I focused on unravelling for Michaela of the crystal bowls some of her family tree. She had given me all the details she knew of, her people being entirely Irish, for which this was rather a challenge for me. Michaela's parents, who were both Irish, had met in London, her father Michael O'Driscoll being a doctor and her mother Ethna Sweeney a pharmacist. Michaela herself was raised in London. It was Ethna's side of the family she was more curious to know about. They came from 'The Abbey', near to Ballyshannon in County Donegal. Ethna's father, David Sweeney, was a farmer who drove a horse and trap, and her mother, Bridget, had tuberculosis of the spine since her early 30's, for which she was bedridden. Somewhere in that ancestry were the English 'Blacks'. Tuberculosis of the spine would normally have spread there from the lungs and was called Potts Disease. This was a rare form, but certain notables were known to have had it, such as Saint Gemma of Luca, the poet Alexander Pope, and Louis XVI's (and Marie Antoinette's) son, Louis Joseph, the dauphin of France. It was his wet nurse, Genevieve Poitrine who was accused of hiving him tuberculosis. He had to wear metal corsets to support his deteriorating spine and died aged seven. I found Michaela's parents engagement and marriage announcements in the Irish newspapers, and the death of Ethna's brother from pleurisy at the age of 21. The 1911 census showed David Sweeney to be a farmer of Abbeylands, there was a dog license he applied for, for a male black collie in 1900, and his marriage in 1916, by which I found out that Bridget's maiden name was Mullen. In both the 1901 and 1911 census's, Bridget was living with nuns, serving them in their domestic needs. In 1911 it was specified that these nuns were the Sisters of Mercy. These nuns would educate and take in poor girls, look after the sick, and in the same manner as the Magdalene laundries would take in pregnant unmarried girls. In 1901, when Bridget was waiting on the nuns, aged 18, her younger brother, Michael Mullen, aged 16, was working for the same nuns as their messenger and gardener. It is for young Michaels return to the family home, by 1911, that I found their widowed mother, Bridget Mullen of Rockhill, and in then sourcing her 1901 details learnt that her husband was John Mullen, by which I then found their marriage in 1877, she being Bridget Walsh. This aligned with an old widow living with the family in 1901, Catherine Walsh, who as I had guessed correctly was her mother. The Catholic marriage details were a good find, both bride and groom being of Rockhill, John Mullin's parents being Michael Mullins and Ellen McKay, and Bridget's parents being James Walsh and Catherine Kennaugh. Well, all had seemed challenging upon setting out on this quest, and yet here I was passing on lots of information to Michaela, so that she likened this experience to being on Who Do You Think You Are, especially when I came up with a newspaper report about her grandad David Sweeney winning second prize in the local best cows competition, in the category of cows which have already been pregnant. The Walsh family of Rockhill looked to have been a rough fighting sort; a big feud developing in 1856 with the local Likely family, the Likely lads having threatened the Walsh' at their home, challenging them to a fight, two of the Walsh women being assaulted, one of them, Una Walsh being struck by an iron bar by Francis Likely. Ann Walsh, the other assaulted lady, took up stones and threatened to knock out Margaret Likely's brains with them. I carried on with Michaela's research the next day, thinking I was at a loss to find more, but then more I indeed found. There were only two Irish census's, so that avenue was not so promising. But one found instead Roman Catholic records, court details and dog license records, and this and that here and there. Yes, her people got into trouble, there being many records of drunkenness and fighting. This seemed to be often the way with the Irish, not just with travellers, but in general. As Michaela said her brother suspected there was alcoholism in the family. So the Walsh's were fighters, and as I saw it, it was so with the Sweeney's too. There was a long list of their battles with their neighbours at 'The Abbey' and with the locals in the town of Ballyshannon. I found the English 'Blacks', maybe not so English, as just over the border into Northern Ireland and being of protestant derivation, David Sweeney's parents being Frances Black and Patrick Sweeney. Patrick Sweeney was surely a drinker and a fighter. These were the kind of fights that would be surrounded by riotous crowds. David's parents, James and Bridget Sweeney, were likewise of that nature. Whole families would be warring, the women included. They were farmers, for long at the Abbey. Old Bridget had cows; as I saw, in 1847, her neighbour, Bernard Grimes, was making issue about her cows repeatedly trespassing on his crop of plants. On yet another day I looked at Michaela's genealogy, and noted that the original James Sweeney had married two Bridget's, and he had needed special dispensation for the second being related to the first. The Grimes's, who had fought with the Sweeney's, Michaela had met their current descendants still at the Abbey and said they appeared to be an inbred lot, as maybe anyway were her own Sweeney's, so she remarked.
