His daughter's death certificate states he was born in Minersville, and it seems his parents arrived in the US a few years before he was born. He seems to have had a strange life, moving from the coal mining environs of Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties, Pennsylvania, to the big city of Philadelphia, and an ignoble death in Virginia.
My great great grandpa, father of my great grandpa of the same name, but surprisingly not a son of a like-named father. He may have been WFJ V but the numbers truly do not run serially, as his father was William W. Jenkins.
He was interred September 13, 1930. His was a "full body" burial so he must have passed soon before his interment date, which meshes with his death certificate. He was age 59 according to the cemetery, which does not jive with the dates for him above... for good reason, as the info is from a dubious source. His birthdate is taken from the 1900 census.
The cemetery finally found that he died in Petersburg, Virginia, which would explain why I couldn't find him on the state death index in Pennsylvania. It's not known to living family why he was in Virginia. Perhaps just a roadtrip.
My uncle's cousin confirms he had heard that this William died in Virginia. The family is full of storytellers, so who knows if the part about William dying in a hotel room with a lady of the evening is true? The man was a mature widower who had lost his wife on Valentine's Day 17 years earlier, so if the hotel story is true, he should be forgiven.
And there may be something to that hotel story... I have found an account of his death, supposedly from a heart attack, published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. It describes him as a tourist from West Philadelphia traveling south "with his wife" and staying overnight at the Tourist Inn on West Washington Street in Petersburg. (Today, 2013, Philadelphia to Petersburg is a bit over five hours, and the hotel would have been just off Route 95, if the highway existed in 1930.) The article states they'd arrived the night before and he'd complained of not feeling well, and he died in bed early the next morning. The account, published the 12th, is dated the 11. But we still don't know who Mrs. Jenkins was.
_____________________________________
Currently I'm unable to find with certainty when his father (also named William) came from Wales to the United States. One census (1910) claims the year as 1860, another as 1862. Looking at men of this name who arrived in the timeframe 1859-1863 we see some possibilities.
Name: William Jenkins
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Birth Date: abt 1844
Place of Origin: Wales
Departure Port: Liverpool, England
Destination: USA
Arrival Date: 26 May 1860
Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
Ship Name: Beryaman Adams
Name: William Jenkins
Arrival Date: 15 Aug 1860
Age: 19 (so born about 1841 which is perfect)
Gender: Null
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival: New York, United States
Ship Name: Edinburgh
Ship built: 1855
Shipping Line: Glasgow and New York Steamship Company
There are others that are tempting, but most of them show the immigrants clearly as being British and not Welsh... and most Welsh people would not have used the terms interchangeably.
William makes his first census appearance in Shamokin, Northumberland County PA in 1870, a mere 5 years old. He's with his parents William (27, works in mines) and "Genette" (24). His little sister Mary Ann, age 2 is there as well. His father is reportedly born in Mertha, Wales, while everyone else was born in Pennsylvania.
The 1880 census records a William Jenkins who is the right age of 14, (born about 1866, working as a slate picker) in the home of William and "Jenette" "Jenkings" (assuming this should be "Jeanette" and "Jenkins"). The family is again in Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania where there was coal mining, and young boys were often employed to stand by the chutes as the coal came down, to pick out slate and other non-coal debris before it went into the breaker - in fact, they were often called "breaker boys". The household is comprised of father William age 38, Jeanette 33 with their children - son William 14, and daughters Mary 12, and Cela 7. All the kids and their mother were born in Pennsylvania, while father William was born in Wales.
William was married to Rachel Thomas by Rev. Theophilus Davis/Davies on July 17, 1889 in Plains, Pennsylvania. They were both Glen Lyon residents.
The 1900 census records William, Rachel and kids on Bell Street (now Wiota) in Philadelphia. William works as a railroad brakeman. It is this census where we get his birth date of January 1866.
By 1910, the family has moved to Valley Forge Road in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, where there are no house numbers. William is a train conductor. The eldest boys, Ed and William, work as planers in a marble works, while a boarder living with them, Augustus Motz, is a carpenter in a marble works. This was Rachel's last census, as she would die in 1913, after the family had returned to Philadelphia.
