Land Patents of Aquilla Jones

I am still thinking that the connection between Aquilla Jones (of Davidson County, TN and later Howard County, MO) needs something more concrete than what I currently have.

In an attempt to locate more information I searched for Aquilla on the BLM Land Patent site. There were three results as shown. Turns out that the first two are probably for the Aquilla I am looking for. The first one from 1961 is a delayed patent, originally intended to be issued in 1825 and the second one indicates the Aquilla Jones is of Howard County. Both of these warrant followup, especially how the land was disposed of by Aquilla. Hopefully there was an estate or deed to settle it up. Consequently I'll be looking for probate/land records in both Franklin and Howard Counties.

But I nearly overlooked the 1961 deed thinking it was too late--just goes to show.

Small images of the two patents are included in this post

Working on Benjamin Jones

A search of the Family History Library Card Catalog indicates they have several items for Stokes County, Northa Carolina that may be helpful in my search for more information on Benjamin Jones:

• Land records--including grantor and grantee indexes.
• A variety of microfilmed and published probate records
• Some corresondence regarding military pensions
• Tax records that may help me pinpoint dates of death
• Court records pre-1830 or so should also be searched.

My real concern is to try and connect Benjamin Jones with Aquilla of Davidson County, Tennessee and Howard County, Missouri. That is one of my goals while I'm on my trip to the Family History Library in May.

Take with a grain of salt

I'm going to have to take the material that comes in the Amy Jones Doyle book with a grain of salt (as one should information from any published compiled genealogy). She does not indicate that any of Wesley Jones' children married a Rhodus/Rhodes. Yet the probate for Wesley Jones clearly indicates that he had a daughter Lucretia M. K. Rhodus. The "M" likely stood for Matilda. Doyle indicates another husband for this child.

However, it does not appear that Lucretia was married before either. There is an 1850 Macon County, Missouri marriage for Jones and Rhodes, using those last names--pretty much eliminating the possibility that she was married before her marriage to Rhodes/Rhodus.

I'll still get the genealogy when I'm in Salt Lake this May and copy or scan it--whichever I can do fastest. But I'll use it as a source of clues and leads not as facts--which is how one should use any compiled genealogy.

Connection to Aquilla Jones

This is a quick sketch of the connection to Aquilla Jones.

1) Aquilla Jones, died 1843 Howard County, Missouri.
2) Wesley Jones, born likely in Davidson County, Tennessee, died 1878 near Callao, Missouri.
3) Matilda Jones, married William Rhodes. Died and buried in Macon County, Missouri in the 1880s.
4) Clara Rhodes, married Granville Lake. She was born in 1867 in Macon County, Missouri and died in 1921 in Macon County, Missouri.
5) Ola Lake (1906-1969), married Anna Apgar--my wife's grandparents

Working on Benjamin Jones

A google search turned up an abstract from the Revolutionary War Pension file of Benjamin Jones. There was speculation in this file that Benjamin was the father of Aquilla, but nothing concrete and no source listed. That helps.

A search for Benjamin Jones on WorldConnect yielded several hits, but the only sources I was able to locate were:

• The Daniel Webster Jones Genealogy, by Amy Jones Doyle--this is at the Family History Library in Salt Lake so I can look at that in May.

• A will reference. Aquilla supposedly had a brother Gabriel who wrote his will in 1806 and an Aquilla Jones is listed as the executor. I'll have to see if these records are in the Family History Library.

At this juncture, I'm not too worried about who Benjamin's parents are. The WorldConnect postings disagree about Benjamin's parents, but at this point I'm more concerned to proving/disproving the connection of Benjamin with service to Aquilla Jones, ancestor of my wife. I think what I need to do is also look for land/probate records in Stokes County, where this Benjamin Jones died. I need something connecting him to Aquilla.

There's still room for those who want to join us on our trip to the Salt Lake City Family History Library in May.