As mentioned above three of our great grandaunties and one great granduncle went back to Wales after their mother died in Newcastle in 1888. Eventually Uncle Thomas and Aunty Rachel later returned to Australia as adults. Briefly, this is what we know of all of Grandma Wilmott’s siblings:
Evan Daniel Jones
(2nd great) Uncle Evan was born in Rhymney in January 1873 and was 5 years old when the family arrived in Australia in 1878. While Evan had no natural children of his own, he married a widow Esther Payne (nee Thomas) and became stepfather to her children Gertrude, William and Thirza Payne.
Evan and Esther lived in Pelaw Main, near Kurri Kurri, where he worked in the local mine. Esther died in 1928 and Evan, after he retired, moved to Newcastle to live with his sister Grandma Wilmott. He died here on the 11th June 1949, aged 76 years.
Evan Jones was a volunteer in World War I and his war story is briefly told below. He and “Essie” are buried at Sandgate Cemetery in the Church of England section.
See following post on Evan’s war record.
Thomas Abel Jones
(2nd great) Uncle Tom was born in Rhymney towards the end of 1877. He was still a baby when the family came to Australia. Along with his father and younger sisters he returned to Wales at some time after 1888.
In 1901 he was working as a miner and living as a boarder with his sister and her family at 6 Hill Street Rhymney.
In 1911 he was living in New Tredegar (pronounced. “Tred-yer”), a newly established housing estate close to Rhymney with his sister Rachel and her family. He was working in Rhymney as a coal-miner (hewer).
He came back to Australia in 1916 and worked as a coal-miner at Burwood colliery. In the later years of his life he lived in Wilton Street with Grandma Wilmott and Goll. He never married and passed away in February 1944.
Rachel Ann Jones
(2nd great) Aunty Rachel was born at Lambton (in Newcastle) in 1879. She lived there until after her mother’s death when she travelled back to Wales in the late 1880s.
In 1901 she was living at 6 Hill Street Rhymney with her younger sister Margaret Ellen and family. The following year she married Thomas Jones (thereby saving herself the trouble of adopting a new surname).
In 1911 Rachel and Thomas were living in New Tredegar (near Rhymney) at 8 Woodland Terrace. Thomas (aged 33) worked in an underground mine as a fireman. Their children were daughter Mary (aged 9); daughter Ivy Christine (aged 6); son Evan (aged 3); and baby Beryl Edwina (10 months).
In 1916 Rachel, an Australian citizen, returned to Australia with her husband and children, and the family lived in Darby Street Newcastle.
Aunty Rachel died on 22nd October 1949 aged 70 years and was buried at Sandgate cemetery in the C of E Section.
Margaret Ellen Jones
(2nd great) Aunty Margaret was born in Newcastle at Lambton on 20th July 1881. As with the other younger children in the family, she went to Wales with her father after her mother’s death.
She married Henry Lewis Vines (a coal miner – hewer) in December 1899 and, at the 1901 Census, she was living at 6 Hill Street Rhymney with Henry, daughter Mary Lilian (aged 1 year); and son David John (aged 5 months). Her sister Rachel and brother Thomas Abel were also living there as boarders.
At the 1911 Census the family was living at 48a Hill Street Rhymney. Mary Lilian was now 11 and David John was 10. A third child Anne was 8 years old.
I have no further information about Margaret at this stage, other than that she died in Rhymney in 1928 aged 47 years.
Sarah Elizabeth Jones
(2nd great) Aunty Sarah was born on 28th June 1883 at Lambton and went to Wales sometime after her mother died in 1888.
She married David William Rees on 4th July 1901. There were two children: Mary (born 1903); and David Daniel (born 1904). Sadly, her husband David died the following year leaving Aunty Sarah a widow.
In July 1907 she was married to George Henry Cox and with him she had seven children: Grace Lillian (b. 1907; Elizabeth Doreen (b. 1909); Thomas Alwyn (b. 1911); Frederick (b. 1913); Rachel (b. 1914); Arthur (b. 1916); and Enid (b. 1918).
The following year her second husband also died, leaving Sarah a widow looking after nine children all aged under 17 years.
She died in Rhymney in March 1946 aged 62 years.