There is a widowed man of his name (with C as his middle initial) on the 1920 census in Philadelphia who is living in the boarding house of Hilda Milke from West Prussia. The home is at 235 S. 15th (which is now The Vida). I am dubious about this record: While his age is close to correct (would be born 1870) and his status as a widower is right, that hinky middle initial shakes one's confidence, as does his occupation - manager at a glue factory - which seems out of character. Further, IF it's him, some random person in the home/boarding house probably answered on his behalf because it shows his parents as having been born in the US, when his dad was born in Wales. Still, if this isn't him, he seems to have evaded the 1920 census otherwise.
All these censuses need rechecks on HQ for addresses and more.
In 1930, bookending his life, now believing from the newspaper death article that his last address was in West Philadelphia, it seems he was a 59 year old policeman (close to right age, correct occupation), living as a lodger at 638 N 40th St. in the household of Jane (nee Arthur) Patchell (later Mathews), age 51, a widowed Scotswoman, who headed the home made up of her two sons Paul H and David A, as well as her brother, David Arthur. Perhaps she was "Mrs. Jenkins" on the ill fated trip to Petersburg, Virginia. Jane, going by the 1920 census, was the widow of Samuel Patchell who died in 1922.
The local coroner in Petersburg was Elisha Leavenworth McGill.
The mystery continues for now. "Mrs. Jenkins" as the informant on his death certificate, was unable to name her husband's parents, his age, or, apparently, his birthdate.
My great great grandpa, father of my great grandpa of the same name, but surprisingly not a son of a like-named father. He may have been WFJ V but the numbers truly do not run serially, as his father was William W. Jenkins.
He was interred September 13, 1930. His was a "full body" burial so he must have passed soon before his interment date, which meshes with his death certificate. He was age 59 according to the cemetery, which does not jive with the dates for him above... for good reason, as the info is from a dubious source. His birthdate is taken from the 1900 census.
The cemetery finally found that he died in Petersburg, Virginia, which would explain why I couldn't find him on the state death index in Pennsylvania. It's not known to living family why he was in Virginia. Perhaps just a roadtrip.
My uncle's cousin confirms he had heard that this William died in Virginia. The family is full of storytellers, so who knows if the part about William dying in a hotel room with a lady of the evening is true? The man was a mature widower who had lost his wife on Valentine's Day 17 years earlier, so if the hotel story is true, he should be forgiven.
And there may be something to that hotel story... I have found an account of his death, supposedly from a heart attack, published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. It describes him as a tourist from West Philadelphia traveling south "with his wife" and staying overnight at the Tourist Inn on West Washington Street in Petersburg. (Today, 2013, Philadelphia to Petersburg is a bit over five hours, and the hotel would have been just off Route 95, if the highway existed in 1930.) The article states they'd arrived the night before and he'd complained of not feeling well, and he died in bed early the next morning. The account, published the 12th, is dated the 11. But we still don't know who Mrs. Jenkins was.
_____________________________________
Currently I'm unable to find with certainty when his father (also named William) came from Wales to the United States. One census (1910) claims the year as 1860, another as 1862. Looking at men of this name who arrived in the timeframe 1859-1863 we see some possibilities.
Name: William Jenkins
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Birth Date: abt 1844
Place of Origin: Wales
Departure Port: Liverpool, England
Destination: USA
Arrival Date: 26 May 1860
Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
Ship Name: Beryaman Adams
Name: William Jenkins
Arrival Date: 15 Aug 1860
Age: 19 (so born about 1841 which is perfect)
Gender: Null
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival: New York, United States
Ship Name: Edinburgh
Ship built: 1855
Shipping Line: Glasgow and New York Steamship Company
There are others that are tempting, but most of them show the immigrants clearly as being British and not Welsh... and most Welsh people would not have used the terms interchangeably.
William makes his first census appearance in Shamokin, Northumberland County PA in 1870, a mere 5 years old. He's with his parents William (27, works in mines) and "Genette" (24). His little sister Mary Ann, age 2 is there as well. His father is reportedly born in Mertha, Wales, while everyone else was born in Pennsylvania.
The 1880 census records a William Jenkins who is the right age of 14, (born about 1866, working as a slate picker) in the home of William and "Jenette" "Jenkings" (assuming this should be "Jeanette" and "Jenkins"). The family is again in Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania where there was coal mining, and young boys were often employed to stand by the chutes as the coal came down, to pick out slate and other non-coal debris before it went into the breaker - in fact, they were often called "breaker boys". The household is comprised of father William age 38, Jeanette 33 with their children - son William 14, and daughters Mary 12, and Cela 7. All the kids and their mother were born in Pennsylvania, while father William was born in Wales.
