By Victor Bulmer-Thomas
September 2017
This is a record of Ivor’s Welsh family. He was born “Ivor Thomas” on 30th November 1905 in Llantarnam, close to Cwmbran in Monmouthshire. The record gives information about his siblings and first cousins (Generation 4 or G4) and their offspring (G5). It also gives information about his parents and their siblings (G3). Finally, it gives information about the four parents (G2) and eight grandparents (G1) of Ivor’s parents. It is therefore a record of five generations with the earliest birth in 1791, although it does not give information about either Ivor, his two spouses or his children (part of G5).
General
1. All the ancestors listed here had non-agricultural occupations. In other words, the families’ migration from farming areas must have taken place before 1800, taking advantage of the new jobs created by the industrial revolution in Wales including coal mining, iron and steel, manufacturing and later rail transport.
2. All occupations listed are those associated with the working class and most are manual jobs. Typically, the boys started young (11-13) as errand boys before moving to skilled or semi-skilled manual jobs. The girls worked as, for example, domestic servants or dressmakers before starting families. All (boys and girls) lived at home until starting families and some did not move even then.
3. The early censuses did not ask for language spoken. The later ones usually list the language spoken as English. However, the 1901 census lists the family of Ivor’s mother (Zipporah Thomas, née Jones) as speaking both Welsh and English. Thus, the fact that earlier censuses do not refer to Welsh being spoken by the Jones family is probably due to the discrimination against Welsh in the 19th century by the authorities. Ivor’s father, however, does not appear to have come from a Welsh-speaking family.
4. There is no record of any member of the family before Ivor going to grammar school, let alone university. Given that only two per cent of eighteen-year-olds went to university as late as the 1920s, this is not surprising. Grammar school was the easiest route to upward social mobility, without which those entering employment would have expected to take manual jobs.
5. Several of those listed here disappear from the records (including death and marriage) after childhood. This suggests that they emigrated. However, the British authorities have yet to release a digital version of the 1921 [author’s note: this was finally done in 2021] and subsequent census data, so that we have to be cautious about this. Migration within the UK should be captured by the census data. Indeed, one of Zipporah’s brothers (David) married and moved to Chingford, Essex.
6. Ivor had two brothers and one sister. He had three uncles and one aunt on his father’s side, but only his aunt (Winifred Mabel) had any children and she had only one child (Arthur Pryce Jones), who was Ivor’s first cousin (and born in the same year). On his mother’s side he had four uncles and four aunts, who between them produced eight children. All of these were Ivor’s first cousins, so that he had at least nine in total.
7. I know little about the generation (G5) after Ivor and much more work will be required (especially now that the 1921 census has been released). His sister Beatrice had one child (Warren Cantelo, 1928-2016) and his brother David Leon had two children. One (Myffanwy) died in 1952 in a motorcycle accident aged 19. The other (Coral) was born in 1936 and may still be alive in Newport, but I do not know her married name. His other brother Ernest did not marry, but lost a paternity suit c.1920 suggesting that he had at least one child. I have not yet established how many children his nine first cousins had. Warren, Myffanwy and Coral were/are first cousins to Michael Walker, Jennifer Patten, Miranda Wilson and Victor Bulmer-Thomas, so that their offspring are second cousins. The children of Ivor’s nine first cousins are second cousins to Michael, Jennifer, Miranda and Victor, so that their offspring (G6) are third cousins.
8. The census registrars were often very careless and there are frequent misspellings of first names (eg. Zepora and Zipposa as incorrect variants of Zipporah). The use of second Christian names is also inconsistent, sometimes being included but not always.
9. Religion is not mentioned in the census record, but many of the families are believed to have been Baptists. Indeed, the distribution of Baptist chapels in Wales in 1914 (see below) shows a heavy concentration in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan where the families mainly lived. Normally, Baptists gave their children only one first name, but there were many exceptions. Baptists were not conscientious objectors, but there is no record of any member of the family joining the armed forces voluntarily. Some of his first cousins, however, were of an age to have been conscripted.
