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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In my genealogy I focused on doing a presentation for my Welsh great grandparents John and Emma Harrison. I found footage on YouTube of Pwlldu, the hamlet high on the Blorenge mountain where John Harrison had lived in as a little boy, filmed in the 50's by the BBC before the place was bulldozed to the ground. Such a film could be interestingly modernised with music and all, but for there being a big symbol splashed across it to prevent copying. On a Pwlldu Facebook group I found photos of the two rows of houses once there, which my Harrison's had dwelt in, pretty rough pictures really, but I jazzed them up and was so happy for that.
There's a lot to be discovered about John and Emma's lives and the people that surrounded them. For instance, that they had lived a while in Bargoed during their early marriage I'd not known, but now could see from their daughters school registration details. My Welsh family, upon leaving Pwlldu, settled in Varteg and Garndiffaith, they being John's Welsh Harrisons and Emma's Forest of Dean Hawkins's. The Forest of Dean people never would say that they were from Gloucestershire; it was always the more exciting sounding Forest of Dean. One uncovers many stories, like of bully neighbours (I know that well). Jane Hawkins, Emma's mother, had been harassed most threateningly by a neighbour, John Jones who was a blacksmith. Jones's existed in every corner of Wales and I myself have Jones's ancestors, John's granny being a Margaret Jones from Llangattock.
Emma's sister, Amelia, had a daughter called Blodwyn (I love those old Welsh names), and another daughter who like herself was called Amelia. This young girl, Amelia Self, went as a teenager to work in service at a grand house in Swansea, only to be dead within three days of arriving there. She'd eaten a hearty meal of steak, potatoes and beans, thereon retreating unwell to the outside privy, where she had a fit, By the time the locked door was forced open she was almost dead and could not be revived. One may suspect poisoning for this, but she'd been one for headaches and had even had a previous fit some years before.
John Harrison had a cousin in Brynmawr and later Blaina called Margaret Morgan, née Watkins, who while still single had to make out a bastardy order against one George Holly for him having got her with child and yet not having taken responsibility for this. George was a friend of one of her brothers and they were later in the Boer War together where they managed to survive a dreadful massacre.
A lovely clip I found on YouTube of Welsh miners returning from the pit singing 'Bread of heaven', which brought tears to my eyes, as did other clips of the Welsh men singing, all being from a film 'How Green Was My Valley', in turn inspired by a book, reflecting the South Wales mining communities at the turn of the century.
I now did my grandfather 'pop' George Harrison's time travel and avatars, always a joy for me. And other ancestors, I shall gradually do likewise. How wonderful is this technology. My pop was from the Welsh hills bordering onto England and he lived for 100 years.
I made another long journey from central London out to the Kew Archives. Not that I made such grand discoveries as last time. Seeking my ancestral Maxteds in a big book of Nine Elms railway employees yielded nothing. But I did find a few things which had so far eluded me. And that was just by accessing Find My Past, information I'd not been able to find on the Ancestry website. I had already sussed out, by deduction, that my ancestor Robert Bunney (Senior) had married an Ann Aylward, but had never found a marriage record confirming this till now (my deduction had been due to Alyward being used down generations as a middle name for various children). It was at the church of Mary Magdalene (of course lol) that they had married one another on 26th February 1764 in Bermondsey. And I found my Welsh ancestor John Harrisons school admissions for the hamlet of Pwlldu, , in both 1876 and 1877, recording that the familys adress was at 'Lower Bank' and that his father worked as (yes I knew) an ostler. What I was really pleased with was at last finding Thomas Sugrues baptism, which was in Greenwich in 1854 at the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of the Sea. Thomas's birthday was here recorded (a good find) as being on 24th Febfuary (making him an Aries), the baptism having been on 26th March. His godparents were Michael and Maria MacDonnell. I found Roman Catholic baptisms for Thomas's siblings too, for Joanna, Catherine, Jacobus, Edmund and the twins Daniel and Bartholomew. Interestingly I discovered also that the childrens father, Bartholomew Sugrue, had also had a child with his first wife, Ellen, who had died of Asiatic cholera. I'd never seen anything to prove before that they'd had a baby together, but there she was, a daughter, Anna, born in 1847, her godparents being Corey Malvina and Margaret Gallachan.
