Foreward This history of the Jones Family of Gorsebrook, Stafford Road, Bushbury, Wolverhampton owes its existence to two strands of investigation. These were begun quite separately, by two descendants of Richard Jones senior who was born in 1811 (second cousins) who not only had never met, but were not even aware of each others existence! By far the greatest stimulus was provided by Mary Phillipson (a great great grand daughter of Richard Jones senior) whose persistence and detective work ultimately led to her tracking down the author. Mary is also responsible for unearthing the majority of the information regarding the early history of the family, having spent many hours delving into the records kept at the Wolverhampton Archives Office and the Stafford Records Office. Mary also tracked down Betty Whittall, the widow of another second cousin (Thomas Royston Wootton Whittall). Betty was able to fill in many of the gaps regarding the children of Richard Jones junior (born 1842). The author had started on building up the Jones family tree in the hope of presenting it at a Millenium party jointly attended by the descendants of Henry (Harry) Jones (Richard Jones junior's second son), and the Thompson family. The two families had close connections. Two of Henry Jones's sons married two Thompson daughters. Sadly the tree never grew very satisfactorily as there were too many holes. These have now largely been filled. The author picked up the baton from Mary, verifying and expanding detail, and carrying out background research to put the development of the family into a social and economic context. However, Mary has done all the devilling regarding Charles Jones (born 1870) and the Metropolitan Railway. In reading this history it has to be appreciated that some of the scenarios are conjecture. Where this is so, it is made clear in the text. However, in all cases where there is conjecture, it is based on factual information from which it is not unreasonable to draw the inferences that have been drawn. There are some obvious gaps in the family history which I would very much like to fill. In particular, whilst I have good information on Charles Jones's business career with the Metropolitan Railway, I know nothing of his wife and family. Similarly I have only very sketchy information on his sisters Edith, Alice, Anne and Florence. If you can fill any of these gaps, please contact Chris Jones at chrishena@blueyonder.co.uk Chris Jones
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