52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #38 Harriett Jones

Harriett Jones was my paternal 3rd great grandmother. She was born in about 1818 to Solomon Jones and Elizabeth Woodson, and she is the grandmother of my great grandmother Hattie Finney. There is more information in my post Will the Parents of Kate and Hattie Please Stand Up plus copies and references for most of the census records I mention below.

After Harriet's mother Elizabeth died, her father Solomon married Sarah Davis in 1821. Harriett had at least one half brother, William B. Jones (b. about 1825). She may have had another half brother named Thomas S. Jones (b. about 1827), as her daughter Irene was living with Thomas and his family in Thomas County, Georgia, at the time of the 1860 U.S. census. But we haven't found a connection. Also, there is a 15-year-old girl named Sarah Jones living with Harriett and John Finney in the 1850 census. This could be Harriett's half sister. Harriett's step-mother Sarah Jones is also living with them.

Harriett married John Finney, possibly around 1840 in Laurens County, Georgia. I haven't found a marriage record for them in Georgia's Virtual Vault in the Laurens County records. I haven't searched other counties yet. However, there is a John Finney in the 1840 Laurens County census with a wife of about the right age to be Harriett.

Harriett and John had six children: Irene (b. 1841), Sarah (b. 1843), Eliza (b. 1845), William (b. 1848), Rebecca (b. 1850), and Virginia (b. 1853). By the 1850 U.S. census, they had moved their family to Washington County, Florida, where her brother William was living. John died sometime before 1857, maybe by 1855. Harriett married Ira Shine Williams and gave birth to a son George Washington Williams. Ira had left by the 1860 census and was living in Seven Leagues, Smith County, Texas, with his older children.

At the time of the 1870 census, Harriett was in Walton County, Florida, with her daughters Sarah, Rebecca, and Virginia Finney, her son George Williams, and her granddaughters Kate and Hattie (whose last name is listed as Williams in the census). In 1880, Harriett is in Rosa County, Florida, and her granddaughters (listed in the census with the surname Finney) are still with her.

Harriett died on January 20, 1892, and is buried in Hart Cemetery in Okaloosa County, Florida.

The illusive Jones and Finney families haven't been easy to research. For more information, here's a link to some of my cousin Jerry Merritt's research into our Jones and Finney branches The Finneys of Washington, Walton and Escambia County Florida. Jerry is a descendant of my great grandmother Hattie Finney's sister Kate.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

---