Behind the scenes: Tracking down the Welsh clergyman

I have a super blurry picture of a picture of an ancestor. How could I fix it?  Here's what I did to track down the original! 

Family member name: William Jones
Years of life: 1854 - 1921

Places lived: Wales, UK

Tree branch: Hargreaves > Jones
Relation: My husband's 2x great-grandfather 

I realllllly want a photograph of as many of my direct ancestors as possible.  My family has an AMAZING collection of portraits.  And so many have identifying information written on the back.  Such a treasure.

Lately I've been doing research on my husband's side of the family.  His great-great grandfather was a clergyman in the Church of England, in Wales.  

Digital family photos included a VERY blurry picture of William Jones.  It was a picture of a picture. The blurry picture shows William's portrait in a frame along with at least two other men, all rectors of a church.   Here it is.

I wanted a better picture!!  How could I find it?  

The title at the top says "Rectors of the Parish of Pontfadog".  I wonder if this picture was hanging in a church in Pontfadog, Wales?  Is it still there? Which church?

Google to the rescue!  I Googled the different churches in Pontfadog.  The results included several pictures of churches.  Then I found some contact information for the parish of Pontfadog.  So, here we go! I emailed the first name on the list.

    1. I received a reply within a day!  The rector said that Pontfadog was not in her area, but she forwarded my email to the person who could help.

    2. Another quick reply from the current rector of Pontfadog.  She said she was familiar with the picture, as it is hanging in the church vestry.  She would take a picture on Sunday. YAY!

    3. Sunday passed with no email received.  After a few days, I pinged her and she immediately sent the picture.  She had taken it but just forgot to send.

Here it is!

 

I learned a couple things about genealogy research from this example.

#1 Pay attention to details.  Even though Grandpa Jones served at three different churches during his career, the picture was hanging in Pontfadog.  Follow the scent!

#2 Take a chance!  If you email someone out of the blue, the worst that can happen is no reply.

#3 People are usually nice and willing to help.  

Our Welsh-American family is very happy to have a clear picture of Grandpa Jones.

   

Source:

Church contacts in Pontfadog 

Other link:

Pictures of Pontfadog

Tree Branches

What is a branch of a family tree?

Is it the family line through my grandparents?  If so, each person would only have four tree branches.  And while this is technically a true statement, for this blog's purposes, I'm going to narrow it down a little further.

Going forward, when I reference a branch of my family tree, I'll be referring to the branch beginning with my (or Dru's) great-grandparents, as shown in the red box below.

Therefore, we each have eight branches.  Mine are: Webber, Pearson, Smith, Bromley, Boyle, Anderson, Sullivan and Goesch.

Meredith's Family Tree's branches

Dru's branches are: Hargreaves, Cottam, Jones, Newman, Kekos, Papoutsaki, Stevens and Papas.

Dru's Family Tree's branches

Each post will also be tagged with the tree branch so as to find information easily.  Hopefully this will add some clarification to what may be a bunch of random family stories and research findings.

On the road in Wales

This was not an ancestry road trip.  But if we find some ancestors along the way, we might as well stop, right? #genealogistmotto

Dru's dad's side of the family is from Wales and England.

Dru from LA
His dad Gary Hargreaves born in Canada
Gary's mom Mary Edith Jones born in Canada
Mary Edith's dad James Caradoc Jones born in Wales
James' parents William and Mary Frances Jones born in Wales

William Jones was a clergyman in the Church of England in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He served in a couple different areas in the north of Wales, not too far from Liverpool.  One town is called Brynford, Holywell.  He lived there with his wife and children for a few years around the turn of the century.  He later changed parishes and ended up passing away in the new location years later. Brynford must have been special to them because the family plots are here.

We came to visit.  Here is Dru at the grave of his great great grandparents.  The headstone is damaged and sadly not well maintained.

This is the church.  The grave is in the churchyard.

We caught the current rector as she was leaving.  Another church member, perhaps her assistant, offered to retrieve the burial records.  How nice!  These were in the Burial Register with records from 1917 on.

It is interesting that William Jones was a clergyman. That was a very good profession in those days. The job usually came with a home to live in called the vicarage. Each little town in England has one. One of the locations they lived in had 14 rooms. That's a lot even by today's standards!

Makes me wonder what kind of a person he was. Was he a spiritual person? Why did he become a clergyman? Did he always want to know God and the Bible? Did he see the difference between the Bible and what the church taught? How did he feel about that? Did he instill a love for God in his children?  Did Dru's family's values trickle down in some way from this Welsh family?

William Williams

I'm on a frantic quest to find a castle.  There must be a castle somewhere in England or Wales that is related to Dru's family.  Yes, it's Hargreaves time!

After researching my side of the family for so long, I'm knee deep in Hargreaves and Jones (Dru's dad's mom's maiden name) genealogy.  I thought I was stuck, but then found that Dru's dad's mom's dad's mom's dad was named William Williams.  Wow!  That should be easy to find records.  Who names their kid with a duplicate name like that?  It must be unique.  So I thought.  How inexperienced I am in Welsh anything.

On just one town census in 1861, I found the following names.

* Not one, not two, not three, but seven William Williams
* 2 Robert Roberts
* 1 Evan Evans
* 2 Hugh Hughes
* 1 Owen Owens
* 1 Lewis Lewis

Therefore, I'm stuck again.