William was married to Rachel Thomas by Rev. Theophilus Davis/Davies on July 17, 1889 in Plains, Pennsylvania. They were both Glen Lyon residents.
The 1900 census records William, Rachel and kids on Bell Street (now Wiota) in Philadelphia. William works as a railroad brakeman. It is this census where we get his birth date of January 1866.
By 1910, the family has moved to Valley Forge Road in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, where there are no house numbers. William is a train conductor. The eldest boys, Ed and William, work as planers in a marble works, while a boarder living with them, Augustus Motz, is a carpenter in a marble works. This was Rachel's last census, as she would die in 1913, after the family had returned to Philadelphia.
There is a widowed man of his name (with C as his middle initial) on the 1920 census in Philadelphia who is living in the boarding house of Hilda Milke from West Prussia. The home is at 235 S. 15th (which is now The Vida). I am dubious about this record: While his age is close to correct (would be born 1870) and his status as a widower is right, that hinky middle initial shakes one's confidence, as does his occupation - manager at a glue factory - which seems out of character. Further, IF it's him, some random person in the home/boarding house probably answered on his behalf because it shows his parents as having been born in the US, when his dad was born in Wales. Still, if this isn't him, he seems to have evaded the 1920 census otherwise.
All these censuses need rechecks on HQ for addresses and more.
In 1930, bookending his life, now believing from the newspaper death article that his last address was in West Philadelphia, it seems he was a 59 year old policeman (close to right age, correct occupation), living as a lodger at 638 N 40th St. in the household of Jane (nee Arthur) Patchell (later Mathews), age 51, a widowed Scotswoman, who headed the home made up of her two sons Paul H and David A, as well as her brother, David Arthur. Perhaps she was "Mrs. Jenkins" on the ill fated trip to Petersburg, Virginia. Jane, going by the 1920 census, was the widow of Samuel Patchell who died in 1922.
The local coroner in Petersburg was Elisha Leavenworth McGill.
The mystery continues for now. "Mrs. Jenkins" as the informant on his death certificate, was unable to name her husband's parents, his age, or, apparently, his birthdate.
His daughter's death certificate states he was born in Minersville, and it seems his parents arrived in the US a few years before he was born. He seems to have had a strange life, moving from the coal mining environs of Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties, Pennsylvania, to the big city of Philadelphia, and an ignoble death in Virginia.
My great great grandpa, father of my great grandpa of the same name, but surprisingly not a son of a like-named father. He may have been WFJ V but the numbers truly do not run serially, as his father was William W. Jenkins.
He was interred September 13, 1930. His was a "full body" burial so he must have passed soon before his interment date, which meshes with his death certificate. He was age 59 according to the cemetery, which does not jive with the dates for him above... for good reason, as the info is from a dubious source. His birthdate is taken from the 1900 census.
The cemetery finally found that he died in Petersburg, Virginia, which would explain why I couldn't find him on the state death index in Pennsylvania. It's not known to living family why he was in Virginia. Perhaps just a roadtrip.
My uncle's cousin confirms he had heard that this William died in Virginia. The family is full of storytellers, so who knows if the part about William dying in a hotel room with a lady of the evening is true? The man was a mature widower who had lost his wife on Valentine's Day 17 years earlier, so if the hotel story is true, he should be forgiven.
And there may be something to that hotel story... I have found an account of his death, supposedly from a heart attack, published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. It describes him as a tourist from West Philadelphia traveling south "with his wife" and staying overnight at the Tourist Inn on West Washington Street in Petersburg. (Today, 2013, Philadelphia to Petersburg is a bit over five hours, and the hotel would have been just off Route 95, if the highway existed in 1930.) The article states they'd arrived the night before and he'd complained of not feeling well, and he died in bed early the next morning. The account, published the 12th, is dated the 11. But we still don't know who Mrs. Jenkins was.
_____________________________________
Currently I'm unable to find with certainty when his father (also named William) came from Wales to the United States. One census (1910) claims the year as 1860, another as 1862. Looking at men of this name who arrived in the timeframe 1859-1863 we see some possibilities.