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At market, one Texan enthusiast of our French mysteries hereabouts was saying to others that the local language of Occitan was from Aramaic, the 'pure language of Jesus'. Actually though, as I interjected, Occitan has Latin origins. I expanded into my late thoughts that there was an original language here before Occitan, far more ancient, because as I have seen it the local goddess of Bugarach, Noor, is not an Occitan word. It occurred to me that the most ancient language here would have aligned with cave dwelling and the standing stones and would more have resembled Basque, which in itself has always been mysterious. Yes, I know it, that Noor also means in Arabic 'light', as one of the men remarked on, but likely this was also an ancient local word. I did look more into this once back home. And yes, Occitan was a language introduced by the Romans, and therefore this had covered what was in existence before. And as for that old language having more resembled Basque, indeed, on my looking into this it was understood by linguists and historians that the language spoken by cave people, as I had myself deduced, would have been a proto-Basque, there being evidence dating this back to the Neolithic times and even beyond. Basque words alike to Noor, as I now saw, written as 'nur' translated to 'water' and also to 'hazelnuts'. A water goddess them, maybe, for the magical springs and rivers of this sacred landscape. Basque, also known as Euskara, was unique and always somewhat of a mystery. I had traces of Basque dna, as did my mother, which may well be in us from way back in Palaeolithic times, when the Welsh, Irish and Scots were of the same family groups as those of the Basque, and likewise with ancient Sardinians, also dna I carried. All was so very interesting.
I was excitedly finding out things about my Welsh ancestors that I'd not been able to suss before. Like who were the parents and other family members of Margaret Jones (my great great great grandmother)? This had always been a mystery. And who was the young boy Jeffrey Jones seen to be living with her and her husband George Harrison in Llanthony back in 1841? But, oh wonder of wonders, all comes together, and that one name Jeffrey Jones is a big clue, because although Jones was a maddeningly common surname, Jeffrey was not, for which Jeffrey had to be a name which was in some way specifically connected with our family, one of those names that gets passed down through the generations, as was always the way of our ancestors. Little Jeffrey Jones was surely a nephew of Margarets, it also being the way of our ancestors to pass around ones children amongst various relatives. What really led me to big discoveries here was my checking out the famed Welsh rugby player, Kenneth Jones, who I'd always been told we were related to. It's one thing to be told you're related and it's quite another to find out how. I was determined to find this out, by working back through his ancestry. Kenneth Jones was born in Blaenavon on 30th December 1921 to John Jones and Ella Caroline Burland. John's father was Jeffrey Jones (note the name), a coal miner of Blaenavon, born there in 1868, who married in Abergavenny to Harriet Morgan. Harriet's family, interestingly, were from the mountain hamlet of Pwlldu where my Harrison's had also lived. The relevance in all this is the name of Kenneth's grandfather, Jeffrey Jones, as therein lies a clue. And its not that Jeffrey's own father was born to that little Jeffrey who'd stayed as a youngster with our family in Llanthony, no, and I don't know if that little Jeffrey even made it into adulthood, there there being a death of one by this name in Crickhowell a few years later. The father of Kenneths grandfather, Jeffery, was John Jones, originally of Crickhowell where he had been born in 1842, later becoming a haulier of Blaenavon, his wife being Abigail Wilson of Redwick. I drew a close at this for now, finding nothing more and still not quite understanding the connection. Later, on renewing the research, this was on my now understanding just how relevant the name Jeffrey was, for which I looked up a Jeffrey Jones of the same area Kenneths's great grandad John Jones was from, around and about Crickhowell, and I found him and more clues besides to link this newly found individual up with my own family. In 1861, there is to be seen a Jeffery Jones of Llanelly, who was at this time deaf, born in in 1802. And how did I know this was our own relative, with his age qualifying him be the brother of my own Margaret Jones? Well, he was a miller, as was my Margaret's Llanthony based husband George Harrison, and what's more he was born in Llanbedr, a village associated with our family. Margaret and George Harrison had lived in Llanbedr before arriving in Llanthony, and I'd already worked out that this village was the biggest likelihood for Margarets own place of origin. Llanbedr, as a birth place for Jeffrey Jones, hadn't even shown up on the census transcription, and on seeing the original it was written quite illegibly, and yet I could make it out, for being familiar with the name already. Finding this Jeffrey Jones in another census, the previous one of 1851, was the icing on the cake in regard to Kenneth Jones's ancestry, because there was Kenneth's great grandfather, John