Saturday, February 25, 2012, I spent the entire day with some Jones descendants whom I was meeting for the first time. They had a houseful of wonderful family memorabilia, documents, and photographs that I scanned for my Power Point presentation and next book. I actually held a little spoon and fork that belonged to Genevieve Jones as a young girl.

It was wonderful to meet another person who had spent time with his grandfather, Howard Jones, in the very rooms where the family lived and the book was created.

An amazing discovery!  The illustrations in the Howard Jones' copy have the names of the original artists and colorists hidden in the leaves or stems of each nest.  It has just been revealed that Howard Jones drew the nest of the Eastern Phoebe (Plate 10)!  Historically, that illustration has alway been attributed to Genevieve.  This new information means that Gennie only completed four illustrations before her death on August 17, 1879, and that Howard kept silent about his drawing all of his life. Why?

Breaking news!

The copy of Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio that I have been searching for 15 years has surfaced! It was the personal copy of the author of the text for Nests and Eggs, Howard Jones, and contains all the original, artist-signed templates from which the colorists worked to hand -paint the illustrations in the other copies, in addition to one-of-a-kind paintings and hand-written accounts that are unique to this volume.

Its location will be revealed after the institution that acquired it through donation is ready to release the news to the public.