TOPIC:

My Grandfather, Griffith Jones, traveled to South Africa from Llanbedrog, North Wales, to build barracks during the Boer War. He was a civilian. I represent his 13 grandchildren who are interested in knowing the kind of activities he may have been involved with. I suspect he was somehow attached to the Royal Welsh Fussiliers. I just read the information on the block houses. He might have been involved with that as well. e believe he was in the Johannesburg region. He came from a long line for builders and craftsmen and he worked as a ships carpenter. When he emegrated to the United States he continued his profession and became a general contractor in Rochester, NY. Any insight or information you might have would be greatly appreciated. It does not have to be specific to him, rather those who did construction work during the war in general..

Hi

The blockhouses were built by the Royal Engineers (RE) I believe, but men from many units would have manned them. He may have been in the RE or worked for them as a civilian.

I would start by checking the Queens South Africa medal roll for the RE on Ancestry. Jones is a common name so you may find it difficult to find him. The problem is that they would likely just list his initial and surname so it may be hard to pin down who is whom.

The other angle you could take is the shipping lists. If you can work out which ship he travelled on and when it will give you dates he was there. I think these are on Ancestry as well.

Here is a little bit on the block houses:
www.bwm.org.au/site/Blockhouses.asp

Good luck
Ryan