Name: William Jenkins
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Birth Date: abt 1844
Place of Origin: Wales
Departure Port: Liverpool, England
Destination: USA
Arrival Date: 26 May 1860
Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
Ship Name: Beryaman Adams
Name: William Jenkins
Arrival Date: 15 Aug 1860
Age: 19 (so born about 1841 which is perfect)
Gender: Null
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival: New York, United States
Ship Name: Edinburgh
Ship built: 1855
Shipping Line: Glasgow and New York Steamship Company
There are others that are tempting, but most of them show the immigrants clearly as being British and not Welsh... and most Welsh people would not have used the terms interchangeably.
William makes his first census appearance in Shamokin, Northumberland County PA in 1870, a mere 5 years old. He's with his parents William (27, works in mines) and "Genette" (24). His little sister Mary Ann, age 2 is there as well. His father is reportedly born in Mertha, Wales, while everyone else was born in Pennsylvania.
The 1880 census records a William Jenkins who is the right age of 14, (born about 1866, working as a slate picker) in the home of William and "Jenette" "Jenkings" (assuming this should be "Jeanette" and "Jenkins"). The family is again in Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania where there was coal mining, and young boys were often employed to stand by the chutes as the coal came down, to pick out slate and other non-coal debris before it went into the breaker - in fact, they were often called "breaker boys". The household is comprised of father William age 38, Jeanette 33 with their children - son William 14, and daughters Mary 12, and Cela 7. All the kids and their mother were born in Pennsylvania, while father William was born in Wales.
William was married to Rachel Thomas by Rev. Theophilus Davis/Davies on July 17, 1889 in Plains, Pennsylvania. They were both Glen Lyon residents.
The 1900 census records William, Rachel and kids on Bell Street (now Wiota) in Philadelphia. William works as a railroad brakeman. It is this census where we get his birth date of January 1866.
By 1910, the family has moved to Valley Forge Road in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, where there are no house numbers. William is a train conductor. The eldest boys, Ed and William, work as planers in a marble works, while a boarder living with them, Augustus Motz, is a carpenter in a marble works. This was Rachel's last census, as she would die in 1913, after the family had returned to Philadelphia.
There is a widowed man of his name (with C as his middle initial) on the 1920 census in Philadelphia who is living in the boarding house of Hilda Milke from West Prussia. The home is at 235 S. 15th (which is now The Vida). I am dubious about this record: While his age is close to correct (would be born 1870) and his status as a widower is right, that hinky middle initial shakes one's confidence, as does his occupation - manager at a glue factory - which seems out of character. Further, IF it's him, some random person in the home/boarding house probably answered on his behalf because it shows his parents as having been born in the US, when his dad was born in Wales. Still, if this isn't him, he seems to have evaded the 1920 census otherwise.
All these censuses need rechecks on HQ for addresses and more.
In 1930, bookending his life, now believing from the newspaper death article that his last address was in West Philadelphia, it seems he was a 59 year old policeman (close to right age, correct occupation), living as a lodger at 638 N 40th St. in the household of Jane (nee Arthur) Patchell (later Mathews), age 51, a widowed Scotswoman, who headed the home made up of her two sons Paul H and David A, as well as her brother, David Arthur. Perhaps she was "Mrs. Jenkins" on the ill fated trip to Petersburg, Virginia. Jane, going by the 1920 census, was the widow of Samuel Patchell who died in 1922.
The local coroner in Petersburg was Elisha Leavenworth McGill.
The mystery continues for now. "Mrs. Jenkins" as the informant on his death certificate, was unable to name her husband's parents, his age, or, apparently, his birthdate.
My great great grandpa, father of my great grandpa of the same name, but surprisingly not a son of a like-named father. He may have been WFJ V but the numbers truly do not run serially, as his father was William W. Jenkins.
He was interred September 13, 1930. His was a "full body" burial so he must have passed soon before his interment date, which meshes with his death certificate. He was age 59 according to the cemetery, which does not jive with the dates for him above... for good reason, as the info is from a dubious source. His birthdate is taken from the 1900 census.
The cemetery finally found that he died in Petersburg, Virginia, which would explain why I couldn't find him on the state death index in Pennsylvania. It's not known to living family why he was in Virginia. Perhaps just a roadtrip.
My uncle's cousin confirms he had heard that this William died in Virginia. The family is full of storytellers, so who knows if the part about William dying in a hotel room with a lady of the evening is true? The man was a mature widower who had lost his wife on Valentine's Day 17 years earlier, so if the hotel story is true, he should be forgiven.
