Hank Jones Biography:
Henry Z ("Hank") Jones, Jr. has been actively climbing family trees since the age of eig...ht, and, since his graduation from Stanford, has specialized in tracing 18th century German emigrants. His books on the subject include The Palatine Families of Ireland, the two-volume The Palatine Families of New York - 1710 (winner of the Donald Lines Jacobus Award as "Best Genealogical Work of the Year"), More Palatine Families, Westerwald To America, and his brand new three volume set Even More Palatine Families. Hank has written many articles over the years that have appeared in The American Genealogist, The National Genealogical Society Quarterly, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, The New York Genealogical & Biographical Record and other major publications. He recently received the NGS Award of Merit for "Distinguished Work in Genealogy" and has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, of whom there are only fifty in the world. Hank has served on the national board of the Genealogical Speaker's Guild, as a Trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and as a consultant on the popular NBC-TV program Who Do You Think You Are?
As to his "other life" apart from genealogical research (and being a 3-day JEOPARDY! champion), Hank Jones was a film actor for twenty-five years. He appeared in many movies, among them eight films for Walt Disney studios (such as "Blackbeard's Ghost," costarring with Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, & Suzanne Pleshette) and the Academy Award winning “Tora-Tora-Tora.” He was a familiar face on nearly 500 national tv commercials and has been featured on over 300 network tv shows such as "My Three Sons," "Family Affair," "Petticoat Junction, " "Mod Squad," "The Patty Duke Show," "Mork & Mindy," "The Jeffersons," and "Love Boat" which still come back to haunt him on cable tv today. His new book Memories – The Show-Biz Part Of My Life tells of some of his off-the-wall experiences working with major stars such as Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Ron Howard, Robin Williams, Patsy Cline, Bob Hope, Minnie Pearl, Ringo Starr, and Elvis Presley. Hank also was active as a singer and songwriter, co-starring on ABC-TV's Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, writing Mel Tormé’s hit song “Midnight Swinger,” and recording albums and singles on RCA and Capitol Records. In Fred Astaire’s biography Puttin’ On The Ritz, Hank was named as one of Mr. Astaire’s very favorite recording artists. Hank’s newest CDs are currently released on Epitomé Records.
Hank's bestseller, Psychic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy and its sequel More Psychic Roots, studies of how intuitive nudges and serendipitous events sometimes influence our genealogical searches, are now in their 9th printings. They were dramatized on NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" program to good response from inside and outside the genealogical community.
TIME Magazine recently had a cover story devoted to genealogy and chose to close the article and tie things together with a quote from - Hank Jones.
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