Keeping up with the Jones

[Pandabean]

Hey all, just had a thought that took me back to my tree today and a family that I haven't dealt with in a while. The Jones family, originally from Kilmallie Near Fort William and later moved to Glasgow.

Im a bit confused as to why my Great Great Grandfather had so many jobs.

He is John Jones (b.abt 1854, Kilmallie) , married to Mary Riddell (b. abt 1853, Glasgow) in 1877, Dennistoun, Glasgow.
In 1878 he was a baker Journeyman.
From 1879 to 1892 he was a Police Constable and I have his service record for that. No idea why he left.

In 1901 he was a Hall Door Porter in Glasgow.
In 1906 he was a Warehouse Time Keeper
1909 - 1911 he was a Wine Storeman
On his sons death certificate in 1934 he listed his father (Deceased) as a Drapery Warehouse Hoist Attendant

Now I have seen jobs vary for individuals but these seem to be completely different trades. Can anyone explain why someone would be jumping about in jobs like this? It also doesn't seem that they are the bottom end jobs, such as a few others in my family.

Also interestingly his a couple of his son's worked for the Rail Network as signalman and porter.
R
Now the final piece I have never been able to find is a death certificate for either John or Mary, but I know roughly it was before 1927. Can anyone offer any help on this? Jones is just as bad as Smith when looking.

There was a rumor that I heard from a family member that they had moved to Wales, but again, I can find no trace of them there.

Cheers,
Andy

[johnniegarve]

I think a miner would be better paid than most of the jobs mentioned!

[Currie]

Hello Andy,

I suppose the possibilities are endless. Maybe he was a bit of a drifter, he didn’t like the jobs or the jobs didn’t like him. Maybe the employers business went bust. Maybe it was downsized because of a general economic down turn. That even happens to the police. Perhaps it was just a case of opportunity knocking elsewhere.

Regarding the deceased father’s occupation on the son's death certificate. Maybe it was the only occupation they knew about. You might think that if they were given a choice of many they would have given the most prestigious, policeman?, but maybe that's too far in the past. Perhaps the one given was the last the father had before his death.

If he did move to Wales then John and Mary Jones would have to be the worst possible combination of names in the worst possible place.

See FreeBMD http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl In the year 1927 there were umpteen John Jones deaths and about the same number for Mary Jones. Most of these appear to be in Wales. You can narrow the search by putting the range of possible years of birth in the Death age/DoB box thus @1853-1855 and you’ll get too many to mention. And that’s only one year.

Maybe you’ll find a district, or districts, with both a John and a Mary Jones death that seems to fit the picture but you’ll still be faced with the problem of expensive death certificates that contain very little information and probably nothing to link to the family you’re researching.

By any chance was there a child with an unusual name who would likely have gone to Wales with them?

No help at all,
All the best,
Alan

[Pandabean]

Johnie - would they really? Most of the miners in my family ended up in the poorhouse at some point.

Alan -
I thought perhaps with the police he left as had completed x number of years service. From his record he was promoted up to 1st class constable and made a handful of arrests in that time. Would this just be a different grade of constable in terms of pay?
Yeh Jones is a bad combination especially in Wales. Unfortunately the only unusual bit is Mary's surname, Riddell and only one of their children carried that as their middle name and I have found his death up here in Scotland. So far out of the 6 or 7 children I have managed to trace 5 of them, including my great gran. Their last child is proving difficult to trace, a William Jones born in Glasgow, between 1891 and 1900. Can't make out the age on the 1901 census as they have ticked off his age as they were going through it.

The only other thing I noticed is that from his police service he did move around 5-6 times in the 13 years, but then this is nothing unusual considering people were moving around alot.

As for the Wales connection, all that I have to go on for that is something a cousin mentioned to me once, however as for how accurate it is, is unknown. But he did remember there was a Policeman from Glasgow in the family.

The reason behind trying to get a death certificate for the couple is that Mary Riddell is part of my direct maternal line and I have only one reference for her parents which I am not convinced if it is correct as I couldn't find a record of them when I was searching a few years back.
Does the surname Vawel ring any bells with anyone? Not a name I have come across in the present.

[SarahND]

Does the surname Vawel ring any bells with anyone? Not a name I have come across in the present.

Hi Andy,
There are few enough when one does a general search, that I would suspect it to be a typo or an obscure spelling variant of something else. There is a group of them briefly in Norfolk and some Vawels with an "s" in Somerset, but there are quite a few more spelt Vowel or Vowell or Vowels all in England or Wales.

All the best,
Sarah

[Pandabean]

Apologies, I'm sure its Vance. I last looked at it properly 4 years ago, my eyesight must have improved.

[SarahND]

Could you share with us the secret of improving eyesight? Most of us seem to be going the other direction!

Cheers,
Sarah

[Pandabean]

I wish I knew....I could start a mini empire with that knowledge.

I guess over the years my eyes have got more used to reading old writting, 4 years ago I was rushing around the tree way to quickly.

[Falkyrn]

The only other thing I noticed is that from his police service he did move around 5-6 times in the 13 years, but then this is nothing unusual considering people were moving around alot.

Actually the movement of constables was relatively rare and they often stayed in the area for which they were initially appointed. In the 1860's/1870 a process of change was starting in the police in Glasgow

I thought perhaps with the police he left as had completed x number of years service. From his record he was promoted up to 1st class constable and made a handful of arrests in that time. Would this just be a different grade of constable in terms of pay?

The grading was a sort of promotion that shows he was reasonably well thought of. At that time the poilce service in Glasgow suffered a very high turnover rate with the majority of those being dismissed through drink. Many also didn't take to the 12 or 14 hour shifts 6 days a week (7 days if you were a night constable) in addition to which, for a certain period after going off duty the Constable had to remain in uniform in case of recall to duty.

In the period you mention Glasgow started to expand the Force and reorganise and adopted a 3 shift system which was similar to that pioneered by the Metropolitan in London. A good book to read regarding the history of the police in Glasgow is "The Thin Blue Line".

[Currie]

Hello Andy,

The ‘Jones’ problem would be a bit of an annoyance when it's in your direct line.

Unfortunately, all you'll get on an English/Welsh death certificate is the date and place of death, name of deceased, sex, age at death, occupation, cause of death, and name and address of informant. Here's an example.
http://www.progenealogists.com/images/E ... Update.jpg

All the best,
Alan