JONES and SAUNDERS update (and possibly a little rant!)

 This is the second of my three surname updates for March.  This one was prompted by a query from a cousin's son, who is also researching his family history.  Our shared ancestry is on the paternal side of my family and the query specifically related to my 3xgreat grandparents, William JONES (abt 1809 - 1887) and his wife, Hannah, formerly SAUNDERS (abt 1814 - 1890) who lived in the parish of Llanigon, Breconshire.

Now, I've never properly researched this couple - like many of my 'non-PARRY' branches, the original research on them was carried out by my Dad, who started researching in the early 1980s.  Dad was a conscientious researcher of both local and family history.  However, compared to today, very little information was easily available and so he often did have to rely on (frequently paid) researchers for sources, such as parish registers and censuses. These records tended to be held in London, or in archives local to the relevant area.  Since my parents have now passed away, it's always been my intention to go through all their old paperwork, to confirm (or disprove) the details of our family, and also to develop the research further, particularly now that DNA testing makes it possible to be even more certain about connections.

But that's still on my "ToDo" list.

The details being queried were Hannah's birthplace (Ruhlen, Radnorshire, according to Dad's information, rather than Llanigon, Breconshire, which every census that includes a birth parish indicates), and the maiden name of Hannah, since the only marriage entry for those names seems to be in Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, on 29 July 1834, whereas there is another possible marriage of a William JONES to a Hannah WILLIAMS that took place in Glasbury, a parish on the border of Breconshire and Radnorshire, on 1st August 1835.   Since 'my' William and Hannah are living in Glasbury in the 1841 census, this later one does seem to be the more likely marriage.

But that doesn't make it the right one!

So, over last weekend, I went through some of Dad’s correspondence and found that he had obtained a possible birth certificate for my 2xgreat grandmother, Sarah JONES, back in 1994.  The birth at "Tregoid" (usually spelt Tregoyd), one of the hamlets in Glasbury, Breconshire, took place on the 21st July 1842, and Sarah was the daughter of a William JONES and Hannah, formerly SAUNDERS.

As I read through Dad's correspondence with researchers in the area, I could see that there were times when he doubted whether this was the correct birth registration.  But, eventually, he was able to obtain the birth certificate for one of Sarah's brothers, Lewis, who Dad had identified by working back from the details for an elderly aunt, who used to live with Dad's family, when he was growing up.  Again, the certificate showed the maiden name of Hannah, Lewis's mother, as SAUNDERS.  So I was reasonably confident that the mother's maiden name was correct but, just to add more evidence, I searched in the GRO for birth registrations of the other children.  Interestingly, some of the children's births were registered, but others' were not:

The children of William and Hannah JONES:

I have heard it said that, in the early days of civil registration, when the responsibility for getting births registered lay with the Registrar, rather than the parents, some people viewed baptism as an 'alternative' and therefore did either one, or the other.  It would be purely speculation on my part, to suggest that William and Hannah might have been acting under this impression, registering Sarah maybe because it was easier (or the Registrar followed up the birth) and then, not registering Jeremiah, possibly because the minister insisted on baptising both Jeremiah and his older sister, making baptism seem more important.  

I'll never know, but it can be interesting to ask "Why?" when we find variations in our ancestors' behaviour over time. 

Anyway, purchase of the digital image for the registration of Thomas's birth, also showed his mother's maiden name as SAUNDERS, and I haven't found another family in the censuses etc, whose children could account for these civil registration entries.

I also knew there was potentially additional confirmation of a SAUNDERS connection, based on a DNA match from 23andMe, who I had been in contact with some years ago.  They descend from a brother of Hannah - he, and Hannah's parents, Daniel SAUNDERS and Elizabeth, formerly LEWIS, emigrated to America.  But the shared DNA is only a 14cM segment so, although it is suggestive of the SAUNDERS link, it was always possible that we share other ancestry from the area, so I couldn't rely on the DNA alone. There needed to be documentary evidence, as well.

So, that was Hannah's maiden name dealt with - but what about that "Rhulen" birthplace?

I eventually traced that back to what appears to be census entries supplied to Dad in 1993, by a researcher in Gwent:

Now, it's apparent that the researcher has added some additional details (census enumerators can't usually forecast death and burial dates! ☺)  

But, knowing the format of a census entry, I think most of us would probably read the 1851 details as if the birthplaces have been transcribed from the census.

However, these are the relevant portions of the actual census entries, from Ancestry:

1851 census:

1871 census

Since the images might be a bit hard to read, working down from William, the birthplaces are: Llanigon, Llanigon, Glasbury, Glasbury, Llanigon, Glynfach, and all of them are in Breconshire.  

So, as you can see, the birthplaces that were supplied to Dad, as if from the 1851 census, for Hannah, and three of their children, are totally incorrect.

The age for Thomas in the 1871 details is also wrong, since it is 19, not 10!

Perhaps I'd be doing the researcher a disservice, if I had a little rant, about how wrong the information is.  Perhaps they only had access to an index of names and ages, and everything else was just what the researcher 'thought' was correct.  

But it is not clear!  

There is no indication that other sources were used, even when, later, Dad queried the information.  So, as a result, my Dad spent years searching for Hannah's birth in the wrong place! 

Of course, it’s not just individuals who make such mistakes - during the course of checking the records for this family, I discovered that some marriages in Grosmont, Monmouthshire appear on Ancestry as having taken place in Cwmcarvon, Monmouthshire. And some burials in Llanelli, Breconshire appear on FindMyPast as being at Llanfihangel Pontymoile. 

Is it any wonder that we sometimes struggle to find the records we are looking for!