52 Ancestors #1 In the Beginning

 In my first post a few days ago, I introduced you to my great-grandmother, Lucy Amanda Jones. Today, I'd like to share about her father, William Nelson Jones, as he was the beginning of my journey on WikiTree. It all started with a Google search for him, which returned the following image. Our family had never seen any photo of him! William is the gentleman at the back of his sister, Annette, and her husband Amos.

The results also displayed another photo of him shared in the previous post. As you can imagine our family was thrilled. Personally, I was excited to come across a free genealogy website, one that allowed biographies to be written and have sources from various repositories. Other aspects of WikiTree that I fell in love with were the Connection and Relationship Finders, the Source Library (see my post from May 2020), and, of course, the community of generous genealogists.

William Nelson Jones (1847-1916)

William was the fourth of six children born to Nelson Jones (a brick wall) and Amanda Amelia Phelps. William was born on 27 March 1847, in Sterling, Cayuga County, New York. The family migrated west to Wisconsin by 1860. 

William enlisted in the 23rd Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry on 4 January 1864, then transferred to the 35th Regiment, finally mustering out for the second time on 15 March 1866.

On 26 September 1869, William married Krishanna Dora Ihda, daughter of Friedrich Johann Jochim Ihda and Maria Friedericke Johanne Foss, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. William and Krishanna had ten children, 49 grandchildren, and 125 great-grandchildren.

For a few years, from about 1886 until 1905, the family lived in Minnesota (where my great-grandmother, Lucy was born), before they moved back to Wisconsin, settling in Rusk County, where William died on 11 January 1916.

This blog post is in response to this week's #52Ancestors post on WikiTree, by fellow WikiTreer and blogger, Chris Ferraiolo. #52Ancestors was started by another WikiTreer, blogger, and professional genealogist, Amy Johnson Crow. Check out her Generations Cafe Facebook group

* Find source documentation and more information on the linked WikiTree profiles for the members of this family.