Tales of Wales

One of the most annoying things about working on hubby’s family history - and the thing I’ve spent the most time on so far - is the brick wall that is his Welsh line. 

There are literally hundreds of Mary Jane Joneses (or slight variations there of) born near Cardiff in 1860. And it doesn’t help that every document I’ve found, including the various censuses - the best way of figuring out who’s who from 160+ years ago - lists a different approximate date of birth for her. I’ve found several MJ’s that might be a match, but if I can’t find her parents (or siblings or cousins or anybody!) I’m stuck with no way to verify which Mary Jane is my Mary Jane. 

So imagine my excitement when I tracked down a 1935 funeral notice for Mary Jane’s husband and listed among the mourners are two “step-brothers.” I know HE didn’t have step-siblings, sooooo maybe I’ve found a link to HER family?? Finally?

George and the Cleves

That’s a no. Turns out the Cleves family were brewers in Cardiff and 15-year-old George was sent to live with them, to learn the trade (guessing here, based on the census…), in 1871, EVEN THOUGH his mama had him listed as still living at home in England on her 1871 census form. So he wound up on two different census forms, in two different countries. 

England Census for Keziah and William

I’d spotted a “George Purnell” living near the Cleves in the 1881 census but the entry was so weird (a 24-year-old has a 20-year-old granddaughter and 17-year-old grandson??) that I figured it was an error and disregarded it. Turns out it’s Charles and Susan Cleves’ grandkids living in the same house as their “nephew*” George. 

Wales Census for  Charles Cleves Sr.

And since I had George on each ‘correct’ census, I didn’t follow up on this outlier - and probably wouldn’t have known this was “my” George if I had. But once the pieces came together, finding those names in George’s obit lead to a cool story - so much more than you’d expect to get from a few century old pieces of paper. I really love that part of the search. Now, if I could just find a link to Miz Jones …

* Pretty sure the Cleves aren’t blood relatives since I haven’t found any other Cleves in my search, but they were obviously an important part of George’s life.