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Counter-archive · Person page

Tomietta Jones

Named as the wife of Columbus Jones — a woman the documents almost never let speak. Her trace after 1871 may lie in a deed index, if the follow-up ever finds her.

How to read this page. Tomietta appears exactly once in the records at hand — as a name in her husband’s bank register. A 1871 deed-index lead may or may not be her. Nothing here fills in her voice, because the archive has none. Under investigation

Life in brief

Tomietta Jones is named as the wife of Columbus Jones in his Freedman’s Bank signature register, opened October 2, 1867. Documented The register names their four children: Paul (20), Elizabeth (16), Nancy (14), and John Wesley (8, then in Ohio). Documented No age, birthplace, or parentage is recorded for her. Unresolved If Columbus died in January 1869 as reported, Tomietta is the appropriate search target in the 1870 census — a follow-up the free-source pass has not completed. Under investigation

Records

October 2, 1867

Named as Columbus’s wife Documented

Registers of Signatures of Depositors, Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, Huntsville branch (NARA M816, Roll 1) — Columbus Jones entry: “spouse Tomietta Jones.” Four children named. Nothing else.

1871

Deed-index lead — unproven Under investigation

The January 1871 deed-index leads associate “Tomietta Jones/Beasley” with Madison County Deed Books MM, p. 95 and RR, p. 315. Boundaries and full deed text remain provisional — no property claims are made from the index entries alone, and the identification of this Tomietta with Columbus’s wife is unproven.

Kinship

Husband

Columbus Jones

Named in his October 1867 bank register. Documented

Children

Paul, Elizabeth, Nancy, John Wesley

Ages in 1867: Paul 20, Elizabeth 16, Nancy 14, John Wesley 8 (then in Ohio). Documented

Places

Northwest of Huntsville Columbus’s home at the end of Athens Pike, about three miles out — the household Tomietta presumably kept. No record names her there independently. Unresolved View on the Plantations Map →

What the record doesn’t say

The silence ledger for Tomietta

  • Tomietta appears once — as a name in her husband’s register. No census, voter register, or Bureau record has yet surfaced a Tomietta Jones.
  • No property claims are made from the 1871 deed-index leads alone; the MM/RR entries may or may not be her.
  • The 1870 census has not been checked for a widowed Tomietta Jones — the natural next step if Columbus died in January 1869.
  • Her age, birthplace, parentage, and any record of enslavement are undocumented. The archive gives her a name and four children’s names, and nothing else.

Sources

  1. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874, Huntsville, Alabama (National Archives Microfilm Publication M816, Roll 1) — Columbus Jones entry, October 2, 1867; extracted in Fred C. Rathbun, Names from Huntsville, Alabama, 1865–1869.
  2. Madison County, Alabama, deed-index leads: Tomietta Jones/Beasley, Books MM, p. 95 and RR, p. 315 (January 1871) — index entries only; full deed texts provisional.

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