Jones Boys

I come from a decent sized family (I’m one of six) and I‘ve got a large extended family – I have lots of aunts and uncles, dozens of cousins and those cousins must have a hundred-something kids at this point (I’ve long since lost track). All of us (in-laws aside, of course) have a grandfather in common whose last name was Jones. Despite the prolific multiplication, the Jones name is nearly gone.

See, my grandfather had four boys to carry on his last name. Those four boys cumulatively had just eight additional Jones boys. And those eight Jones boys (myself excluded) have had just three Jones boys (if I counted correctly). I’ve got four. Seven in total in this third generation is just a minus-one relative to the prior generation, but that’s actually not what I want to discuss.

My four Jones boys ties me with my grandparent’s generation. In fact, to best the four, we have to go back to my great-great-great-great grandfather, Allen Jones (1794 - 1875), who was blessed with eleven children (!), eight of whom were boys. As far as my direct lineage is concerned, he had both the most children and the most boys.

I find myself motivated by competition at times. If my 4x great grandfather had merely five boys (instead of eight), I might have viewed that as an achievable goal worth persuing. Eight is just so far outside the realm of possibility that I needn’t concern myself with it. Thankfully. His record remains safe for the time being.

FamilySearch (the Mormon genealogy website) shows ten generations of Joneses, going back to Benjamin Jones who was born in 1753. I’m a little bummed they don’t have any older info. Lost to time, I guess.