And there may be something to that hotel story... I have found an account of his death, supposedly from a heart attack, published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. It describes him as a tourist from West Philadelphia traveling south "with his wife" and staying overnight at the Tourist Inn on West Washington Street in Petersburg. (Today, 2013, Philadelphia to Petersburg is a bit over five hours, and the hotel would have been just off Route 95, if the highway existed in 1930.) The article states they'd arrived the night before and he'd complained of not feeling well, and he died in bed early the next morning. The account, published the 12th, is dated the 11. But we still don't know who Mrs. Jenkins was.
_____________________________________
Currently I'm unable to find with certainty when his father (also named William) came from Wales to the United States. One census (1910) claims the year as 1860, another as 1862. Looking at men of this name who arrived in the timeframe 1859-1863 we see some possibilities.
Name: William Jenkins
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Birth Date: abt 1844
Place of Origin: Wales
Departure Port: Liverpool, England
Destination: USA
Arrival Date: 26 May 1860
Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
Ship Name: Beryaman Adams
Name: William Jenkins
Arrival Date: 15 Aug 1860
Age: 19 (so born about 1841 which is perfect)
Gender: Null
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival: New York, United States
Ship Name: Edinburgh
Ship built: 1855
Shipping Line: Glasgow and New York Steamship Company
There are others that are tempting, but most of them show the immigrants clearly as being British and not Welsh... and most Welsh people would not have used the terms interchangeably.
William makes his first census appearance in Shamokin, Northumberland County PA in 1870, a mere 5 years old. He's with his parents William (27, works in mines) and "Genette" (24). His little sister Mary Ann, age 2 is there as well. His father is reportedly born in Mertha, Wales, while everyone else was born in Pennsylvania.
The 1880 census records a William Jenkins who is the right age of 14, (born about 1866, working as a slate picker) in the home of William and "Jenette" "Jenkings" (assuming this should be "Jeanette" and "Jenkins"). The family is again in Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania where there was coal mining, and young boys were often employed to stand by the chutes as the coal came down, to pick out slate and other non-coal debris before it went into the breaker - in fact, they were often called "breaker boys". The household is comprised of father William age 38, Jeanette 33 with their children - son William 14, and daughters Mary 12, and Cela 7. All the kids and their mother were born in Pennsylvania, while father William was born in Wales.
William was married to Rachel Thomas by Rev. Theophilus Davis/Davies on July 17, 1889 in Plains, Pennsylvania. They were both Glen Lyon residents.
The 1900 census records William, Rachel and kids on Bell Street (now Wiota) in Philadelphia. William works as a railroad brakeman. It is this census where we get his birth date of January 1866.
By 1910, the family has moved to Valley Forge Road in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, where there are no house numbers. William is a train conductor. The eldest boys, Ed and William, work as planers in a marble works, while a boarder living with them, Augustus Motz, is a carpenter in a marble works. This was Rachel's last census, as she would die in 1913, after the family had returned to Philadelphia.
There is a widowed man of his name (with C as his middle initial) on the 1920 census in Philadelphia who is living in the boarding house of Hilda Milke from West Prussia. The home is at 235 S. 15th (which is now The Vida). I am dubious about this record: While his age is close to correct (would be born 1870) and his status as a widower is right, that hinky middle initial shakes one's confidence, as does his occupation - manager at a glue factory - which seems out of character. Further, IF it's him, some random person in the home/boarding house probably answered on his behalf because it shows his parents as having been born in the US, when his dad was born in Wales. Still, if this isn't him, he seems to have evaded the 1920 census otherwise.
All these censuses need rechecks on HQ for addresses and more.
In 1930, bookending his life, now believing from the newspaper death article that his last address was in West Philadelphia, it seems he was a 59 year old policeman (close to right age, correct occupation), living as a lodger at 638 N 40th St. in the household of Jane (nee Arthur) Patchell (later Mathews), age 51, a widowed Scotswoman, who headed the home made up of her two sons Paul H and David A, as well as her brother, David Arthur. Perhaps she was "Mrs. Jenkins" on the ill fated trip to Petersburg, Virginia. Jane, going by the 1920 census, was the widow of Samuel Patchell who died in 1922.
The local coroner in Petersburg was Elisha Leavenworth McGill.
The mystery continues for now. "Mrs. Jenkins" as the informant on his death certificate, was unable to name her husband's parents, his age, or, apparently, his birthdate.
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