Mesopotamian Mystery

[WilliamPwllyfan]

A motor engineer, one John (Johnny) Ernald JONES, born Godrewaun, Glanamman, Betws, Carmarthenshire (LLANDILOFAWR) 1894 gets married to Isabel SAATILIAN, born c. 1894, in Baghdad, occupied Mesopotamia on 15 Dec 1920.

That was 95 years ago. Does anyone have a clue what happened next? I can't find any obvious births or deaths in the colonial, consular or UK BMDs.

Mandatory Iraq became independent in 1932, so I suppose they might have stayed on, but who knows?

[geneius]

Not much help, I have spent an hour looking, all I can see are his birth entry, 1901/1911 census entry and marriage cert on a couple of sites!

I resorted to ancestry public trees ( desperation) and found 2, you would need to decide if the info is connected to your research.

[WilliamPwllyfan]

I know. All I can find is the birth entry, 1901/11 censuses and the Mesopotamian marriage. After that, zilch. One of the Ancestry public trees is mine, and the other took the information from my tree.

So, where does one go from here? He doesn't seem to have come home to Glanamman: no M.I.s in the local cemeteries, including the family chapels. I can't find a probate record either. If there had been a child, I would have thought it would have been registered by the Mandate in Baghdad, as was the marriage.

Isabel's maiden surname SAATILIAN doesn't seem to exist anywhere apart from in the 1920 marriage entry. Odd.

[geneius]

Clutching at straws, trying to think out of the box, and how did he get to Mesopotamia between the 1911 census & marriage !920?

John Ernald JONES would have been the right age for joining up for WW1, I have found a JE JONES 37832 Somerset LI. On checking the Regiment history I can see this entry:

Sept 1918 Brigade attached to the 14th Indian Division and ended the war at Tekrit north of Baghdad, Mesopotamia.

Above extract form BG sister site https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk...ight-infantry/

[pwholt]

I feel certain you should pursue a military link to his life at that time. My grandfather served in Mesopotamia about that time with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. pwholt

[MrsPoppy]

The National Archives site has a medal card for J E Jones - Somerset Light Infantry, 37832 but the medal card details have his name as John Evan Jones. Could he have used a different middle name, I wouldn't discount this man as his war service took him to the correct area.

Mrs P

[helachau]

I know. All I can find is the birth entry, 1901/11 censuses and the Mesopotamian marriage. Odd.

Can't contribute to post 15 Dec 1920 but is this your boy? https://newspapers.library.wales/view...00/3349703/40/

[WilliamPwllyfan]

The medal cards tell me that John E Jones enlisted into the Welsh Regiment (Pte 34388) on 22 Apr 1915, and first saw action in the Asiatic Theatre on 30 Aug 1915. His war ended under KR Para 392 (XVI) on 28 Aug 1919 with the Somerset LI (Pte 37832). I can't seem to find his attestation papers (or any other papers, for that matter).

If that is my Johnny Ernald Jones, it would at least explain how he got to Iraq.

[Peter Goodey]

If that is my Johnny Ernald Jones

I'm afraid that's John Evan JONES. See the actual medal rolls.

[WilliamPwllyfan]

Diolch, helachau.

That's our man. Clever chap, too, getting a grammar school scholarship.

I can't find any talk of him enlisting in the jingoistic columns of the local papers, though. He would have been 20 in the spring of 1915, if he is indeed Pte 34388 of the Welsh Regiment.