MEET THE COUSINS

I’m a huge admirer of Mary Jones. I admire her integrity: She stood up to bitter antagonism from her entire family, I believed, when she joined the LDS church in 1849 and emigrated to Zion six months later from Wales. I admired how Mary not only accepted husband Abel Evans’ plural wives, but also shouldered the responsibility for three families, as she ran a simple boarding house and stable when Abel was called back to that second Welsh mission and died. I imagined Mary sticking it out in Lehi, unable to speak English, totally isolated from the family she had loved in Llangynog, Carmarthenshire. 

That’s why I was ecstatic for Mary when I learned about her older sister, Ann!

Ann had joined the LDS church in Carmarthenshire in 1848, a year before Mary, along with her second husband, Thomas Williams, and then, twice widowed, she had emigrated in 1854 with her children and stepchildren on the Golconda, the same ship as Samuel Evans. Ann and her third husband, Daniel James, even lived in Lehi for a period, close to Abel and Mary. Abel performed the 1858 civil marriage in Lehi when Ann’s stepdaughter Elizabeth Williams married Henry McConnell. All of a sudden, Mary Jones wasn’t isolated. She had a sister who believed what she did and even lived nearby for a short time in Lehi. And I had new cousins: Williams, Francis, McConnell and James clan who’d settled in Idaho, Montana and Southern Utah! I thought, “Wow! We’ve got all these cousins working together on John and Elizabeth Jones’ family history. We can all work together!” 

But, then, I learned on FamilySearch that each of the family branches had their own stories, and too often strikingly different genealogies. 

There was also a differing strain coming from the family of Mary (Ann) Jones Thomas (B. 1853), a granddaughter of John Jones (b. 1782) through his son John (b. 1819). Mary (Ann) also had immigrated to Utah and died in Salt Lake in 1893.

Why were there so many discrepancies? Many differences seemed to originate about 100 years ago, about 100 years after our ancestors lived. 

So, let’s fix it! Get it right! Original records are more accessible now, or more readable via computer enhancement. 

Where did our “facts” originate? Did someone add that marriage because there was just nothing better in that parish, or did it really come from an indisputable source? Somebody, I keep telling myself, really has the family Bible!

I second Max Evans’ plea that we share information. Let’s post sources--firsthand ones are better; originals are better than transcriptions. Occasionally we may find a record that will put into question something we had believed as family gospel. (How easy is it to get the wrong Jones or Evans in Wales?)

Let’s find patterns that are logical in that particular family. Scrutinize the details: Do we recognize the witnesses at the wedding? Did the individual have the right profession? How could the bride or groom write their name when they never could before? Is that an abode we recognize from other family records? What was that person doing in a parish 40 miles away? 

Let’s remember that someone isn’t our ancestor simply because we (or a majority of our family) always believed it. It’s not a vote. Our ancestor is who he or she really is--or they’re not. And they want to be found.

I’m so excited to help in this research and to meet you, cousins all.

Warmly,

Marilyn Evans Taylor

NEW FAMILY HISTORY BLOG

THIS BLOG is for the descendants of Abel Evans (1812-1866) and Mary Jones Evans (1827-1895). It's purpose to to explore their ancestors, their siblings, and their cousins.

Abel Evans

Mary Jones Evans

We know quite a lot about Abel and Mary's life, as found in Ronald Dennis' book, Indefatigable veteran: history and biography of Abel Evans, a Welsh Mormon Elder (Provo, Utah: Rhydybont Press, 1994). Likewise, most of their direct descendants are reasonably well known.

These descendants have contributed to many family trees. Nevertheless, we still know little, with certainty, about their siblings, parents, grandparents, other ancestors, and cousins. Most of the personal profiles on these trees do not have sources to support the assertions being made.

Fortunately, a renewed interest in family history and genealogy is accompanied by an increasing number of available sources. FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, FindMyPast.org, and other websites make historical documents available. Many are indexed. Some include digital images that may be downloaded.

Many Evans' and Jones' family members are discovering these sources. The sources often support the assertions on family trees. For this we give thanks to the diligent genealogists who preceded us. But sometimes, often enough, family researchers find evidence that leads us in other directions.

I created this blog with the expectation and hope that those of us doing this work can share our research, explore possibilities, tender our conclusions for critique and discussion, and mutually support each other as we strive to understand and document this family.

We are all intelligent; we will sort this out. But no one person is smarter than a roomful of people. This blog is that room. I hope that many of the Evans and Jones descendants will want to join us. Doing it together; that's what will make the work easier and more pleasant.

This will be a place to post documents, photos, and stories about our Evans-Jones ancestors. It is, also, a place for comments, questions, answers, discussion, and for reaching consensus.

So, I invite you to follow this blog. Comment on what you see and read. Join as blog members so you can post content (send your requests by email). I also ask that you invite other family members whom you know to be working on these lines to join us as well.

Hela Hapus ! (that's Happy Hunting to us).