10. What emerges from all this is four generations of “respectable” working class families (the fifth and sixth generations are, as far as we can tell, solidly middle-class). Marriage was the norm and future spouses lived locally, families were not enormous by the standards of the time, occupations were skilled or semi-skilled and homes often took in boarders. Indeed, Winifred Mabel Thomas (Ivor’s aunt) even married the lodger (Pryce Jones)!
A. Ivor’s Siblings (G4)
1. Beatrice Ann Thomas was born on 12th July 1899, a year or so after Ivor’s father (Alfred Ernest Thomas) and mother (Zipporah Jones) married. They all lived at first with Zipporah’s parents in Llanvihangel, Llantarnam, Monmouthshire, but moved to Oakfield Road, Cwmbran, before the 1911 census. At that time, Beatrice (aged 11) was still at school. She soon left and became a dress maker while still living at home. She married Wilfred Cantelo (1895-1980) in December 1919 and they had one child (Warren Cantelo) born in 1928. Beatrice died in December 1983.
2. Ernest Thomas was born on 19th April 1901 (he is listed as a few months old in the 1901 census). He never married, but he is alleged to have lost a paternity suit c.1920 and therefore may have had at least one child. However, there is no record in the Welsh newspapers of such a suit and so it may be an unfounded rumour.
He was an outstanding athlete and competed on numerous occasions for Wales in international cross-country events. In the history of Newport Harriers (his club), it states: “[Ernie Thomas] won 16 vests for Wales in International Cross Country events, 6 times Welsh Cross Country champion, winner of the Midlands Cross Country junior title in 1922, and 4 times Welsh Champion over 4 miles on the track.”
Ernest Thomas died in South Wales in 1980.
3. David Leon Thomas was born on 13th July 1911. He married Nancy L. E. Watkins in 1934. They had two children. Myffanwy died in 1952, aged 19, in a motorcycle accident. Coral was born in 1936 and the birth was registered in Newport (she may still live there, but her surname is no longer Thomas). David Leon was a police officer and died in South Wales in 1984.
B. Ivor’s Father (G3)
Alfred Ernest Thomas was born in 1876 in Llantarnam, Monmouthshire. By the time of the 1891 census, he had left school and his occupation is given as “engine cleaner”. He married Zipporah Jones in July 1898 (the others who signed the registry were Edith Moore and Percy Bladon Dando) and they lived with her parents for the first few years in Cwmbran. By the time of the 1901 census, he had moved into a brick-making factory and his occupation is given as “brick setter”. The definition of a brick setter was someone who worked in the kilns, stacking or ‘setting’ the bricks ready for firing. In 1911 his occupation is given as “brick drawer”. This is not an occupation recognized in descriptions of Victorian jobs, but it is likely to have been similar to a brick setter. Alfred Ernest died in December 1918, a victim of the pandemic at the end of the First World War.
C. Father’s Siblings (G3)
Ivor’s father, Alfred Ernest Thomas, had four siblings: James, Frederick Ashton, Winifred Mabel and Henry Arthur. Ivor therefore had three uncles and one aunt on his father’s side.
1. James Thomas was born in 1868 in Merthyr Tydfil. By 1881 he had left school and was listed in the census of that year as working as an “errand boy”. There is no record of James after 1881 in any census nor is his death recorded in the UK. He may have emigrated.
2. Frederick Ashton Thomas was born in 1873 in Merthyr Tydfil. After leaving school, he went to work on the railways and his name can be found in the UK Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956. Unfortunately, he failed an eye test in his thirties because of difficulty distinguishing colours and had to resign. He then became a stoker in a colliery (this was given as his occupation in the 1911 census). At the time of the 1911 census he was unmarried and living with his married sister. He was 38. I cannot find a record of his death, but a Frederick C. Thomas died in Llanelly in June 1941.
3. Winifred Mabel Thomas was born in 1875 in Merthyr Tydfil. In 1891 she was working as a domestic servant while still living with her parents. By 1901 her father had died and she was living with her widowed mother. There was a lodger (Pryce Jones) who was 24 at the time (Winifred Mabel was 26). They then married and had a child in 1905 called Arthur Pryce Jones. He was first cousin to Ivor and born in the same year. Winifred and Pryce do not appear to have had other children.
