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Hi, again! Think I've been unintentionally patronising! For some reason I thought you were American, hence my detail as to what a Workhouse was. Sorry! C

Hi. So sorry to have taken so long to reply. I haven't been checking this for ages! Very interested to hear more about the Byles family that you have reported. Amazingly, within the last couple of months a lady called Louise, originally from Wales, but who has lived in Malaysia for the past 25 years, and I have connected on MyHeritage, which I'd just joined, and she is a 4th-6th cousin, sharing a common ancestor, ie Jane. In the last month we have made a huge breakthrough and broken down the brickwall that was Charles Bureau! We are so excited. If you're interested in knowing more about his family from Quebec, please let me know. Anyway, here's the (almost!) drowning you were looking for! We found out through posts on rootschat that he was killed on board ship in a terrible accident in 1853, whilst serving with the Royal Navy. 7 poor souls died altogether, and as it happened in Portuguese waters, they consigned them to the deep that same evening. No death certificate was ever issued (which is why there's no public record of his death). And, something I consider horrible, due to the military and naval policy in those times, their RN records were erased after a few years, which is the reason that we could never find his RN service! Charles Ferdinand Bureau was Jane Jones's first husband. Lettice Jones who was Valentine John's first wife, was Jane's sister. Some family trees on MyHeritage and Ancestry have mixed up Lettice and Jane, not realising Lettice died in 1855, but showing Val J still married to her and having all 7 of their children, and her being called Lettice Jane. When Val J was widowed in 1855, he was left with one very young son, Samuel, named for Val J's father. Jane was also left with a little son, Charles Abraham Bureau. So, not long after 1855 it seems Jane and Val J set up home together, and eventually had 5 children together. They moved from Portsea to Bangor in N Wales, where Val J became a coastguard(!!). Some of the children were born there, including Rosetta in 1859. I expect you know this history, now? They eventually moved to Pembrokeshire, where the other children were born, and where Val J died in 1900, followed by Jane in 1901. I know quite a bit about the Byles family, ancestors etc, but Louise and I are struggling to find Jane and Lettice's family. It's always more difficult to trace Welsh ancestors than English ones, as most of the Welsh are non-conformist, and as such, their birth, marriage and death records are only in their chapel's register. A lady in Pembrokeshire archives is helping us, but no luck so far, though a couple of guesses. We know Jane and Lettice's father was Thomas Jones (named on both marriage certificates), and he died in 1850, between April when Lettice married, and July when Jane married. Seems Mary John was a sister, too, as previously mentioned. Looking for the right  Jones in non conformist Wales??? A very tall order. I'm very interested to see you are a younger generation than myself and sister; also v interested to hear about your relationship to Bessie Rees, our grandfather, Albert's sister. I can't find her after 1921 census. Family story says she was a suffragist, who later became the Liberal Party political agent in Aberdare. But I can't find any info on this. As you will no doubt know, Rosetta and the children who still lived at home in Pembrokeshire, all went to live with the oldest brother, John, in Aberdare. It seems Rosetta's hubby, John Howell Rees, didn't go with them. He moved to live with his daughter Annie Cousins, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, and sadly died in the Workhouse there in 1921. I'm guessing you know about Workhouses? They usually had a hospital attached, and it's where poor people were treated, and sometimes subsequently died. Rosetta died in 1940, her last years spent living with her son, Harry, who'd been a butcher. Anything further info you can share about the family, would be gratefully received.
 

Thanks so much Eyesee! I wonder if the Jane Jones born/baptised 1822, dad Thomas, mum Mary, is ours?? It could be promising. The Pembroke archives couldn't find anything, but they were looking in Cuffern/Roch parishes, as directed by me, as Jane and Lettice's birthplace is given as Cuffern on the censuses. His occupation as mariner could fit in with what's on the girls' marriage certificates, as rigger.

Lettice!

Thanks for this very useful information. It's enabled us to break down a longstanding brickwall.