Her parents named her Mary Jane, but after her marriage my great grandmother chose to be known almost exclusively by her nickname of Jenni May.

Mary/Jenni was born in Wharton, Pennsylvania on October 28, 1860, the oldest of 5 children born to John R Berfield Jr and his wife Sarah Ann Lane Berfield.

On June 6, 1874, when Mary Jane was just 14 years old, her father died. Her mom later re-married to James Cole, (reportedly on May 26, 1878).

About a year after the marriage of her mother to James Cole , Jenni married her first and only husband, Benjamin Vincent Fitch Jones of Tunkhannock, PA. Some researchers report that this marriage occurred in Tunkhannock. I have not been able to locate any primary records that support this, but it is well documented that Hugh Bourn Lane (the youngest brother of Jennie's mother), was married to Hannah Elizabeth Jones in 1874, and that Hugh & Elizabeth were living in/near Tunkhannock at the time that Ben & Jenni got married. Elizabeth, as she was commonly known, was Benjamin Jones older sister, and it was undoubtedly through this connection that Jenni & Ben met.

When the census was done in June of 1880, Ben & Jenni were living over in Gibson Township, which was in Cameron County PA (very close to her hometown of Wharton). At that time, they are a young married couple settling in with their 5 month old son (Walter). Ben is listed as a farmer on the US census in this year, and Jennie, like most women of that era, is a homemaker.

By the time we pick them up again in 1900, they had moved out to the Tunkhannock area (Wyoming County PA), where they are living with children Avis, Leslie, Gertrude, Harold & Henry ("Henry" got a name change between the census and his birth registration, and was ultimately named Floyd Ernest Jones). Ben is working as a farm laborer. I have not been able to determine exactly when they moved to Wyoming County, but Daughter Lizzie is buried there (died December 1893), and son Leslie was born there in August 1893.

In 1910, Ben and Jennie Mae are living in Dimock, in Susquehanna County, PA where Ben is a small farm farmer. Children remaining at home include Leslie, Gertrude, Harold, Floyd, Cecil & Alma. Leslie is working as a farm laborer, & daughter Gertrude is listed as a servant "working out".

By Jan 1920, Ben and Jennie have moved to NY and are living in Union with Harold, Floyd, Cecil, Alma, and Leslie & his wife Mary & their children Marian and Leslie. Ben is a Mason, and they live in their own (mortgaged) house.

In 1925, they are still in the town of Union, NY, in Broome County.

Jenni died a few weeks later, on August 16, 1925, at the Endicott Johnson Hospital. Cause of death was Cardiac Asthemia and Cerebral Hemorrhage. She also had a history of chronic arteriosclerosis.

She is buried with Ben in the Riverhurst Cemetery in Endwell, NY.



Available records indicate that Ben & Jennie had 12 children:


Walter Vincent Jones 1880 – 1973

Frank Robert Jones 1881 – 1940

Raymond Bradley Jones 1884 – 1936

Stanley Myron Jones 1886 – 1955

Avais Edna Jones 1888 – 1983

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Viola Jones 1891 – 1893

Leslie Loran Jones 1893 – 1985

Gertrude Elizabeth Jones 1895 – 1969

HAROLD DEWEY JONES 1898 – 1940 - (Harold was my grandfather)

Floyd Ernest Jones 1900 – 1978

Cecil R Jones 1903 – 1991

Alma Jones 1907 – 1979





SOURCES:

-US Census records 1870-1930

-NY Census records 1925

-Family Data Collection - Individual Records

-NY Births Marriages & Deaths Microfiche Index

-Death Certificate - Jennie M Jones (informant was husband Ben)

-Interment Records - Riverhurst Cemetery

-Spencer & Coleman Funeral Home; Union, NY

-FAMILY RECORD JONES FAMILY - an early family genealogy originally complied by Walter Jones and with additions by several family members.

-Personal papers of Walter Jones received from his granddaughters


~email from Dee Zito on 5-18-2014: "I noticed in your Mary Jane Berfield Jones bio, you were missing the marriage date of Sarah Ann Lane and James A. Cole. According to M.E. Church records, Sinnamahoning Circuit, Cameron Co, they were married 26 May 1878."