Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (12)

From Kentucky, to Virginia, then to London, and now to Wales.  Had not thought about Wales, and knew very little about this part of the world.  What in the world... became... where in the world.  Burke had provided a good deal of information about the Jones surname, and the particular arms that had become my lead.  The following text became the next source of information.

This reference became my guide book to Wales, and directed my search into the arms: "Per bend sinister ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or a bordure engrailed of the last".

It was a fairly slow process, and to give you some idea of the tree climbing involved, the following page in this text is shown.

You can see that a lot of marking and underlining took place among the pages, but a completed family tree is to be found around every curve.  "per bend sinister, ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or" is given among these branches leading from a fellow named Tudor Trevor.  A   "bordure engrailed" was not included, and this became another issue among all this heraldry stuff.  What was the JONES surname doing in Wales anyway.  Little did I know.

Heraldry Used in Tree Climbing (8)

By the mid to late 1980's, several topics regarding the Jones surname and coat of arms came into focus.  First, as a surname, there were more than 100 Jones families that had a "coat of arms" registered in Burke by the 1840's. [post of 6 November (1)]  Second, a fair number of references were available to help understand the basics of  "Armorial Bearings", and a general understanding of this topic could be achieved. [post of 28 December (2)]  Third, there seemed to be a clustering of symbols among these arms with 45% having some form of the "lion".  Various other symbols appeared being on the most part less than 10% for each symbol.  [post of 1 February (3)]  Four, beside the symbols, there were a number of ""tinctures" (base colors) scattered about these shields with the color "gold" being the most frequent (37%). [post of 2 March (4)]  Five, the geographic location of these Jones families could be outlined showing the counties of England, Wales, and Ireland that contained these arms.  [post of 26 March (5)]  Six, on this side of the great pond, an attempt to identify those families who were "Entitled to Coat Armor" had been published from those in Virginia where my own Jones family arrived in 1649. [post of 27 April (6)]  Finally...seven, a Jones family from my own home town published in 1891, an account of "Captain Roger Jones" that contained a coat of arms dating back to London. [post of 14 May (7)]

Wow...line 'um up!  Beside the Roger Jones listed above, Virginia Heraldica contained only three other Jones families "Entitled to Coat Armor" :  1) Jones. Sussex county...Ermine three lions , 2) Jones. Frederick county...Argent, a lion rampant vert, vulned in the breast gules , and 3) Jones. Prince George county... Per Bend sinister ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or a bordure engrailed of the last.  On to Virginia it is.

Heraldry Used in Tree Climbing (7)

Early on in my various tree climbing experiences... beside family stories... local resources play a dominate role.  The "court house" and local "public library" were often explored.  During one visit to the library the following reference was discovered:

Wow...I thought, a JONES family from my very own home town, written by a fellow JONES from my very own town, about a family being from "London and Virginia".  Could this be my JONES family?  Now "Roger" was not a first name that had been used among my family tree, but a "Captain"...hey I liked that.  Also, there were lots of other family surnames that seemed a bit foreign to my own tree branches.  The word "Descendants" was understood, but... antecedents?  Then I opened the book and...

On my...a coat of arms came with this family.  What a discovery it was believed.  Got to find out more about this fellow from Virginia and London.  Thank you Judge Lewis Hampton Jones who published this book in 1891... lead away.

Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (5)

Symbols and the tincture (base color) of the shield are the foundation to the "coat of arms".  Last post (4) described these topics for the arms that carried the surname JONES.  The next step was to see if the recorded families [for Jones] could be identified and located by counties.  The following tables show the results of this study by the symbols they presented in the last post. (4)

The surname Jones is listed by family groups from which the arms were identified in Burke.  The following figure continues the findings among the various symbols.

To show the geographic distribution among the counties represented, the following map was drawn.  Ireland, Wales, and central England gave the locations.

This was the distribution of the Jones families who were identified in Burke before 1870.  What a deal!

Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (4)

My interest in understanding the use and implication of this field called Heraldry, lead to several more steps to analyze the Jones surname coat of arms.  The following two figures show the results of other steps taken to this process.  They are given just to show that additional information can be obtained.  Please recognize that I understand very few folks would be this interested in the steps and procedures shown, but they  are given to demonstrate the findings of my own tree climbing.

The next figure continues the analysis all done some years ago.

This analysis help me form some ideas as to where to look for the roots to many who came to carry the surname Jones.

Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (3)

Symbols played an important part in all this heraldry stuff.  Upon each shield was placed a symbol which often was a self selected image of the person who carried the shield.   For the JONES surname, exploring these symbols to see if there were any common use was an early process.  The following figure shows the results of my study that contained 123 coat of arms for the JONES surname.  All would have been in use before 1850.  Each primary charge (symbol) was analyzed and organized as shown.  The "lion" represented the most common symbol among this group at 45%. 

One can follow the results shown in this figure which found a single lion in a standing position (called lion rampant) to be the most common symbol.  Other symbols as found are depicted with a cross/pheons (pheon = the barbed head of a dart or arrow) at 13%.  A variety of other symbols including swords/arrows, birds, boar's heads, Nag's head, Stags, Wolves, and of course the Bull.

Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (1)

Brick walls come in all shapes, sizes, and thickness.  Over the years, with a surname like JONES, you can imagine the number of obstacles that presented themselves along the way.   The purpose of this blog has been to communicate the different approaches I have used that might be helpful in your own tree climbing experiences.  The next several posts will begin a series on one method that has been the most fun, helpful, and yet most difficult.  It is the method using the topic called "Heraldry".

There were several stages in this process that need to be told. It really begins when after some 20 years of tree climbing, I was able to connect my family tree from Kentucky, which began in 1811, back to its roots in Virginia.   "Pewmansend Creek" [in present Caroline County] was the geographic landmark that helped make the connections.   It was the use of  "Heraldry" that took this Virginia location across the great pond to Wales. 

Of course, this did not happen all at once.  From my earliest days of tree climbing [starting at age 9], an interest in all things pertaining to knights, castles, swords, shields, coat of arms, and such things had a special attraction.   However, it was not until a book by Sir Bernard Burke was found during one of my many trips to "rare book stores" that got me going in earnest.   The title page is shown:

In this text it states: "Heraldry may be defined  'the art of blazoning, assigning, and marshalling coat armour' or more particularly 'the art of arranging and explaining in proper terms all that relates or appertains to the bearing of Arms, Creast, Badges, Quarterings, and other hereditary marks of honour".

Whew, quite a mouth full.  Anyway, this text was to serve as a reference and resource for this stage of the process.  It has served me well.   Let's keep going.  The next group of posts will describe this adventure.