When Patrick moved from Baltimore to Austin, Texas on 10 May 2008, one of my favorite hobbies was doing genealogy. He asked me to begin research on his family and I set up a family tree for him in Ancestry.com, under the username: magickbetty. Then, on 23 May 2009, Patrick phoned Aunt Rose and asked me to interview her. Here is one of the stories that came from that phone interview.
Aunt Rose says . . .
I talked on the phone today with Aunt Rose (Rose Marie Jones, sister of David Fitzhue Jones, father of Patrick Leo (Faison) Jones. Aunt Rose lives in Hampton, Virginia (relocated there in 1991, presumably from New York City). I needed some basic information to be able to proceed with the research of the ancestors of Patrick Jones. I received a lot of information from Aunt Rose, who will be 75 years old on 14 July 2009. She is the oldest living relative of Bertha Connelly Jones, grandmother of Patrick Jones. None of her cousins or siblings, that she knows of, are still living. Here is what Aunt Rose can remember about her parents and her siblings. Her mother, Roberta J. "Bertha" Conley (in various records, also spelled: Connelly, Connally, Conly) (b. 4 Mar 1904, d. 17 Feb 1970) married a man whose given name she cannot recall, but whose surname was Parker. (My ancestry research found his name to be Moses Parker.) Bertha and Moses Parker had three children, James Leo (abt 1925), John Hardy (abt 1926), and David Fitzhue (6 Feb 1927). Bertha's husband died 24 May 1929, when the three boys were still babies. That same year she met and married Henry Jones, and had three more children, twin boys Willie Jonas, and Arthur Junas, "Jimmy", and a daughter, Rose Marie (Aunt Rose, b. 14 Jul 1934). Bertha also helped raise Riley (b. abt 1913), son of Henry from a previous marriage. Aunt Rose recalls there was never any distinction made in Bertha and Henry's household as to who was a step-sibling. All seven children shared the surname, Jones, as Henry legally adopted the Parker boys: James, John, and David when he married Bertha.
(as told to Martha Mae Bryson by Aunt Rose)
