My Mother

This is my mother when she was about 16 years of age. It is her ancestry line I am having a bit of trouble with, namely her great grandmother, Jane E./A. Cole who married John Fonda around 1850-1852. She was quite young when she married and in the 1850 census she is listed with a Palmer Cole and Sophia, with Johnathan and Pamelia in their 20's and Jane only 13. My mother said her father always told her that her great grandmother was married at a very young age. If this is our Jane Cole then Palmer and Sophia are most likely her parents and Johnathan and Pamelia either her brother and sister or sister-in-law. Sohphia died shortly after and Palmer is listed with Susannah in later census' and Jane is not found. I don't know if I looked for Johnathan and Pamelia in the 1860 census but I will again. John Fonda and Jane E. are listed in the 1870 USFC and she is 33 yrs of age which matches with the one we have and John is 40. There are 5 children listed ages 1 to 13. Jane would have been ca. 20 when the oldest was born. If she married at an early age, say 13 or 14, it would be ca. 5 or 6 years before any children show up. This could be due to stillborns, early child deaths or the fact that Jane was not physically old enough to have children. So I will be searching the census records for NYS and see if I can find them there in 1855 or 1865. They were living in Fulton Co., Broadalbin Township in the 1870 Census.

In the 1830 Census for Providence, Saratoga Co., NY Palmer Cole is 20-29 with a female 20-29 and a male child 0-4. I don't have any for 1840. In 1850 Palmer and Sophia are ages 48 adn 47; Johathan is 24 which fits, Pamelia is 22 and Jane is 13. Solomon Cole and wife Jane with sons Arnold, Charles, John, William W., Jonas and Rhoda Ann live in the same area. In the 1860 census, we find Palmer and Susannah ages 58 and 39 living in Elma, Erie Co., NY. Palmer is listed as being born in Rhode Island and occupation as a joiner. The 1850 census says he was born in NY. Jumping ahead to the 1910 census for Johnstown, Fulton Co., NY we find a Jane E. living in the household of Emmett Fonda and listed as grandmother. This Jane E. is 74 years of age making her born ca. 1836; her father is born in Rhode Island, her mother in NY and she had born 9 children with 8 living in 1910. Also she is listed as widowed.

This Jane E., a grandmother with father born Rhode Island would fit the Palmer listed in Elma, Erie Co., NY in 1860. She also fits the 1870 census Jane E. married to John Fonda with Ben, Agnes, Charlie, Mary Evalyn (Eva), Willie with her age at 33, which is 40 years earlier. So we need to find land records, town directories, estate will records if there are any, birth and death records for the children and newspaper articles/obits for the time period.

I subscribed to the New York lists and will ask for help in the areas where they lived to see if I can find out anything that way.

Until the next time.