4. Henry Arthur Thomas was born in 1879 in Merthyr Tydfil. By 1891, aged 12, he had left school and his occupation is given in the census as “errand boy”. In the 1901 census, however, his occupation is given as clerk in a wine merchant (a white-collar job). There is no subsequent record of him, so he may have emigrated.
D. Father’s Parents (G2)
1. Alfred Ernest Thomas’ father was William Thomas. He was born in 1831 in Pylyscumpuns, Monmouthshire, a village that no longer appears to exist. His partner was Mary Ann Thomas (née Griffiths) and they married in 1873 in Merthyr Tydfil. They had five children (two were born before marriage). In 1881, aged 50, his occupation is given in the census as “commission agent”, but on the birth certificate of his son Alfred Ernest in 1876 it is given as “insurance agent”. By 1891, however, he had stopped working. As an insurance agent he had a white-collar job, but his sons had manual jobs.
2. Alfred Ernest Thomas’ mother was Mary Ann Griffiths. She was born on 3rd December 1844 in Cwmcarvan, Monmouthshire (the house name was Frevaldec) and the birth was registered in Trelleck, Monmouthshire. She was therefore 13 years younger than William Thomas. She married in 1873, by which time she and William had two children. She was illiterate and marked Alfred Ernest Thomas’ birth certificate with an “x”.
E. Father’s Grandparents (G1)
1. William Thomas’ father was Williams Thomas. He was born in 1791 in Monmouthshire. His occupation in 1841, when he was 50, was given as “woodwork”.
2. William Thomas’ mother was Mary Thomas. She was born in 1811. She was therefore 20 years younger than her husband and may therefore not have been Williams Thomas’ first wife.
3. Mary Ann Griffiths’ father was John Griffiths, born in 1817 in Monmouthshire. He was a carpenter.
4. Mary Ann Griffiths’ mother may have been Ann Griffiths (but see below). According to Mary Ann Griffith’s birth certificate, her mother’s maiden name was Ann Jenkins.
ADDENDUM: Mary Ann Griffiths’ mother, I now think, was Elizabeth Griffiths (née Collins). In the 1841 census John Griffiths (b. 1817) is listed as living with Elizabeth Griffiths (b.1816) and Mary Collins (b.1806). I now think Elizabeth was his wife (not Ann Griffiths (née Jenkins)), that her maiden name was Collins and that Mary Collins (b.1806) was her sister. Elizabeth Griffiths leaves blank the entry for ‘birth county’ in the census, leading me to think she was Irish. The reason I think that is my DNA test shows, in addition to a strong ancestral presence in South Wales, a significant link to County Cork in Southern Ireland. If correct, this means that at least one of Ivor’s great-grandparents came from Ireland.
F. Ivor’s Mother (G3)
Ivor’s mother, Zipporah Jones, was born in 1877 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. By 1891 the family had moved to Llantarnam, but the census says nothing about her employment or educational status. She married Alfred Ernest Thomas in July 1898 at Newport. They began married life in the parental home where their first two children (Beatrice and Ernest) were born. She died in June 1954 in Cwmbran.
G. Mother’s Siblings (G3)
Zipporah had eight siblings (four brothers and four sisters). They were Ivor’s uncles and aunts.
1. Ann Jones was born in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil in 1864. The only census in which she appears is 1871, when she was seven years old. She may have emigrated or died young, although there is no record of her death.
2. David Jones was born in 1866 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. By the time of the 1881 census, he had left school and was working as a fireman while living at home (he was fifteen). In 1891, aged 25, he married Annie Stanford in Chingford, Essex. They had three children, all of whom were Ivor’s first cousins and all of whom were born in Chingford. David was born in 1892, William F. in 1895 and Rose in 1899. Both the boys would have been old enough to have been conscripted in the First World War. In 1911 David Jones’ occupation was recorded as milk labourer, as was that of his son David.
3. Margaret Jones was born in 1870 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to 1870 in Merthyr Tydfil. She appears, aged 11, in the 1881 census when she was still at school. However, there is no record of her after that. Like her sister Ann, she may have emigrated or died young, although there is no record of her death.
