All That Stuff

       Occasionally individuals have e-mailed and asked questions. One frequently asked is do you have documentation for all the family tree that is presented, and what evidence do you have to support the claim to male descent from Tudor Trevor (JC-1)? As you might guess, climbing trees back five generations may be difficult enough but, come on, climbing down the branches to 850 A.D. is not possible. Many times I would agree that it seems impossible but, climbing trees for more than 62 years has provided many opportunities to investigate the possibility. The last several posts have shown my copies of original sources that have helped along the way. There are many, many, many more collected along the various branches of my Jones surname family tree. For example, here are the titles of the materials collected that just address Tudor Trevor (JC-1). These sources/references/documents/research etc. are stored in notebooks which were collected during many of my time travels. Appropriately called "Research Notebooks", these are numbered now from RN#1 to RN#275. [RN abbreviation for research notebook]

                                                RN#153 - House of Tudor Trevor

                                                RN#154- The Children of Tudor Trevor

                                                RN#157- Trevor/Working Sheets

                                                RN#187- House of Trevor Geography

                                                RN#158- Associated Family Names (also a RN#158A)

                                                RN#169- Early Welsh/Anglo-Saxon Leadership

                                                RN#262- Political Connections

                                                RN#219- Family Tree through The Sons

                                                RN#215- Family Genealogy By Welsh Counties

      Each notebook contains 50 - 150 pages pertaining to the topic/subject listed. Here is another picture of the notebooks and how they are stored. Each can be retrieved and updated as needed. See post of April 14th, 2023 for additional details

      Just look at all that stuff.

Tribe of the Marches

      Questions frequently arise about the individuals you are trying to decide how they might relate, or not, into your family tree. One such question that arose regarding Tudor Trevor (JC-1) was how did he get titled "founder of the tribe of the Marches" living around 900 A.D. when the Marches did not come into existence until some 200+ years later?  Hum...did not seem to fit chronology if this was actually the case. Digging more around these facts seemed appropriate.

      An article by K.L. Maund titled Ireland, Wales, and England in the Eleventh Century, The Boydell Press, 1991, provided many helpful facts. The second chapter "The Eleventh-century Rulers of Wales: Their Political and Genealogical Relationships" provided all sorts of historical information when the Marches were being formed. On the page titled "ABBREVIATIONS" he shows the known genealogical texts of the time. A great number indeed are shown, and in my working copy of this page are given the various sources:

      

      Wow, just look at them. On page 93 of his text, he notes that the family of Tudor Trevor (JC-1) is "...a noble, not royal, family...". On page 237, Maund, in his index, listed "Tudur Trefor ab Ymyr" which is a somewhat different spelling. In addition, Meic Stephens [see post October 29th, 2022] describes on page 260 that the Welsh genealogical texts were started to be written around 1100 A.D. 

     Now, putting all this together, suggests that Tudor Trevor (JC-1) must have been labeled "Founder of the tribe of the Marches" by those looking back in time through the windows of 1100 A.D., and not by folks living 900 A.D. These factors help fit things a little better into my Welsh family tree and my Jones surname tree climbing.

      These research notes are stored in RN#3 titled "Welsh Genealogy and Pedigrees- K.L. Maund.

Other Surnames

      The name Tudor Trevor (JC-1) is claimed by many other families as their beginning root. The surname of many are distinctly different and, at first glance caused a great deal of bewilderment. When starting my Jones surname tree climbing at age nine, my understanding was that one individual, with the same surname as yours, would be at the top of the family tree.  How could many different surnames come from the same root? Much was needed to be learned, especially when getting to those Welsh branches. Anyhow, the following two pages are taken from my RN# 236. The number of "other" surnames are recorded with the reference source of the surname given. There are 22 such families listed here, all recorded before 1884. What a deal!

            Note: the (3) stands for Burke [1884] and Dwnn mostly Vol.II, [1846].

     Here is my Jones surname connection, "Jones of Llwynon" which is marked in blue. Yes indeed, all these families share their roots to Tudor Trevor (JC-1).   It took a number of years to figure all this tree climbing stuff out!

Round Two

       The second encounter of Tudor Trevor (JC-1) and his wife Angharad (JC-2) that came to my attention was from a most helpful and enjoyable Welsh genealogical text by Nicholas. It consists of two volumes and organized by the counties of Wales. It gives all sorts of historical information about each county. Also, there are many family trees from each county as it stood in 1875. In this text, on page 451 is the account as given. 

      Now, to give a big picture of this context, and content, is a copy of the full text with all my scribblings included. It may be difficult to read but, you will get the gist of my encounter.  You can see the genealogical information. 

      You will note that the heading is "County Families Of  Flintshire" and , by golly this is the same geographic area of my Celtic ancestors the Deceangli. [See post titled "Yet To Be Called" January 3rd. 2023] Not only that, the name Tudor Trevor is found predominately in the two counties of  Denbighshire, pages 365-420, and Flintshire, pages 421-457. Lots of families with the Jones surname are also found among these pages. Just so Nicholas gets all the credit for his tremendous work, here is a copy of the front page of his book volume one.

      There were many, many more rounds yet to come. This was only round two.
 

Tudor Trevor (JC-1)

      The name Tudor Trevor (JC-1) and his wife Anghard (JC-2) have received a great deal of attention among those who do their Welsh genealogy.  His name especially has dotted the pages of many family trees and, occupies a special place among the documents of our family heritage. The first he came to light was tree climbing out my Jones surname branches from Virginia (USA) trying to swim across that great pond to England. Little did I know what windows of history awaited to be opened. 

