My family: an overview

My grandfather, Thomas Jones My father, Tristan Lloyd Jones
TJ (centre front) and the Coleg Harlech Council TLJ at The Observer

Family tree

The oldest "relation" we've found so far is a 12th Century German Lord. Any genealogists researching the names Wiemer, Hahn, Kugland, Schneller, Pfule / Pfuel / Pule, Schoeckh, Gueffroi in Salzburg or Prussia ... or Rigby, Brookfield, Brade, Parry, Woodcock in Liverpool, Shrewsbury or Wales ... are welcome to contact me (I would say Jones, Lloyd, Evans and Davies too, but there are rather a lot of us!). Better still, however, search on GenesReunited, as I have uploaded most of our records there (3000+ people; 18+ born before 1700, 148+ before 1800).

Famous relations of the recent past

My grandfather, Dr Thomas Jones, CH was once described as "one of the six most important men in Europe", and also as "the King of Wales"(!). Click on the link for more details on his life, and about a commemorative event in Rhymney in October 2005... I gave a talk on him at the Sixth John Briggs Memorial Lecture; a video recording may later be available on request.

His daughter — my aunt Eirene, Baroness White of Rhymney — was a Labour peer and had a distinguished political career: for details see her obituary in The Guardian and The Telegraph. [The Times obituary is now only available as a paid service.] Gregynog Press have produced a 30 page tribute to her; Cardiff University also had a tribute; and the National Library of Wales has a photo of when she was first elected.

Her brother — my father, Tristan Jones — was Manager & Director of The Observer. He was also a prolific collector of antiques and curios; his collection of commemorative ceramics (sold in 1991) was apparently the world's largest.

Infamous relations of the present day

Newspaper article My aunt, Marlene Yeo, has had a distinguished career as an anti-nuclear campaigner. Click on the image at left to get the full picture (262K), or here for the Leicester Mercury's own abbreviated text version. She also wrote a children's adventure book, "Amina and the Moshi Makers" (pub. Longmans Arusha/Kampala/Nairobi, 1966).
Revolting granny My mother, Anneli Jones, has also had a distinguished career as a Green Party candidate and peace campaigner. Click on the image to see a recent (2007) article about her in the local press. On the right is a photograph from a few years before, showing her on her way to the "2 million people" demonstration in London against the Iraq war. The 'funeral-style' placard she is holding bears a pun on the most famous phrase in Hagakure, the Japanese book of the Samurai. The Samurai were also known as "Bushi", and while the original says "The Way of Bushi is the Way of Death" (often phrased as "the way of the warrior is the way of death"), this version says "The Way of Bush is the Way of Death".
(For those who can read Japanese, the original is: 武士道は死ぬことと見つけたり while the new version is ブッシュ道は死ぬことと見つけたり).
The Way of Bush[i] is the Way of Death

Siblings

I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. One brother is a Professor of West African History at Leipzig University; his wife is the concert pianist Mariko Mitsuyu. My other brother runs the company Windowmaker which produces probably the best windows software in the world (not that Microsoft Windoze stuff — it's to design and manufacture real windows for real houses etc.). One sister is a project & programme management consultant. The other sister is based in South Africa and runs the Children of Fire charity as well as ithemba! Publishing, which produces bilingual books for children (English & Zulu, Afrikaans & Xhosa etc. — see Amazon UK / US / FR). She also wrote a highly regarded book on the Channel Tunnel. As you'll gather if you look at the other pages on this website, I myself run a translation company in Thanet, specializing in oriental languages and Japanese in particular.

Current cohabitants

My wife Noriko and two children Barry (14) and Clara (12). We now live in Birchington (allegedly the second-largest "village" in the UK), a few miles away from the 'ancestral seat' in St Nicholas-at-Wade, and the famous gate with multilingual "Beware of the Dog" signs.
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