North to South

From north to south, the Celtic tribal groups that formed the major part of our JONES DNA were the Deceangli, the Ordovices, the Cornovii, the Demetae, and the Silures. For my particular JONES family it would prove to be the Cornovii, Deceangli, and Ordovicies, that made most of the family tree. Always fighting among themselves, and between each other, they produced an extensive network of family fortifications, called hill-forts. These hill-forts were scattered all along the landscape, varying in size from just a few acres, to forts containing more than 15 acres. They most likely started as fortified family farms and were added onto generation by generation. My Jones family's area of the world yet to come, was dotted with the largest and most impressive. The heart of this land was centered around one fort called "Oswestry Old Fort". It guarded the land access route between the rich lands of the middle Severn valley, and the grazing land of the uplands. It also must have served as a central trading post and animal management center, for to go from the lowlands to the uplands, you would have to cross this narrow strip of land. What a deal. Fight, fight, and more fighting was the name of survival. Perhaps for my family, trade, trade, and more trading was the name of survival. It would appear that my Jones family would live to fight another day, or trade to live another day, or perhaps a little of both.