      A book titled Virginia Heraldica, Being A Registry of Virgina Gentry Entitled to Coat Armor, with Genealogical Notes of The Families, Edited by William Armstrong Crozier, first published 1908, was a major catalyst. Sounds impressive, no?  Several with the surname Jones were listed p.26, p.46 , and p.51. At that time, a couple of individuals were an option for my direct line of descent, one being named Cadwallader Jones of Pewmansend Creek (1673). What a name I thought, could not even imagine how to pronounce it! Be that as it may, believe it or not, a Cadwallader Jones family was listed by Crozier p. 51 and, the arms given was: Per bend sinister ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or a bordure engrailed of the last. Wow, lots to learn here among all these terms. 

      Now Burke had just gotten on my bookshelf, and I wondered if this might help bridge the great pond. Sure enough, on p. 1035 a Tudor Trevor [did not have my coding system yet of course JC-1 was not here] was found with an arms: Per bend sinister erm. and ermines a lion ramp. or.  Close enough to open a few new windows here. A copy of this discovery from Burke p. 1035.follows:

      He is described as "Lord of Hereford, Whittington, and Both Maelors, Founder of the Tribe of the Marches". Well, what about that, and there is much, much more about this discovery.

      P.S. The book by Burke is discussed in a previous post titled "References", April 9, 2023. The book by Crozier was first published 1908. The Southern Book Co. reprinted it 1953, the Genealogical Publishing Co. 1965, and the Clearfield Company, Inc. 2000. Hum..., it has been around a good while all before the computer world.

      Cadwallader Jones of Pewmansend Creek was first noted in Cavaliers and Pioneers, by Nugent, Vol. II, 1666-1695, p. 139. But, as one often says, that's another story. 

An Ancestor's Heritage

       A nation's cultural and historical heritage can be developed by a variety of sources. Many reruns of a 1989 film titled, "Field of Dreams", has been classified as one such source for my American heritage. Its premise was, "If you build it, they will come". 

      For my Welsh ancestor's heritage, one premise might have been, "If you come, they will build it." Such was one of the cultural developments generated during the monistic movement among my Welsh kindred.  One only has to view any present day map or, to examine any gazetteer of Welsh place-names, to understand this premise. This was explained in the post dated November 28, 2022 titled, "Llan". The meaning and wide distribution of this word was examined.  It was noted that the term "Llan" was often attached to the name of the individual who had recognized the value of the monk and his teaching. This elder of the clan would provide an enclosed space and a home base for the monk. Thus, a church was established upon the family's land and, it became known as a church (Llan) upon the donor's name say (Carfan) as "Llancarfan". A classic Welsh text titled An Historical Atlas of Wales From Early To Modern Times by William Rees states on page 22: "The monastery with its revenue became the hereditary property of the family of the founder, one or other member usually exercised the priestly office". 

      The recounting of this information is given to help explain the significance that this cultural heritage had on the ability to complete my own Jones surname genealogy. Many times a brick wall was faced, and understanding this premise helped connect many ancestors to the family tree. Even beginning as far back as Ynyr frych (JC-3), the brother of Tudor Trevor (JC-1), and their mother Rhiengar (JB-2), the labels and descriptors attached to each individual are better understood. For example the word "frych" can be translated "younger" thus, Ynyr frych (JC-3) is most likely the little brother of Tudor Trevor (JC-1) and the son of Ynry (JB-1). He is described as "Abbot of Dore Abbey, in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire" in Dwnn, Vol. II, p. 307, and footnote 3. This helps connect his mother (JB-2) who is described as "Heir" to Hereford. The family connection is better understood recognizing the premise of hereditary property. Many times the question of how did Ynyr frych (JC-3) end up as Abbot in Hereford was asked? This Abbey is some distance south from the Vale of Dee, and how was this connected to the top of my family tree? Anyway, this premise worked for me.

      Now allow me to rerun the top of my Jones surname family tree through the window of my ancestor's heritage.

   P.S. In today's Welsh, Abbey Dore is written Abaty Deur and in the day of Dwnn (1846) it was written Abad Dor. You can now understand the cultural heritage of Ynyr frych (JC-3) is through his mother, Rhiengar (JB-2), and why he ended up at Hereford.

This Day

       A second set of documents that even raised the level of my amazement, were written during the same time frame as the Anglo-Saxion Chronicles described in the last post. Instead of a chronology of events, they were charters that documented land grants, deeds, special agreements, and the like, that were being recorded for all to read and acknowledge. They were called charters, and they contained a description of the agreements that were being witnessed and the location of the event. Well, believe it or not, on the 28th of May, 934 A.D., at Winchester, King Athelstan gave to Aelfwald, minister, 12 hides of land. There were 88 folks who signed this donation with 2 archbishops, 17 "episcopus", 4 "abbas", 12 "dux", and 49 ministers. Four "subregulus" also gave their consent, and "Ego Howael" [Hywel Dda] along with "Ego Teowdor" [Tudor Trevor (JC-1)] were signees. The following is my copy from Anglo-Saxon.net S 425, 10/30/2008. Hywel is outlined in orange and, Tudor Trevor (JC-1) is outlined in blue.

      The text is written in "church" Latin mixed with some vernacular. The spellings certainly differ from the Welsh and, for the longest time it was difficult to identify the person most likely signing this document. One other individual who was a possible fit to "Teowdor", instead of our boy, was named Tewdwr ap Elise who fl 925 A.D. and, was from the district of Brycheiniog [South Wales near Gwent]. Now I had to laugh when Ashley in his book titled British Kings & Queens on page 159 stated that this Tewdwr had stolen funds due to the church. Thus, it seemed highly improbable he would be part of this group of ministers shown below.

      The source of my copy is shown right above this sentence and, the original is given to be in the "Archive Canterbury, Christ Church". Tudor Trevor (JC-1) it is with his father-in-law this day.