Florida to Mississippi

Dining option in Monticello, Mississippi

We left St. Augustine and headed for the Mississippi gulf coast taking the “long” way!  We headed north through the heart of central Georgia to Pine Mountain, Georgia.  This is a very small town on the Georgia border with Alabama.  We wanted to see the amazing azaleas in the Callaway Gardens located here.  Unfortunately, due to the hard winter, the azaleas were late and had not even begun to bloom.  So, we spent one day driving around and through the west central Georgia “mountains” including going to Warm Springs where FDR died.  Another day, we drove through lake country in eastern Alabama to a county where I have ancestors and did some genealogy.  All in all, we saw some surprisingly pretty country, in fact, we would like to return (hopefully when the Azaleas are actually blooming!). 

Finally found blooming Azaleas in Southern Alabama

From there, we headed west across the heart of Alabama, through Montgomery, and drove along the Freedom Trail through Selma (the heart of Alabama’s civil rights movement) and on across central Mississippi to Monticello, Mississippi.  OK, this is a REALLY little town, in the middle, of REALLY nowhere!  Those of you who know us well, will know that we were there for only one reason….Genealogy.

Genealogy in Mississippi

My ancestry is really distinctly split.  On my Mom’s side, all the ancestors were from the north (South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania-you get the idea).  To make things a little confusing, my Mom has an ancestor named Jones (as well as a Smith-ugh!).  My Dad was born in southeast Texas and his parents were born and raised in Louisiana.  All his ancestors were from Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, etc.  So, we are in this little town, which happens to be the county seat of Lawrence County, Mississippi to reach my genealogical brick wall of the southern JONES line.  My great grandfather was born there in 1864.  If you remember your history, you will recall that this was in the middle of the civil war (and in the heart of Mississippi).  So, in February of 1864, James and Mary (Brinson) JONES, named my great grandfather….Abraham Lincoln Jones!!!!  Really, what were they thinking?  Who would do that to a kid?  I would like to think that they were Northern sympathizers; however, this place is in the heart of rural central Mississippi and both James and Mary were born and raised in Mississippi.  It would be a stretch to think they were northern sympathizers.  Maybe one of them could see the future and knew the North would win and wanted to get in good with the victors?  Not likely.  And how did they introduce their new baby to family and friends?  I know, as an adult living in Louisiana, he often went by A. L. (obviously, he was nobody’s fool!).  Anyway, this is the first (and last) mention/record of James Jones that exists.  For some reason, Jones was a very popular name in Mississippi (and maybe other southern states) after the civil war.  Many former slaves took it for their last name.  That coupled with the fact that James is a very common name makes researching him virtually impossible.  Anyway, we spent several days there in a pretty city-owned RV park that was filled with big trees and mostly deserted before we headed south to Biloxi and the gulf coast.