Fox Sr.  There is a 95 page history of his life on Family Search, if  you're interested in learning more about him.  I found this paragraph interesting from his history written by himself:

"I am the son of a respectable farmer in the state of New York.  I followed the occupation of my father until I was 18 years of age.  He then in the fall of 1838 sent me from home to a literary institution....  In the Spring of 1844 I emigrated west.  After two months' journey I arrived at Nauvoo, the City of Joseph, June 26th, the day before the prophets were assassinated.  On the following day (June 28) I saw their dead bodies.  July following I was baptized by Elder Elijah Williams into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

Wow!  What must have THAT been like?  To arrive in Nauvoo the day before Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed?!?

George Q. Cannon, who later became an apostle, knew Jesse W. Fox and said this about him:

"A more guileless, simple, kind-hearted, unspoiled man by the rest of the world, it would be exceedingly difficult to find.  Though he lived 75 years he was as a child in many respects.  He had lived in the world without being contaminated with the world or spoiled by its influences.  Anyone that wanted to take advantage of him could easily do so; for he was not a man that was suspicious or that was looking to take advantage himself and he did not suspect others of a disposition to do that."

Grandma Jones

See if you can find your Grandma Jones (Kathryn MacKay Jones) in this picture.  She came from a family of 6 girls.  Maybe your mom or dad knows which one she is.  See if your parents can pick out her sisters, Marjorie, Florence, Ruth May, Marian (who I was named after, by the way), and Joyce.

This is Marian's wedding picture.  Can you find Grandma Jones in this one?

This is a picture of Ruth May Fox and her children.  Ruth May Fox is your great great grandma and was the General Young Women's president of the church from 1929-1937.  Do you remember I told you she also came across the plains as a pioneer?  She is sitting on a tall chair in the middle of the picture.  My grandma is Florence Marie Fox MacKay and she is the woman on the furthest right.

Wahgoosh

So I'm at the temple yesterday doing sealings of family names I've found and this card comes up.  Before he says anything, the sealer looks at the card for about 4 seconds, looks at me with a question in his eyes and I can just tell he's thinking, "What's up with this guy's name?!?"  Then he finally asks, "What is that?  A nickname or something?  Wahgoosh??"  I just smile at him and say, "I have no idea.  I just found his name on Family Search and he needs some temple work done."

Today I decide to do some searching to see if I can find any explanation for this strange name.  I run across his marriage certificate and it says he married a woman by the name of Na she wa quay.  I'm thinking, "What?  Did he have 2 wives?"  You'll notice on the temple card it says his wife is Angeline Brunette.

So I go to Family Search and look what I found!  Check out the names with the yellow arrows next to them!  Wild!  On the Minnesota 1875 census, in the column for race it has a W for Samuel John "Wagoosh" Fox which means he was white.  But his wife and 3 kids have an H in the race column.  Not sure what that stands for but if you look at the yellow arrows in the lower right corner you see it says "Ojibwe woman".  I googled that.  It's the Chippewa Tribe!  So my 2nd great grandfather's brother married a Native American woman.  Pretty cool!

My best guess is that when Samuel married into the tribe, they gave him the native name of Wahgoosh.  And his wife had an English name, Angeline, as well as her native name, Na she wa quay.  Her father was a white man it looks like and her mother was a Chippewa or Ojibwe.  I wonder what Wahgoosh means.

Pilgrims

We have an ancestor named John Moses who emigrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1632.  He was a shipwright (which means a ship builder.)  I was reading about him online in a book written in 1899 by one of his descendants.  She said, "It is highly probable that John Moses did not come to New England to escape religious persecution, but rather to fill a demand for men who could build ships."  Well, THAT'S a new twist!  Also he was fined 10 shillings on two different occasions for drunkenness so the author doubts he was a strict Puritan.

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And how about this...Peter Brown is one of our ancestors and he came on the Mayflower in 1620!  Do you see his name on the Mayflower Compact?  In the picture below, Peter Brown is the 4th person from the right (not counting the child.)

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Congratulations to Travis who won the latest challenge!  He'll be eating at Arby's sometime in the near future!

Wanna Be In DAR or SAR?

Hey!  I found out we have an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War!  His name is Zebulon Moses and he was born in 1754 in Connecticut.  That would have made him 22 years old in 1776 when the United States won the war and declared independence.  So if you want to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution or Sons of the American Revolution, you can apply for membership.  :)  In order to belong to one of these groups you have to prove that you had an ancestor who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

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I want to find out more about him.  All I know is that he fought in the Vermont Regiment and was at the Battle of Bennington.  The marker for the Bennington battlefield is in the picture above.  There's also a "Zebulon Moses Farm Complex" in Lima, New York that is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Road trip, anyone?  Wouldn't it be cool to go back and see where he lived??

Guess who won the last challenge?  It WASN'T TRAVIS!  Can you believe it?!?  It was David!  Five bucks on its way to San Antonio with David's name on it.

Who's Named After Who?

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Time for another challenge!  This time the challenge is to find out who in Harold Jones' (your grandpa) family was named after another family member.  This one will be pretty easy if you go onto familysearch.org, click on Harold Guy Jones who is your great grandpa and find out the names of his kids.  Then look at their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles to see who was named after a family member.  I found 8.  In the comments of this post put the name of Grandpa Jones' brothers or sisters and who they were named after.  Don't forget to include your Grandpa Jones too!  Middle names count as well as first names.  Good luck!  And may the best niece or nephew win!! The prize is a $10 gift certificate to one of these eating places, you choose: Arby's, Domino's Pizza, or Olive Garden.

Do you know who YOUR mom and dad are named after?  Go ask them!

Saving Baby Alice

Alice Ryan Jones

As I was reading stories of our pioneer ancestors yesterday I was very moved (to tears!) by this one comment written by my great grandmother, Alice Ryan Jones, about her travels across the plains at a very tender age, "My mother often said that I would not have survived because I was so tiny and frail if it hadn't been for the teamster who carried me most of the way."

Because of the daily kind act of this man carrying three month old baby Alice with him on the wagon, my great grandmother was granted the opportunity to grow to adulthood, marry, have children, and live a full life.  I have no idea the name or identity of this man but I am truly grateful to him for the great kindness he showed in caring for this small baby who was one of my ancestors.  He didn't have to do it.  He had no obligation to baby Alice or her mother.

Alice's mother set out across the plains with her 2 year old daughter, Kittie, and Alice who was only 3 months. Alice's father and 16 year old brother were to follow two weeks later to drive mule teams and freight.  During the trek, Kittie died and was buried near the Platte River.