I'm a Freedman Descendant!

I don't have a foreign accent, yet I am often asked where I am from. Because of my face, with its ambiguous ethnicity, people often assume I'm from some other country, or at least one generation away from Ellis Island or South-of-the-Border, when actually my ancestors have been in America for many generations; some, like Libbie Jones' family, were here long before the Mayflower!

Gr. gr. grandmother 
Libbie Jones: according
to family stories, she was
from an Indian reservation
near the Canadian border.

So when I think about going back to the old country, it's not to Italy or Nigeria or even Germany (where the most recent immigrant, my mother's grandmother, was from.)

Emma Keifer, from Germany

Since I started this geneological journey, the three places I've planned to visit were:  Chicago, Illinois,  Henderson, N. Carolina and upstate New York.    And the plan for the Summer of 2016 was to check out cemeteries, historical societies and courthouses in places like Unadilla and Norwich. And of course dear old Roscoe.


Well, a funny thing happened in January of this year.  I was trying to find information about my gr. gr. grandfather - the guy with the Civil War badge in the photo that has been in my family forever.

So I Googled Samuel Jones and up popped a photo of hia gravestone!!   It was part of an article in the December 2015 issue of the USCT Civil War Digest, out of Hartwick College in Oneonta NY.  And the entire article about him!!   And that's how I discovered the USCT (United States Colored Troops Institute)/American Society of Freedmen Descendants. I contacted the director of the institute, we stayed in touch, sharing photos and information about Samuel Jones; he sent me back issues of the magazine and I learned tons of information about the Underground RR and upstate NY's role in the abolitionist movement.  I was inducted into the Society of Freedmen Descendants and invited to attend the institute's October conference!

So… instead of a summer trip to NY, we 're going on my "roots road trip" in the!!   I'm super excited.  Got my Power Point presentation ready.  Gonna share my photo collection.  Going to Niagara Falls (never been), then rent a car and head south east to the Finger Lakes (never been), then to Roscoe where I'm going to meet with a local historian with the Sullivan County Historical Society, then to Oneonta for the conference.

I am super excited!!!!

Growing Up in Roscoe, New York

This cute little boy is my father, Charles Barry Williams.

He was born 1924 in New York City but spent his school years living with his grandparents Charles & Helen Jones in Roscoe NY.  They lived in a 2-story shingled house on Railroad Avenue.

            Among Catskills area high school football teams, he was known as "that fast colored guy from Roscoe".

Roscoe HS 1941

Written on back by Charlie Williams:  Standing l-r: Alex DiNick, Ashley Stadel, Fred Bennett, Bob Bullin, Jim Bleakley, Me, Dub McGraw, Dick Read, Jerry Jones, Fred Shutts, Coach Wilbur.  Kneeling l-r: Carlton Knickerbocker (Nick), Charles Barnes, Wilmer Sipple (Sipp), Ralph "Jiggs" Charlon, Leonard Dauch (Ikey)

Roscoe Central High School
Class of 1943

A Dusty Treasure Trove

When we sold my parents' house (my father had died and we decided to bring my 88 year old mother  up to live with us), I found a shoe box on a dusty shelf in a storage closet out in the garage.  It probably had not seen the light of day since my parents had moved to Florida from New York about 30 years earlier.  After the arduous task of getting the house ready to sell (making it shine, getting rid of a lifetime of clutter, countless trips to Goodwill, etc.) we packed up the U-haul with some keepsake furnishings and we brought the shoe box to its new home. When I eventually got around to opening it, I saw that it contained old photos.  Some were familiar ones I remembered seeing when I was young, but oh, there was so much more.  In that box were snapshots of my father as a child, scenes of Roscoe NY, tintypes and dozens of portraits, called Cabinet Cards, taken in professional photography studios in places like Unadilla, Oneonta, Sydney, Elmira and Binghamton.

Samuel Jones
1826-1892

I had done a lot of research filling in my family tree, and with the box of photos, I could finally match faces to names. My great great grandfather's name was Samuel Jones.  He fought in the Civil War.  On the back of the photo above was written (in my father's handwriting): Grandpa Jones' father.

As I started going through the unidentified portraits one by one, some of the faces were so beautiful, so interesting, so full of distinction, that I felt I had been given a gift in the form of a box of dusty photos.  I felt that the people in the photos, the mystery people from the past, were asking to be, they deserved to be, connected with their future -  the present.  I'm sure they would have liked to be able to share their story, their accomplishments, their memory, with their descendants.  And I knew that there were people out there researching their roots in upstate NY who might recognize a family member.  And so I decided to start a blog as a gallery of photos with hopes that someone will recognize a face or a name or a story (as my posts relate my own family's story) and contact me.

Julian Brathwaite [sp]

Based on my family's frequent vacations spent in the Catskills and Adirondacks in the 1960s,  I had always assumed that hardly any black people lived in upstate NY.  So it was surprising to see, in these studio portraits so many people of color! Living in the Catskills so long ago!  And it was even more surprising to see that this box, this collection of photos, contained dozens of portraits and snapshots of white people. I mean, they obviously weren't related to my family so it seemed a little strange. Some are addressed to my father, his mother or his grandmother so they were obviously friends.  Friends and neighbors.  But the dozens of studio portraits of unidentified faces, black and white, will continue to baffle me.

