Welcome to the Anglesey History blog. I’m Warren Kovach, and I’ve developed the Anglesey History web site over the past 25 years. The site started with pages about the history and natural history of the Isle of Anglesey, as well as the Menai Strait bridges, and has been expanded over the years to include major sections about the windmills, prehistoric monuments and churches and chapels around the island, as well as other topics such as South Stack, the Royal Charter sinking, books about Anglesey and up-to-date weather information. It also includes details of my books, Anglesey Through Time, Anglesey in 50 Buildings, and A-Z of the Isle of Anglesey.
This blog joins my Twitter feed and Facebook page as a way to post more informal information about my investigations of the island’s history. I’ll be writing about places I’ve visited, facts and stories that I’ve been tracking down, and anything else I think might be of interest to those who love the history of Anglesey.
Anglesey History 
Dolen i dudalen Facebook Eglwys Llanfaglan, yma, sy’n caele i rheoli gan y rhai syn gaofalu am yr eglwys yn lleol. https://www.facebook.com/groups/123515467700533/
Dear Warren
I was fascinated to find that my Nain, Ruth Jones, 1880 – 1995, came from Rhoscefnhir and her father was the miller.
I have been to see the stump of the Melin Orsedd and you say ” This mill is located in the garden of a house, down a short lane in the village of Rhoscefnhir, near Pentraeth. …. The earliest record is from 1856 when John Jones was listed in Slater’s Directory as being the miller. Subsequent millers, Thomas Jones and Robert Williams, were recorded in 1883 and 1889. It is thought that the mill may have burned down in the early 20th century.”
My friend found that the family owned more mills, including Melin y Graig which is now on sale and in the Daily Post it says “The mill was run by a succession of millers until it closed in 1893. The last miller, William Jones, was also the last miller of two other Anglesey mills, thus earning himself the nickname Angau Melinau ( Angau being the personification of death in early Welsh legends, and melinau meaning “mills”)”
So William Jones could have been my Nain’s Dad.
I use to visit my Aunty Laura at Caerffynnon (?) the Jones family house in Rhoscefnhir, and near the Mill, and my Aunty Annie lived around the corner in a house by a drive that would have led to the mill.
Do you know any more about this family?
I am in Australia at present – wishing I could have been back to do more research into my family history!
But one day
I will spend more time reading your site now I have found it
Best wishes
Liz Millman nee Williams
Thanks for your comment. I had a look at the censuses for Rhoscefnhir around this time. My description of the mill is mainly from the Guise and Lees book, but what they have doesn’t really match up with what is in the census. In 1880 and 1881 the mill was run by a Rowland Williams, who lived there with his wife and three young children. In 1891 it was unoccupied, and neither Thomas Jones nor Robert Williams are in the area. I also don’t see a child named Ruth Jones in the village for either census. In 1901 a John Jones was living there, but he was just 32, so couldn’t be your Nain’s father.
The Cae’r Ffynnon house was occupied by a tailor Hugh Thomas for several decades (from 1841 to 1891), followed by his son Richard Huw Thomas, who was living there in the last censuses of 1901 and 1911.