1921 Census Day, new records released, as revealed at midnight. In a few locations in England one can view this freely, but I am in France. Therefore I would have to pay. At first I was not going to look, as it wasn't that I expected to find any vital information there. Rather I messaged my London based daughter, Eleanor, to let me know if she visits Kew Gardens, as this was one of the locations of free access (in and around the Kew Archives). But as a keen genealogist I couldn't then resist to at least have a little look, firstly just at my Welsh family (simply by transcript), then I saw that for just a little extra money one can download the originals and in my excitement ended up doing this for everyone. So the Welsh Harrisons of Varteg were the first I looked at. I already knew their ages, places of birth and occupations. What I did learn was which colliery they worked at. It was on the Varteg Hill that my great grandfather, John Harrison, worked as a colliery examiner for John Vipond & Co. My pop, his son George, was at that time a 12 year old boy. Ok, secondly I looked at my Maxted's of Eastleigh, to the family of my great great grandfather, William Maxted, who was a boilermaker on the railways. His Irish wife, Maria, who had always been a mystery, having previously said she was from Westmeath, now claimed in this 1921 census to have been born in Cork. So, yes, armed with his new information I looked once more to finding something of her origins, but still found nothing. What I did find from this census, which I had not known before, was that one of the daughters, Norah, herself had at this time an illegitimate baby in the family home, a little girl named Norah Maria Kathleen, the names of both her mother and grandmother. As for William and Maria Maxted's daughter, Florence, she had married a ships cook, Percy Spencer, and was living with him at 2 Bridge Cottages, Dovercourt, with my little 'nanny' Eileen, aged three years. Florence's younger brother, Henry, was also living with them and working as a local postman. My Shetland Inkster's I couldn't look ar as no Scottish records had been as yet released. I now looked at my Seagrove's of Greenwich. I already knew that my great great grandfather, Thomas Seagrove, was a salvage hand (retired) for the Port of London. And I looked at the Bane's . My great great grandfather, Richard Bane, was newly a widower, aged 81, living with his daughter Alma's family in Walthamstow, Alma's husband, George Reynolds, being a school teacher. All of this I knew. What was new information was Alma's birth in Barbados having been fine tuned to the location of St Anne's, where there had been a British garrison. So this was where my Bane's had lived while they were in Barbados. My 'granny' Isabelle Bane can be seen aged three living with her family at 13 Lee Road in Dovercourt. I'd not so easily found them at first, due to her father, D'Auvergne Bane, using his middle name only of Robert. I already knew that he'd worked as a checker at Parkeston Quay. In the census it specified that he worked for the Great Eastern Railway. That was it for my family in the 1921 census, nothing excessively riveting. But little by little colours are added to the family story.
My youngest childrens ethnic Myheritage DNA percentages arrived: Rosina: 44.8% South Asian; 38.6% Viking (Shetland); 13.7% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 1.9% Italian; 1% Finnish George: 33.6% Italian; 31% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Wesh); 19% Greek and South Italian; 7.4% Balkan; 4% Spanish Iberian; 2.4% Viking Shetland; 1.8% Middle East; 0.8% West Asia And so comparing theirs to mine: 64.3% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 24% Viking Shetland; 4% Greek and South Italian; 3.5% Spanish Iberian; 2.7% Italian; 1% Finnish
That ever mystery of George's dad is by this ethnic result once and for all sorted. He is my Georgio De Bello. Even there had come up a De Bello cousin match for him, this being to Leonora De Bella who was in her 70's and living in America, she being possibly a second or third cousin once or twice removed. I reacquaint with the results of my mothers own test results, through her there coming my Spainish and Italian, whereas through my father would come the Greek. 59.6% Celtic Irish and Scots - (the Welsh being from my father); 27.3% Viking Sheland; 7.1% English (I never inherited any of this, so neither did my children); 3.2% Iberian Spanish; 2.8% Italian And my Aunty Lolly, to represent my deceased father, who is her brother - although they would have had differing blends of their parents DNA:: 52.5% Celtic (Irish and Welsh); 25.5 Viking (not connected to my Shetland genes); 12% English; 9.1% North and West European, for example French, Dutch and German Really I have no way to know my fathers correct percentages as he died so long ago and I suspect his alotted amount was rather different to Lolly's, he being red haired and she so blonde.