The Castle

Craig-E-Clair Castle a.k.a. Dundas Castle (Williams family photo 1958) 

We called it the castle.  I think we even stayed there overnight once.  Maybe not, but we visited it  many times.  I heard my parents talk about the Masons, who owned the castle as well as nearby property which had a large barn-like structure and a big swimming pool that was filled with nice colored families; I remember there was a really cute lifeguard, a teenager, working there.

Me, age 6

You can google Dundas Castle Roscoe NY for the history, but
it took some digging to see mention of the Prince Hall Masons,
a Black branch of the Masons who owned the property at some point.

Fast foward to 1997, my parents had gotten divorced and my father moved out of Florida to be near me, my family and my brother's family in NC.  That summer we took a road trip north, spending time in New York City, Roscoe and Boston - me, my husband, two daughters and "Ga-ga". During that trip we searched and found the castle, almost missing it from the gravely path because it sits so low and you could barely see the spires through the tall grasses.  But there it was with lots of broken windows and missing or half-boarded up doors where you could walk inside. We saw a white tiled kitchen filled with mildew, rust and dirt, and a marble winding staircase that led to who-knows-what.  The girls, age 10 and 13, enjoyed exploring and dramatically pretending to be creeped out.

1997 visit

Who Are They?

These two photos first sparked the desire in me to share my collection of photographs.  I looked into these faces and thought: They appear so ordinary yet, in someone's family history, they were very special. They have names but I don't know them.  Their names exist somewhere out there - on someone's family tree or in family recollections passed down over generations, but do the names have pictures?   

Elizabeth "Libbie" Jones, my gr. gr.
grandmother b. 1839 Otsego NY. married
to Samuel Jones.  

Heck, they could be my ancestors!  I lament that I know nothing of my gr. gr. grandmother, Libbie Jones' background other than what we heard as kids: She was an Indian. But Libbie's eyes are gray in the one photo I have. Just like the woman's eyes here. Then could he be a Mohawk Indian? I stare at these two faces and ask questions: Who are you? Where were you born? How many children did you have?  How many grandchildren? How hard was your life?   They stare back but don't share the answers. 

Early Pioneers of Unadilla…and my Aunt Dell.

I have many photos labeled Aunt Dell.  I found out that her actual name was Julia Ardell Jones (b.1867) and that she was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Jones, sister of Charles Jones, my father's grandfather who helped raise him in Roscoe.  There's no evidence that she ever married but for a long time I was fascinated by two small snapshots. 





They show a middle aged Dell outside, as if in someone's, a white family's, back yard.  Something about the smiles and comfortable body language makes it seem that the family was very close to Dell.  The casual familiarity and the arms wrapped around her display genuine fondness.  And Aunt Dell, which is probably what they also called her,  comes across as a firm but loving person with a sassy sense of humor. An independent, never married woman.  Someone I'd like to know.  And I very much wondered who the other  people were.

I searched around and found that according to the 1905 New York State Census, Ardell Jones age 37 was a live-in servant to the North family,  address: 375 Main St. Unadilla NY.  Mr. Samuel S. North was a banker, his wife was Belle and his daughter age 21 was Blanche.   The 1915 New York State Census shows Julia A. Jones age 47 working for a different family - the Cones also on Main Street.  Frederick L. Cone (62) was a farmer.  His wife was Harriet G. Cone (50).  

My searching led to a wonderful manuscript entitled The History of Otsego County, NY 1740 - 1878 (published 1878).  Among  the many early settlers of Unadilla who came from New England to what was then called "the western wilds of New York State", were some very familiar names: Col. Samuel North "closely identified with the politics of his county and state"  and Dr. Nijah Cone.  So, my Aunt Dell worked for two prominent white Unadilla families!

Dr. Nijah Cone was of particular interest to me. As soon as I saw that name Cone, I wondered if it had been changed from the Jewish Cohen.  And then I read that Dr. Nijah Cone was "among the prominent pioneers of Unadilla and one whose career was marked with honesty of purpose, uprightness and a desire to alleviate the wants of his fellow-man".  I immediately thought: Abolitionist.  Safe havens along the Underground RR.  Did he help my gr. gr. grandfather Samuel Jones (b.1826 VA) to escape and settle in Unadilla?    And in my mind, it made sense that the descendants of this man, with whom Aunt Dell had lived and worked, and whose children she helped raise, would likely share some of those honorable qualities.  Hence the warmth, acceptance and affection that I see in the photos.

I would love to meet a member of the North or Cone family whose family stories, passed down through generations, may have included a woman named Dell Jones.

Something About the Eyes...

Elizabeth Jones

Aunt Dell

So, I continue to search for information in order to fill in the gaps of my family's story.  It's maddening that a woman's maiden name, the name she was born with is so hard to find because she replaced it with her husband's surname, as was and still is the custom. Growing up we were told that Samuel Jones' wife was from an Indian reservation located near the Canadian border. Does that mean she was Mohawk?  There are Indian Records that I could search, but with only a first name, a very common one, Elizabeth, what are the chances of finding any information? And she looks mixed - part white.  Do I have a picure of her parents in my collection?  I have stared and stared into the faces of three  photos: Three portraits that are identified - Elizabeth and daughter Julia Adell (Dell) and one of a dark haired fair skinned woman standing beside a girl that resembles Dell as a young girl. I look for similarities, the rounded cheeks and parted hair of Dell, the thin line of Elizabeth's mouth, the same buttons and white collar of her dress.    

Possibly Dell and mother, Elizabeth Jones.

Julia Adell Jones (Aunt Dell)