Christofer Columbus Jones
1872–1939. Grandson of Columbus Jones, documented at every step from the 1880 census to 1930 — the descendant page that proves the family’s paper trail survived.
Life in brief
Christofer Columbus Jones was born in 1872 and died in 1939 — a Black man of Madison County, Alabama, and the grandson of Columbus Jones (1827–1869), the blacksmith, delegate to the 1867 constitutional convention, and Madison County’s state representative in 1868, through Columbus’s son Paul Jones Sr. (1847–1918). Documented He is one of the best-documented people in the project’s whole family tree: the federal census finds him in 1880, 1910, 1920, and 1930; Madison County holds his full two-page 1925 marriage license and certificate; and the record adds cemetery records, Social Security applications, and newspaper index entries. Documented For a Black family in Alabama, an unbroken paper trail across five decades is the exception — this page exists because Christofer is the exception, and because his records carry his grandfather’s line into the twentieth century.
His daughter Susan Hatfield married Reuben’s nephew — a documented cross-cousin marriage knitting the Columbus and Reuben Jones lines together, the two brothers’ descendants choosing each other a generation later. Documented
Records
Born Documented
Grandson of Columbus Jones (1827–1869) through Paul Jones Sr. (1847–1918) — the third generation of the free Jones line in Madison County.
U.S. census Documented
Enumerated as a child — the first of four census appearances.
U.S. census, three more times Documented
Found in 1910, 1920, and 1930 — an adult life tracked across three decades of federal counting.
Marriage record, Madison County Documented
The full two-page license and certificate survive — the kind of document the archive almost never kept for Black families, kept here.
Dies Documented
Cemetery records close a life the census had opened sixty years earlier.
Kinship
Columbus Jones (1827–1869)
Blacksmith, 1867 constitutional convention delegate, Madison County’s 1868 state representative. Christofer carries his name and his line forward. Documented
Paul Jones Sr. (1847–1918)
Columbus’s son — the middle generation between the legislator and Christofer. Documented
Susan Hatfield
Married Reuben Jones’s nephew — the documented cross-cousin marriage that knots the Columbus and Reuben lines together. Documented
Columbus Jones, Freedman’s Bank account 29
The elder Columbus (1827–1869) — Christofer’s grandfather, not Christofer himself. The shared name is inheritance, not identity. Documented
Columbus Jones, brother of Linzey Jones
A second, younger Columbus (born about 1856 in Georgia, Freedman’s Bank application 327) — a different family entirely. Documented
Places
What the record doesn’t say
The silence ledger for Christofer Columbus Jones
- For all the census appearances, no record in the project yet gives Christofer’s occupation, his landholding, or his own words about his family. The paper trail proves he was counted; it does not yet say how he lived.
- The 1900 census — the decade of his marriage-age years — has not yet been pulled for him. The 1925 marriage record exists, but the years between 1880 and 1910 are thin.
- The newspaper index entries have not yet been read in full. They may name him in community life, or they may be passing mentions — either way, the reading is owed.
- Three different men named Columbus Jones appear in this project’s records. This page is the youngest; the archive’s habit of reusing names is the reason the do-not-merge cards exist.
Sources
- U.S. federal census — 1880, 1910, 1920, 1930 (Madison County, AL).
- Madison County marriage record, 1925 — full two-page license and certificate.
- Cemetery records; Social Security applications; newspaper index entries.