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George Joynson: History Detective
10/31/2011 - By Tobi Drucker Tesoriero
Photo: McKay Imaging (mckayimaging.com)
George Joynson
Holmdel's History Detective
From the staid to the sordid, George Joynson has uncovered it all! This Holmdel resident has authored books on murder and crime, has done research on lineages that date back centuries and is dedicated to sharing his historical pursuits with others.
George started his personal genealogy research decades ago. Despite language and cultural differences he was able to build a strong personal family tree. From there he went on to offering his expertise to others, creating a genealogy business. He has found documentation for families linking them to revolutionary times enabling them to obtain certification as Daughters of the American Revolution. He has provided information for descendants of a local African- American Civil War Veteran. He has reviewed and analyzed documents that have been used in deciding inheritances.
That pursuit then segued to research for books. George uncovered century-old Monmouth County crimes and retold the tales in his two books, Murders in Monmouth and Wicked Monmouth County. The first focused on twelve murders from the early 1900s. The second revisits the world of crime, but this time through the eyes of a detective from that bygone age.
And as if that were not enough George graciously took the reins of the presidency of Holmdel Historic Society where he conducts tours and shares his knowledge with the public and school children.
George lives in Holmdel with his wife, Dr. Joan Joynson, and son Sam, a sophomore at Holmdel High School.When not toiling in dusty archives, George lives in the moment as a tennis enthusiast.
George shared his knowledge of the past with Living In Holmdel in the here and now during an interview that was a lot more than a trip down memory lane...
LIH: You seemed to be involved in so many interesting pursuits. What came first and how did you become involved in each?
GJ: The genealogy research came first. I started doing that with my own genealogy before the Internet. I remember writing letters to priests and churches over in Italy by snail mail, then waiting two months for a return letter that came back in Italian and then I would get it and run over to people next door to work and ask, “what does this say?” It is about my ancestors. From the very beginning I was fascinated by it.
LIH:About what year was that?
GJ: 1985 maybe. I don’t remember exactly.
LIH: When you were writing to Italy, did you know what town your ancestors were from? How didyou begin your process?
GJ: Well, my grandmother from Italy gave me a few clues to work on. There were a few records that I was able to use to try to look for the church. Then I mailed five different churches and waited to see which one came back. The Italian churches kept really good records. Then I would search back even more than two or three generations. Then I would research another two or three generations back; it was like a snowball effect. You never end researching if you get hooked into it.
LIH: Where in Italy was your family from?
GJ: Naples area.
LIH: Do you see others with interest in genealogy?
GJ: It seems to be a growing hobby. A lot of people are starting, with TV shows devoted to it. I am getting more and more requests. One of my first cases - I remember the guy, he owned a restaurant down in Lavallette - put an ad in the Asbury Park Press for a genealogy service to try it and see what would happen. He hired me and I traced his people into Scotland and learned that one of his ancestors, maybe a great-grandfather, invented some kind of cabbage picking machine.
LIH: How random and interesting.
GJ: Well, they had a patent office just like the U.S does so it was fascinating to find out that kind of stuff. Pretty interesting when you are like a detective to find this stuff.
LIH: When you are mentioning being a detective, where do you start your process? Obviously now on line there is more information available, but what is step one?
GJ: In each case it is different. If they are searching for roots here in Monmouth County I hit a couple of sources off the bat. Of course the Internet, Monmouth County archives has some genealogy records, the deeds. Property deeds go back to the 1700’s that can show where they lived. The surrogate’s office has wills and adoption papers, pre-1940, and inventory estates. That is pretty interesting to read when you find them.You have somebody that died and they took an inventory of his belongings, like how many cows, blankets, and the value they put on the items.A couple of spoons they would list. They would list everything. You kind of see how the people were living. Not the genealogy research of the connection, but then when you see the list of the stuff he owned when he died it gives you a feeling of how he lived.
LIH: Interesting - the possessions of a particular time show what is important to that era. So the possessions of a hundred years ago might be very different than what is important to us today?
GJ: Yes, definitely.
LIH: How far back were you able to trace your own lineage?
GJ: I traced my name back to Buglawton, in Congleton, Cheshire, England in the 1770s where the name changed from an “i” to a “y”. I have an ancestor who started off as Joison and then dies as Thomas Joynson. At that point it gets very tricky. I am not certain of his ancestors because of the name changes. Name changes are difficult; not only the name changes but the name spellings. The whole tree collapses because you are searching for the wrong name and you find a document that proves that this cannot be my family.
LIH: Do you have any tips for people who want to start their own search?
GJ: I would say start with the living people first.Ask them specific questions. My father-in-law was a Jewish World War II veteran. He remembered the group he was in. He was a cryptologist; he would break the German codes. I learned his unit. I would get some information. Then I would go back to him with more particulars and ask, for example, "Where was the 239th airborne stationed?” He would go on and on and I would run out of the dinner and write it down so I would have the details to search again with more information. It was a lot of fun. I got a lot of good detail from him. Sometimes they can think of it, sometimes they don’t. I got a lot of interesting stories that way. I also got information from my father, who was a military policemen stationed in Guam during WWII.
