We all think about today when we should be thinking about the time our ancestors were living. I was listening to one of the RootsTech online talks and the speaker was telling about putting off research on one of her ancestors because it was a very common surname, I know I have done that also, but when she looked for the person in the time she was looking there were hardly any in the location she lived. So in last weeks Monday Mystery

I had posted about the Seattle City Directory page I had digitized and asked how many people were in the Seattle City Directory for the surname Jones. Well the answer is 2, and both were ladies which were fairly uncommon in city directories in the 1800s.

We did not receive a single answer so I guess it was too hard.

Today’s question comes from Charles Hansen:

I have been indexing for Scribe and just indexed the page with the surname Jones in it. How many people with the surname Jones were in the Seattle City Directory 1891-1893?

Gosh, Charles, that’s a toughie but I’ll bet somebody comes up with the right answer.

We want to keep you guessing, so use the “Leave a Comment” box below to tell us your answer. The answers won’t be posted (but we’re getting them!) until we announce the correct answer and first correct responder next week. Good luck!

The “whoops” is the correction to last Tuesday’s Trivia: Was enjoying a browse through an 1876 Monitor Guide to Post Offices & Railroad Stations in the United States and Canada. It was fun to search and find four Washington cities listed: Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Spokane Bridge in Stevens County. That raised my eyebrows because I remembered that Spokane County was formed from Stevens County in 1858. Humm. And that was the only listing for Spokane. How come the inaccuracy, I wonder?

Charles Hansen gave me/us the explanation: 

Donna  Spokane county was formed by the Territorial Legislature in 1858, but January 20, 1863 Stevens county was formed and attached to Spokane county. January 19, 1864 Spokane county was named Stevens County. October 30, 1879 Spokane county was formed out of part of Stevens county. So between 1864 and 1879 there was no Spokane County.  Charles

And since I shall be in Salt Lake City next Monday for RootsTech, may I proudly announce the winner of last Monday’s Mystery:

Gary Parfitt! He was the first reply to correctly answer that “World’s Fair” was what Seattle (1962) and Spokane (1974) had in common. Congrats and kudos on your knowledge of Washington history, Gary.

But we do thank all of you who puzzled the mystery and took the time to answer.

As a result of our January 2017 two-day Board meeting, some wonderful new ideas were proposed and will be implemented………… first one is Monday’s Mystery.

This will be a Washington history question and the first one with the correct answer will see their name in print (with a kudo) next week. 

Since we want to keep you guessing, please use the “Leave a Comment” box below the post to tell us your answer. The answers won’t be posted (but we are getting them!) until we announce the correct answer and first correct responder next week. 

Here is the Monday Mystery for today:

What did Seattle (1962) and Spokane (1974) share????