Jones, living with him, aged 10, listed as Jeffrey's nephew, born in Crickhowell in 1842. Thus it was that I had linked up our families. I now found the miller Jeffery Jones's baptism in Llanbedr (lucky to find this as so many Welsh baptisms are unfindable, none of George and Margaret Harrisons children's baptisms ever having been traced and neither George's or Margaret's themselves). It was in finding Jeffrey Jones's baptism, in Llanbedr (Ystrad Yw), Breconshire, that I at last solved the long standing mystery of who were Margaret's own parents, and they were Jeffrey Jones (yet again) and Elizabeth, and this older Jeffrey Jones was yet again a miller. And then I even found the marriage of Jeffrey Jones Senior and Elizabeth on June 3rd 1792 in Llanbedr, which gave Elizabeths maiden name as Evans, she being a local of Llanbedr, and he being from Llangenny, which was near to there. The witnesses were a friend, James Pitt, and a regular wedding signer Edward Herbert. This meant so much to me, to have pushed back into the realms of that which had seemed impossible, finding parents for Margaret; Jeffrey Jones the miller of Llangenny and Elizabeth Evans of Llanbedr. Being a genealogy researcher is alike to being a detective. Years ago I'd begun seeking my roots and only now had learnt who were Margarets parents. One follows clues. Kenneth Jones, the rugby player, known by family to be one of our people; therein lay the biggest clue, and yet one which needed some deep looking into. Looking at Margaret's brother, Jeffrey Jones the younger miller, his mill was for years the Upper Mill at Govilon, as recorded regularly in the electoral registers of the 1830's and 40's. And another brother, William Jones, was the miller at the Lower Mill, Govilon. His baptism I had now found as well, William Jones, born in Llanbedr in 1807 to Jeffrey and Elizabeth Jones. Another potential brother was David Jones of Llangenney, who married on 10th July 1807 in Llanbedr to Blanch Philips who was a local girl. Looking more at the Upper Mill of Govilon, this was now a ruin, which had consisted of the mill, a house, a corn drying kiln and a pond. There had been milling in Govilon since at least the 1300's, which utilised the steep fast flowing waters of the Cwm Siencyn Brook as it it cascaded down the Blorenge mountain to the river Usk below. The millstones, which remain to this day at both Upper Mill and at George Harrisons old mill in Llanthony were made from the 'pudding stone' to be found on the summit of the Blorenge mountain. These millstones would grind up the corn brought to them by all the local farmers. And now another fabulous find was a will summary, which favoured amongst others 'Elizabeth, wife of Jeffrey Jones, miller of Llangenny', by which more of the family now came to light. This will from 1823 was made by Elizabeth's brother, Lewis Evans (Lewis being another recycled name in our family) of Llangenny, who owned properties both there and in Llanbedr. By this one could see Elizabeths siblings, Lewis of course being one, and the others being John Evans, who had a son also called John, Ann who was the wife of John Jones in Danderren, Llangattock (it could be so that Jeffrey and John were also brothers), and James Evans, already deceased, but with the will profiting his daughter Elizabeth. Another will I found of 1834-5 was of a yeoman from Crickhowell, John Adams, which profited various of his nephews and nieces, one of whom was Margaret, wife of Jeffery Jones, miller of Llangenny (pretty sure this is an incorrect transcription as his wife was surely Elizabeth) and mentioning also her sister Ann 'Williams' (is this another incorrect transcription?) of Llangenny (although it could be that this Ann, formerly married to John Jones, had become a widow and remarried). John Adams also listed a deceased brother, Thomas Adams, father of Joseph, who would therefore be another uncle to Elizabeth. By such a clue it appears that Elizabeths mother would have been an Adams girl marrying an Evans lad. Jeffery Jones I later saw had died in 1834, in Llangenny, as shown by the death duties register. And I'd searched and searched but could not find any baptism for my Margaret as his daughter, that often absence of any sign that ones children were baptised yet again. But then, and how difficult it was to find this, but there came up yet another Breconshire will, none other than Jeffrey Jones's will summary, millwright of Llangenny, not quite correctly transcribed, for the tricky writing of the time, but mentioning his three children, Jeffrey, William and Margaret married as Mrs Harrison being one of them. I could cry, I mean, well, I did. One doesn't always get confirmation for ones theories in genealogy, but this was it for sure. My long research had blossomed beautiful fruits. As Jeffrey the miller of Govilon was Kenneth Jones's great grandads uncle, this would make Jeffrey's brother William Jones the great great grandad of Kenneth Jones, and Jeffrey and Elizabeth of Llangenny his great great great grandparents. As they would be my great great great great grandparents. And that makes Kenneth Jones, rugby champion of Wales, my fourth cousin once removed.
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AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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