LIH: Do you now have a formal family tree and history?
GJ: Yes, for my son. I have my side and my wife's side going back. It is a pretty big file; there are a couple of hundred people in there. I keep it up to date.My niece just got married inAugust so I put in the groom and the dates.
LIH: How many generations does it go back?
GJ: Maybe ten or twelve generations.
LIH: Do you remember what first piqued your interest to become involved in genealogy?Was there a specific “aha” moment?
GJ: I can’t really think of one. I may have come across a paper that had a couple of names on it and I was curious about it and then started assembling. It started to get bigger and bigger then snowballed into a commercial enterprise for other people. But I do not remember a specific push.
LIH: So was your next project in the Holmdel Historical Society? Did you go from your personal history to the community’s?
GJ: Actually, from the genealogy I went into writing my books. I was in the Monmouth County archives doing research for a client who had ideas for writing a book. A lot of people want to write their family history. I had this man who wanted every slip of paper with his family on it. I had researched the traditional places, like marriage sources and bible records, and I was trying to think what else. I asked Mary Ann Kiernan, the assistant there, where else can I look and what other sources can I check? She asked if I had checked the murder book. I said “What murder book?” She goes in the back and brings out this big ledger book, like a newspaper-sized page and hard covered, and it opens up and you read across the page each line of the murders in Monmouth County of 1900 to 1930. It was O and T, Oyer and Terminer; it was the highest court in the county at the time for the most serious crimes, like murder.
LIH: Capital crimes?
GJ: Yes, capital crimes. I was fascinated by it. There would be the dates in order of the trial. It listed the judges’ names, the jurors, the lawyers’ names the witnesses and the defendants. But there was nothing about the crime itself except a victim. So what I did was, take a couple of dates, then I went over to the Monmouth County Historical Association - which has the newspapers on microfilm - and I looked up the date of the trial. And it was front page. It was big news. It mentioned that he was being tried for the murder of this woman which happened on this date so I went back in time to the date of the actual murder and that was front page news, too. I put the genealogy customer on the side. I started putting it together. There were about 150 murders during that time. I planned to put together these names and a paragraph on each one.
LIH: 150 murders in 30 years; a lot more than I would have expected in Monmouth County at that time. That was a few each year?
GJ: About five or six.
LIH: I picture it a bucolic quiet place here a hundred years ago.
GJ: Well, there was, well [pause] I guess you can find good and bad people at any time and place.
LIH: So you started to compile this info?
GJ: I started to make an index of the names. From a genealogist’s standpoint I thought it would be pretty cool to know my great uncle served on the murder case.When I was doing it someone said, “why don’t you write a book on it?” And I said, “okay.” That day I went home and I looked up a couple of history publishers, small press. I sent out three email queries. The next day Saunders Robinson from the History Press called me and said sure we would love to publish your book. I was caught totally off guard.
LIH: So you were forced into it? [Laughs]
GJ: [Laughs]Yes, then they said, “Send us your pictures.” I had none. So I bought a little time. I said, “Give me till Monday.” This was a Friday afternoon. I took pictures of gravestones, houses, churches, whatever I could think of, and I submitted them. They said, “Great give us 40,000 words and let’s do it.” They sent me a contract and from there I wound up writing the book and getting it published.
LIH: That is amazing and wonderful! It was a great idea obviously. You usually hear how it takes people years to get published.
GJ: Yes, it is difficult. Especially in this time as everyone is out of work and everyone thinks they are going to write a book. They are swamped. The small presses get hundreds of queries, something clicked and I was grateful and happy with the History Press.
LIH: How long did it take to complete the project?
GJ: They wanted it within three or four months. I didn’t know how long it was going to take me. I had ten thousand words, figured I was about a quarter of the way, so I asked for another month and higher percentage of the royalty. They said yes to both. [Laughs]
LIH: It was meant to be
GJ: It was hard work.
LIH: Were you working full time at that time?
GJ: I was working part-time at three or four jobs, totaling a full time job. Being a first-time writer, I kept editing. Every time I edited it I changed something. Every single time! You want 40, 000 words all to be the right words and it is not easy. Then it comes to the time when it is the deadline. No matter what, here it is.
LIH: When you were first doing the outline did you have an idea on how many murders you wanted to include in the book? Or were you picking the ones you thought were more fascinating or gruesome?
GJ: My initial idea was to do 150 of them. Just like a paragraph on each one. They suggested that I pick out a couple of good ones. The number was depending on how many words I could put together. For a few I could not dig up additional information. The first one had information on the murder and the trial
LIH: So you had a lot of information.
GJ: Yes, I did two sections. I ended up with twelve.
LIH: Were all the murders similar in the profile or was there a wide range in the reason for the crime as well as how it was committed? Crimes of passion? Crimes of grief?
GJ: It was across the board; everything. People would shoot each other because they lost in a card game. That is what happened back then! It was exciting to read.
