| Background | The James family, James and Mary with 4 sons and a daughter, went out to Hughesovka in 1872. Mary James acted as midwife for the British community. Her daughter, Gwendoline, married David Waters of Swansea, a mason, who settled at Hughesovka in 1878. Both families appear on the lists of Welsh families in the town supplied to Sir Daniel Lleufer Thomas in 1896 by John J Hughes, the founder's son, and by the Russian Embassy in London. Mary James is listed as a widow, with her sons. David and Gwendoline Waters are listed with their 4 children, the fifth, David, was born the following year. Gwendoline Waters died in 1899. The two families returned to Wales in 1903, by which time Mary James had also died.
In 1905 Thomas James and his brother Samuel, sons of James and Mary James, employed by the New Russia Company, were awarded a medal by the Tsar for saving the lives of 13 Russians at Anensky Colliery, in the Ukraine. |