George W. Jones a.k.a. William Haughton Willingham

GEDCOM Note

Based upon the research done to this point (July 2020), there's a good chance that George W. Jones IS Haughton Willingham.

1870 Alpena, MI census says Joseph M. listed father's birthplace as Georgia, but the reliability of that statement is in question. A 1910 Census for Charles B. Jones in Soo, Chippewa, MI also shows his birthplace as Georgia. This may be a reference to the Georgian Bay off of Lake Huron. He also listed his birthplace as Michigan when it shows as Canada on other records. It appears George and Lorena moved from Canada to Michigan in about 1845.

The "JFredEndall2015" family tree on Ancestry shows his birthplace as Kentucky. The "Ruppert Family Tree" shows him as born in Virginia.

The 1850 Census shows George living in Port Huron and as having been born in Illinois. This census seems to hold numerous potential clues. George was a neighbor of Elisha and Seldon Jones who have roots in Connecticut. It doesn't seem unreasonable to connect those dots, but DNA evidence does seem to support the connection. Maybe, this is the time period when he changed from Willingham to Jones and these were the people that inspired the change.

No matter how it is viewed, it appears someone, possibly George himself, was confused about his birthplace. At this point, I'm guessing he was hiding his past as a Willingham.

Interesting to note that the Willinghams moved from Virginia to North Carolina to Kentucky to Missouri to Illinois over the course of about three generations.