3 April  Monday  Bus to Minera and St. Mary’s

It takes 5-8 minutes to get to the Bus station.  I walk through the southeast entrance and walk through the building to station 6.  I check the timetable and see I have about 10 minutes to wait.  The door is open and it’s a little chilly out of the sun.  The bus arrives and about seven people get on-board. The driver doesn’t take cash, so I tap my card and I have a ticket.   The bus pulls out of the station on King Street.  It turns northwest on Regent and then southwest on A5152. Once we pass over the railway track that go to Wrexham Central, the bus turns west onto Watery Road and quickly rises up with old row houses on either side. We wait for a train at the second tracks that come south from Wrexham General. We move on passing Wrexham Maelor Hospital on the south side and the road becomes Croesnewydd.

We turn north at the traffic circle onto Rhy Broughton Lane, past the Ramada Plaza.  At the next traffic circle, we head west on B5101 (Berse Road), under the double carriageway A483 and meander north through the New Broughton, Brynteg, Brymbo, and Southsea areas before heading over to northeast slope of Coedpoeth.  The bus stops throughout and when we get over the hill to southwest side of the town and A525, the last of the passengers get out.  I am the only one left on the bus as we turn west to Minera at (Marston’s) Five Crosses Inn onto Minera Hall Road (A5426). It takes a minute to arrive in Minera, past the Minera Aided Primary School, and we stop at the Post Office triangle.  I thank the bus driver and get out. 

I walk the quarter mile up Church Road.  The sun and blue sky are beautiful, but the temperature is still brisk as we walk on the left side of the tiny two-lane road.  The neighborhood is pleasant and only a few cars pass.  At Tyn-y-Capel Inn (where I had originally wanted to have Sunday dinner after attending Church service at St. Mary’s) we cross the road and walk up a paved incline to St. Mary’s through an arched gate and into the church yard.  The fence and arch are painted a cheery blue.  It is a beautiful old building (1866) and tombstones stretch out in both directions amid the old trees and clumps of daffodils. I go into the church.  

Rev’d has since retired and she keeps the church operating when the current vicar rotates parishes throughout the month (four churches).  I take a look and the cross shaped church, compact but beautiful.  I step up behind the Alter and into the Vestry. 
I am allowed to look through the Births, Volumes #1 & #2 1780’s and on, and a larger book with Xeroxed pages of the originals.  The original documents are housed up in a former prison in Ruthin--35 minutes (18 miles) northwest .  I look through the originals book, but I cannot decipher any of the pail washed-out pages.  I put it aside and start looking at the Births. They are printed out in ancient typeface.  I start to find Jones’ but the earliest records are 1780’s. Not promising.

I take out my journal and begin writing down what I can see.  I find like nine names born 1773 on (starting with a David born on November 14), only problem—and a big one—there are absolutely no Mothers recorded in any of the books, just father’s name and occupations.  That’s the way they did it back then.  Big Red Flag.  I was told several times by the woman from Ruthin who found my original information that mother’s names were never recorded and the only way to find out about my ancestor’s siblings was to find the mother and the church they were married.  Now I know that Francis Jones (Charles B.’s father) was born in Minera, a baker that worked in the Corn Mill near Wrexham, but that was it.  There was a sibling sister, Elizabeth, but who she married I have no way of knowing her married name.  So her descendants are lost to me.  Likewise there is absolutely nothing that I see that would connect them to my 7^th GEN grandfather.

I am absolutely defeated.  I close up the books on the desk, and leave the church.  I walk through the grave yard but can not read anything on the ancient stones.  I head back up Church Road, past Tyn-

y-Capel Inn (where I had hoped to have Sunday lunch).   I notice the some houses are for sale at the old vicarage—it could be nice.  I wait on a bench at the park  for the bus in the warm sun and contemplate my big, huge ancestry search failure.  I am actually bummed that I didn’t find anything.  I did get to be here, looking out at a beautiful place where I have roots, but no closer to finding Charles B. or any contemporary living relatives.  

 [As a side note, I recently found a video on YouTube, Walking UK, Minera To Plas Power Woods, that was the exact places I had walked only the videographer/walker did the same stretch of road on Tuesday 4 April!]

The bus comes and I get on, retracing the route I had come by earlier.  I am back at the bus station in less than a half hour.  It is 13:35 and I feel like getting a Jacket Potato at La Baguette, but it is closed early.  I realize I still have to check into the Wynnstay Arms, so I walk back to the hotel.  There is a man in his fifties at the desk.  I retrieve my bags, he checks me in and gives me my room key.  The room is up on the first floor.  I settle in with my stuff and check out the bathroom.  The tub is fine the sink is small and the toilet is a glorified can on the floor against the wall—the lever is on the wall. 

I rest.  Every once in a while I can hear people taking down in the parking lot below the room.  Apparently the front entrance is right below.  Great.  I decide to eat cheaply and go to the restaurant/bar downstairs. I have Steak (not much) and Ale pie (funky crust) and no pint.  I am back in the room by 19:00.  I journal and recline--replenishing my sad soul.  I realize I still have to get a train ticket to Manchester Airport for Wednesday!—so I fret a little--hoping that the front desk might be able to help me in the morning.  I watch a little TV and fall asleep—after a lot of outdoor noises and voices.