Dear Cousin Ora
Enclosed is a copy of a rescent letter which I sent to my mother. Mrs Vessie Postell of Oklahoma City. You will find it interesting no doubt because of the information about your fathers mother. Ellana Frances Knowles Cook Jones Olds.
Most of the information which we have found has been from the US Census records. The information which you sent from the records in your family bible were of tremendous help.
The census takers were human beings, and as such were subject to errors. The listing of the one year old son of Ellana Frances as Hiram K in 1860 instead of Richard E is no doubt one such error because the record in your bible is in my opinion the correct one. A fond grandmother or grandfather could easily have given the wrong info to the census taker. Especially since the grandfather name was named Hiram. As a matter of fact it seems likely to me that the second name of Richard H Cook was Hiram for his grandfather.
I am very sorry that we havent been able to find a lead about your grandfather Jones. But we cant seem to get anywhere on it. The name Jones appears so often in the census records that it is very difficult to track. And so many of the county records of Missouri have been destroyed by fires about the time of the Civil War that we are stopped from that angle. At this time the outlook is very dark. We need some new clues, but havent much in the way of ideas of where to start.
You speak in your letter of last August to me about an aunt and uncle named Williams. Was this Mrs. Williams possible the sister of your grandmother? If so she must have been Mary F Knowles, Elender C Knowles, Sarah E Knowles or Permelia O Knowles (all of whom I refer to in my letter to my mother). It might help of you could tell me which on married Willams. And it would be a lead to know the married nnames of the other sisters of your grandmother.
Hope you had a good holiday season and that htis new year will be kind to you.
With warm personal regards, your cousin
Francis B. Postelle
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