LIH: How did the next book,Wicked Monmouth County, come about?
GJ: I really enjoyed writing my first book from beginning to end. Then I ended up doing book talks,selling my books, and just liked it. It was fun. When I had worked on it there were the other murders that did not get in the book and I thought I could do twelve more of the other unsolved murders. The original idea was to do twelve unsolved murders. I had that about half way done and I sent my query in. She said no because there was no closure. That threw me for a loop. How could they say no to this? Well they did. I took a step back. I thought about it. I realized one of the detectives had been in the county for a long time and he was running through a lot of the cases. He kept showing up so I said, "Well, can I present it from the detective’s point of view?"
LIH: And?
GJ: She said, "Sure, do it." I had to rearrange it and the second book does have some unsolved murders but it is written from the detective’s point of view.
LIH: Is he still alive? Did you get to interview any participants?
GJ: No, everyone is dead. The murderers, the victims, everybody is gone. I do not want to be involved with that. I have been asked a couple of time to do the recent murders but I don’t want to be involved in that. I am not fascinated with murder.
LIH: More the history?
GJ: More from the genealogy to the writing.
LIH: Where are your books distributed?
GJ: Barnes and Noble, on Amazon, or through me on my website or the publisher’s website.
LIH: What is the style of the books? Journalistic? Narrative?
GJ: It is more of a reporting style because a lot of the good information came from the old newspapers. I just enjoyed looking at the old accounts and I adopted that kind of style.
LIH: Do you have plans to write another book?
GJ: Yes
LIH: Anything that you care to share about it or can share about it yet?
GJ: It has not been queried yet.
LIH: So remain vague; we don’t want to have anyone steal your idea!
GJ: Nothing to do with murder this time, more to do with history. I am done with the murders.
LIH: Did the stories keep you up at night?
GJ: No, but my wife didn’t want my son reading the book that I wrote. It can be very gory. There was a hanging in 1900, in the county jail. The front page of the Freehold paper was a minute by minute account of this guy’s hanging.
LIH: I guess it had to be more descriptive as that was before TV or Internet and video. They had to use words to paint the picture.
GJ: Yes, that was the only way to do it. It was like we watched OJ riding around; this is how they got the news.
LIH: How long has your family been in Monmouth County?
GJ: Not long. I am the first. I was born in North Jersey. But Monmouth County has rich history from the 1600s on. We have grave stones from 1717. It has been settled a long time. The farmers who came would have ten or twelve kids and those kids would have ten or twelve kids so there are a lot of people that connect back to the people that were there.
LIH: Yes, actually Living in Holmdel has interviewed Adelaide Lubkert, who is a descendant from the original Holmes family.
GJ: She has been a helpful part of the historical society.
LIH: I gather then from your research for the books you became involved with the historical society?
GJ: A couple of years ago, I went to Monmouth County Archives Day as a guest of the library in Manalapan. There were sixty tables and nobody from Holmdel. I knew there was a society, I called and got in touch with Peggy Lasky, a former mayor who was very supportive of the Holmdel historic society. I asked how come no one was there and she asked if I wanted to do it? I said, "Sure." She said, “Okay, come to the next meeting.” I went to the next meeting and she announced they were going to have an election and who wanted to have me as president and the next thing I knew, I was elected. That was three years ago.
LIH: How often does the organization meet?
GJ: We meet once a month. We set up a table for Monmouth County Archives Day.And a couple of other events.
LIH: What other events and what is archives day?
GJ: Archives Day is sponsored by the Monmouth County archives. They have speakers, lectures, and as a historical society we set up tables, sell commemorative items and talk with other people who are interested in history. We have a building called Dr. Cook’s medical office which was donated to the historical society. We have it available for tours. I give the tours. It is open to the public during the Weekend of Old Monmouth (WOM). That is a full weekend. Dr. Cook’s office is on the national registry of historic places so it is a popular stop on the tour.We had over 300 people visit. It was built in 1823.
LIH: Do you have original medical equipment in there?
GJ: Yes. I have tracked down some descendants from the family (some in California, Utah, Colts Neck) who had belongings and loaned them to show the actual medical utensils. Fascinating to see old fashioned medical instruments. Things like a leech tube, a glass tube that is 200 years old.We have a complete amputation set, from 1817. During a tour with the Holmdel third graders, I asked for volunteers and lots of the boys raised their hands. [laughs]
LIH: Any web site information that we can share for people that would like more information?
GJ: Sure, my website for genealogy information is www.gjoynson.com; and Holmdel Historical Society is www.Holmdelhistory.org.
Favorite Restaurant
Gus' Hot Dog Truck in Red Bank
Favorite Movie
"Titanic" (George discovered when doing genealogy research that the chief baker Joujhin, who was the last person off the ship and was featured in the movie, was an ancestor!)
3 People You Would Like to Dine With:
John McEnroe, Benjamin Franklin, and Ted Turner
Pet Peeve
When people don't do what they say; that irks me.
Favorite Musician
Pink Floyd
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