I have cousins a little more distant who have done the Myheritage ethnic tests too, although their DNA will have the imput of people I have no connection at all too, but still its interesting to observe. They are both connected to me through my nanny Eileen, the mother of Lolly and my father. Firstly, Dee, descended from nanny Eileen's sister Molly. Dee's grandfather is Scottish and her father is a Londoner with the Welsh surname of Jones: 75.6% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 9.8% Baltic; 9.7 Viking Scandanavian; 2.7% West Asia; 1.4% Finnish; 0.8% Ashkenazi Jew Secondly, Dominic. He descends from a sister of my nanny Eileen's mother Florence who was half Irish. 39.2% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 35.6% English; 18.6 North West European; 4.9% Viking Scandanavian; 1.7% Ashkenazi Jew In cousin matches, there is a second or third cousin who I quickly see must be related to me through pop, my Welsh grandfather, this being because my aunt Lolly and I share her as a common relative, but not Dee nor Dominic. Jane Keep, and indeed she does appear to have Welsh, ancestry. 77.9% Celtic; 19.1% English; 3% Spanish Iberian So, Welsh for sure. Well, I got to looking at some of these proposed cousins to see how we may connect to one another, not just this Jane Keep, but two other matches. And though none had any obvious links, I got to researching their lineages and found them myself. Such is my zeal for researching. Jane Keep had only put that her grandparents were a Powell and a Bebb, and not even any other information at all, but regardless, I sussed her ancestry right back to Mary Thomas, who happened to be the daughter of two of my Welsh ancestors, Morgan Thomas and his wife Ann née Rosser. It was by checking all this out that I found a census I'd not seen before, for Ann when she was old and widowed living in Llanelli in 1891 with this aforementioned daughter Mary. And what was so amazing about this discovery was that languages spoken were listed and my Ann, despite everyone else in the household being English speakers, was herself a Welsh speaker. She didn't even speak English at all, only Welsh. Those who did speak both languages were clearly marked as doing so. And I worked out another Welsh cousin link, again which I had to research more to make sense of, this being to a Lionel Herbert Watkins. Thus I found that my connection to Lionel reached right back to the original George Harrison of Llanthony, Lionel descending from his daughter Sophia and me from his son William. The link to George Harrison was not a research even worked out at all by this distant cousin, but I'd sussed it. And I shall get to working out more and more of these proposed cousin connections I do suppose.
I found a photo of my Welsh Harrison's ancestral cottage in the Welsh section of a book of Great Britian and Northern Europe that I was looking at. This was at Llanthony, near Abergavenny, not that the book said this, but I recognised it. This was the home of the original George Harrison, my great great great grandfather. My Harrison's living in this cottage as Llanthony, as revealed in the census's: 1841 Census Upper Cwmyoy The Mill George Harrison, age 50, with family, and wifes nephew Jeff Jones age 3. 1851 Census Upper Cwmyoy, Mill House, Llanthony George Harrison, age 55, miller, born in Glamorgan Margaret Harrison, wife, age 53, born Brecon Children: Lewis, 28, agriultural labourer; Margaret, 16; Martha, 11 - all born Upper Cwmyoy Elizabeth Harrison, grandaughter, age 2, born Upper Cwymyoy William Parry, visitor, age 45, unmarried, carpenter, born Upper Cwmyoy 1861 Cenus Upper Cwmyoy, Mill Cottage, Llanthony
George Harrison, age 70 and a widower, with daughter Elizabeth as housekeeper and grandaughter Elizabeth aged 12 I stick to the work of researching newspaper records of my family and have found a couple of interesting ones. One was for my ancestor George Harrison, the original, fined for indecent exposure on the streets of Abergavenny, whoops, and another was about George's oldest son, Lewis, being reluctantly pushed to support him in his older years. When I look at the Welsh borderland region, where they lived, I became nostalgic for this land and know I want to be there again, that a part of my soul is always there, there between Crickhowell to Llanbedr, by Patrishow, to Llanthony and Cwmyoy, the Sugarloaf mountain, the abandoned slag heaps, the Dan-yr-ogof caves, Hay bluff, and that taste once more of the lavabread of the Abregavenny deli. if I had to return to Britian eventually, then why not there. From Govilon up to the ghost village of Pwlldu. The land of my fathers, all this is. I never made it up to Shetland, another ancestral place, and more recently, I learn, so is County Kerry in Ireland. An epic journey may be in order one day to explore all this. The Bog of Allen in central Ireland. The Forest of Dean. Greenwich, in the south of London. Vast homelands. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Being once more curious about the Indian ancestry of my friend, Angus, I researched an update for him, of Cullens and Van Serens, a colonial breed of many generations, who were totally at home in India. I got so much further back with this than previously I had.
I soon enough moved on from Angus's family tree to embellishing my own, looking more into my Welsh origins. I looked at my branch of the Rosser family who lived in Llangattock, Llanelli, Llanthony, and LLantilio Pertholey, all those double 'll's', who latterly farmed at Upper Triley Farm on 190 acres of land, and who intermarried with the Harrison's of Llanthony. In this I became totally absorbed, as well as with my Thomas's and Morgan's, boat builders of Govilon and Wonastowe, those that passed on their long life gene that my Pop benefited from.
I created a filmlet on the subject of my Welsh Harrison ancestors, from my grandfather George Harrison of Varteg back to George Harrison of Llanthony. I worked so hard to create this again and again, the windows movie maker repeatedly declaring it to be an 'incorrect format' or 'corrupted' and refusing to open up. I kept on slogging and eventually was successful in my endeavour.
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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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