07-24-26

"Our" Jones family

My April 3 column, "Keeping up with the Joneses," was about William and his son Humphrey, the latter being the author of the Alma Mater for Kansas State Agricultural College - now Kansas State University. I had been amused how husband Art had gone down a rabbit hole tracing them.

William (left) and Humphrey Jones (Jr.)

So when we were in Wales last month, it sounded like it would be fun visiting the places William and the rest of his Jones family called home before he left for America.

"Fun" was the operative word, so on the selected day, we didn't even leave our holiday home in Llanrhaeadr until after 10:30 a.m. It was perfect timing for a late lunch at Caffi Bont - "The Bridge Café" - a cozy little restaurant in the slate-mining village of Blaenau Ffestiniog (bly-nye fess-TIN-yog). Our immediate goal - besides lunch - was to find the home where Anne Roberts' parents lived. Anne was William's first wife and mother of his daughter Mary - so, Humphrey's half-sister.

We sought help at the police station. The friendly officer shared that she and her boyfriend plan to travel Route 66 through the American Southwest next year to celebrate his 30th birthday.

But we were to be disappointed. The Roberts house wasn't in the computer file with all of the village's named buildings. Either the name had been changed - rare, the house was demolished - very rare, or it never had a name and the census-taker had instead used the street name.

This was not an auspicious start, but the day was just beginning.

Driving northwest, we crossed the historic Menai Bridge and onto the Isle of Anglesey - an epicenter for Druids and bards, or so we had heard. Ninety minutes and 45 miles later, we stopped at a rural church. It was intriguing, as it was called the Llanfihangel Tre’r Beirdd - "St. Michael's Church of the Bards." Bards were poets, singers, and storytellers of ancient Celtic societies.

The Joneses had been nonconformists, meaning they were not members of the Church of England. They were sometimes called Methodists and at other times, Baptists. In the U.S., most of William's folks were practicing Presbyterians, though his second wife was a Quaker.

Wandering the "bards-church" cemetery

Upon marrying, William's parents attended the Hebron Congregation Chapel half a mile northwest of the bards' church. In the 1820s, people walked to services and, for folks living to the north as his parents had, the chapel would have been more convenient. Today, it's an ordinary home.

So why mention the bards' church? People wanted to practice their religion as they wished, but also wanted records of baptisms, marriages and deaths. The little chapels couldn't provide the latter. But local Church of England vicars seemed quite tolerant of these folks. They occasionally led services in nonconformist chapels and recorded milestone events in the official church records.

William's mother was Mary Thomas and his father was Humphrey Jones. We assume William named his son Humphrey to honor his own father. The 1829 baptismal record for William's older sister Jane indicated it took place in the Hebron chapel.

About 1,000 feet south of the bards' church in a roadside hedge was a "standing stone" perhaps nine feet tall. We would later see a much taller one in a farmer's field.

These stones were erected during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age - about 3500-1400 B.C. Little is known of the people who placed them or for what purpose. It has been proposed they were used to judge astronomical events, for ceremonial purposes, or as directional markers for ancient pathways or burial chambers.

Today, we frequently refer to their priests as Druids, but what we "know" is almost completely speculation.

Standing Stone south of the "bards-church"

By 1832 when William was born, the Jones family had moved five miles to the northwest to a home called Garreg Wen -"white rock." It's amazing that homes such as these often stand for hundreds of years and frequently keep their names. This one is sometimes advertised as a holiday home called Kenyon Cottage, but maps still say Garreg Wen.

Left: Garreg Wen; right: St. Mary's church.
Even at this distance, the unusual nature
of the church windows can be seen

We walked the cemetery surrounding the nearby medieval St. Mary's Church in Bodewryd - Ewryd's dwelling. Lightning struck the stone building in 1867, and Lord Stanley of Alderley, a convert to Islam, funded the restoration on the condition that Islamic patterns be incorporated into the stained glass windows. William's parents are buried in the churchyard, although we only found the father's gravestone.

The next stop was Bethania Chapel in Llaneilian (hlan-EYE-lee-an), four miles as the crow flies to the northeast of Garreg Wen. William's widowed mother shared the place with her also-widowed daughter Jane. There was little wealth in these nonconformist communities and houses of worship doubled as ordinary dwellings. So while mother and daughter lived there, religious events took place in them as well.

Some windows had colored glass with peaked centers, making the blended purpose obvious.

Bethania Chapel today is a home

With our history adventures completed, we were ready for a break. Art drove along the coast, satisfying my desire to take in views of the sea, Point Lynas Lighthouse, craggy shorelines, stunning cliffs, and wild flowers on nearby hills.

We passed through Amlwch (am-LOOCH), a historic port and the northernmost town in Wales, and then stopped at Bull Bay. We enjoyed watching the passing ships and small boats through the large sea-side windows of The Cove Restaurant in the Trecastell Hotel. We both ordered pan-fried sea bass with roasted new potatoes and samphire - a bright-green succulent seaweed sometimes called "sea asparagus" or "sea beans." I enjoyed its crunchy texture and salty flavor - a new experience. The meal was a delicious reward for our "hard work" that day.

By 8 p.m., we were homeward bound. The clouds reached down to meet the mountains, providing a dramatic landscape - a fitting ending for our 12-hour excursion. We hadn't met any bards or Druids, but now the Joneses seem almost like family.