4. William Rees Jones was born in 1874 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. By 1891 he had left school and was working as a labourer. He then disappears from the record. Like his sisters Ann and Margaret, he may have emigrated.
5. Edward Jones was born in 1879 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. He married Mary in 1900 when he was twenty. In 1901 they were living with his parents in Llantarnam and he was working as a miner in the coal industry. He and Mary had two children, both of whom were Ivor’s first cousins. William was born in 1903 and Jorwerth in 1908. They were just young enough to escape conscription in the First World War. In 1911 Edward and Mary had moved back to Glamorgan. He was still working as a coal miner.
6. Mary Jones was born in 1881 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. Like her sister Ann, she may have emigrated or died young, although there is no record of her death.
7. Rachel Jones was born in 1883 in Dowlais, Glamorgan, close to Merthyr Tydfil. In 1901, aged 18, she was working (occupation is illegible in the census) and living with her parents at Llantarnam.
8. Reynold Jones was born in 1887 in Llantarnam, Monmouthshire. In 1901, aged 14, he was living with his parents and working as a labourer in a factory. In 1905, aged 18, he married Elsie May Roberts in Cwmbran. They had three children, all Ivor’s first cousins. Edna May was born in 1906, Reginald was born in 1908 and Irene in 1910 (Reginald was therefore too young to have been conscripted). In 1911 Reynold, now aged 24, gives his occupation as ‘timberman below ground’. This would have involved building the wooden structures in the tunnels used for extracting coal.
H. Mother’s Parents (G2)
1. Zipporah’s father was William Jones. He was born in 1840 in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan. By 1861 he had married Martha Davies (see below) and they were living with his parents in Trevithin, Monmouthshire. Their nine children were born between 1864 and 1887 (Zipporah was born in 1877). After Rachel was born in 1883, but before Reynold was born in 1887, the family moved from Dowlais, Glamorgan, to Llantarnam, Monmouthshire. William Jones was working as an engine driver in 1881. This could be on the railways or in the mining industry. There is no record of him in the 1891 census, but by 1901 (aged 60) he had stopped working. At the time he and Martha were living in Llantarnam with Edward (21), Rachel (18), Reynold (14), and Zipporah (24), together with Zipporah’s husband Alfred Ernest Thomas and their first two children (Beatrice and Ernest). Both William and Martha are shown in the 1901 census as speaking English and Welsh, as are their children.
2. Zipporah’s mother was Martha Davies, who was born in 1842 in Dowlais, Glamorgan. In 1861, aged 19, she was living with her parents (Rees and Margaret Davies) in Merthyr Tydfil. Martha’s occupation is listed as ‘nurse at home’. Martha was the eldest of 12 children, the others in 1861 being William (17), Evan (16), John (13), Benjamen [sic] (11), David (8), Rees (6), Alma (5), Zipporah (4), Henry (3), Macsen (1) and Washington (5 months). Martha, after marrying William Jones a few years later, had nine children of her own and named one of them (Zipporah) after her sister. Martha appears in the 1891 census and died in 1894.
I. Mother’s Grandparents (G1)
1. William Jones’ father was John Jones. He was born in 1802 in Monmouthshire. He was working in 1851 as a limestone quarryman.
2. William Jones’ mother was Mary Jones. She was born in 1817 in Llanwr, Carmarthenshire. Her son, although only eleven, gives his occupation as ‘iron miner’ in the 1851 census.
3. The father of Martha Jones (née Davies) was Rees Davies. He was born in 1820. In 1851 he was working in Merthyr Tydfil as a puddler. This was a skilled job in the iron industry. Puddling was an improved process to convert pig iron into wrought iron with the use of a reverberatory furnace. By 1861 his occupation was listed as “master puddler” and his wife’s as “puddler’s wife”. Two of their children, William (17) and Evan (16) were also working as puddlers at this time.
4. The mother of Martha Jones (née Davies) was Margaret. She was born in 1821. Her maiden name was also Davies, so Rees Davies (her husband) may have been a cousin. They married in 1838.