Jones In Virginia 1623 - 1666

My own JONES surname family tree climbing starts in Virginia...at least on this side of the great pond.  Over the years [now 53 of them] genealogy has involved a study of land grants and patents.  For me, this has involved a great deal of research into these subjects from the earliest settlement of Virginia.  My research is contained in a series of notebooks that cover many topics and areas of interest. [ See my blog entitled:  The Jones Genealogist Research Notebooks.]  Notebook #205 contains my work on a coding system of those who's JONES surname appears in the abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants 1623 - 1666. [ Cavaliers and Pioneers by Nugent.]  The table below is a copy of a page from this collection.

It is basically a chronology of the JONES surname as it appears with Elizabeth (JO-1) and runs to Evan (JO-651).  It was my attempt to help separate (by coding) the many, many, and many JONES who shared the same first name.   These folks were then arranged alphabetically [in this notebook] so that one could "look-up" a first name, and then research how this group, sharing this first name, could be organized and studied.  For me, this was necessary since my JONES family tree had so many branches which crossed one another.   Wow...who would have thought that this method helped open several important doors to the past, and helped cross the great pond to the other side.

My JONES Family Coding System

You might imagine how difficult it would be to keep all these JONES family names straight...generation after generation, from Gadforch to me! This would be more than 30 generations. It became clear fairly early that a coding system would be most helpful. The one I now describe is the first pass at a coding system I have used since the early 1990s. It only deals with my family as I tried to organize and keep straight all those generations who passed down the same names and shared many of the same geographic locations. There is a second coding system I have developed which can be used to organize all families, but that is yet to come.

My JONES family coding system is simple. Starting with the letter "J", all members of my family are given this tag. Then, the alphabet is used to tag each generation starting with the first generation at "A". Of course you have to decide which is the first generation which is usually how far back you have gotten in your tree climbling. For me, in the early 1990s, it was Gadforch who flourished around 850 A.D. Thus, the first of my family was coded JA-1. "J" was for JONES. "A" was for the first generation. "-1" was for the first member of this first generation. The wife of Gadforch, who remains unknown to this day, was tagged "JA-2". Simple and straight forward it is!

The son of Gadforch was Ynyr who flurished around 890 A.D. He was the second generation and would be tagged "JB-1". "J" is for JONES, "B" is for the second generation, and "-1" for the first member of this second generation. His wife was Rhiengar (Ryeingar) would be labeled "JB-2".

Now Tudor Trevor (Tydyr Trefor) was the third generation. He was born around 900 A.D. and a primary document records his life at Winchester, 934 A.D.! He was coded "JC-1" and was the son of "JB-1". His wife Angharad, was the daughter of Howel Dda who came into Powys 942 A.D. She was coded "JC-2". The brother of Tudor Trevor was "Ynyr frych Abad Dor" [Abbot of Dore Abbey, in the Golden Vale, Herefordshire). He was coded "JC-3". His wife would be coded "JC-4".

By now, you should get the idea. The first letter, capitalized, would be the first letter of your surname. The second letter, capitalized, would be the generation, from "A" = first generation, "B" = second generation, "C" = third generation...on and on for at least 26 generations. The individals in each generation would be given a number, thus labling and separating each family member. Give it a try!