John Yells Family, Genealogy

& Funny Stories



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Family

Pat and I have been married for over 40 years. We have 
no children. I am a retired Telecommunications Engineer 
who came to Nevada from California. 

The picture shows us in Alberta, Canada at the Jasper Ice fields on one of our many trips in our 5th wheel trailer. 

More photos and information can be found below on the Old Family Photos Pages. 
 


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Genealogy

The name "Yells" has English origins (John was born in England) and there are only about two dozen Yells' in North America and I'm related to half of them. An aunt, in England, has done considerable documented research on the family tree. I have the Yells family tree information in Family Tree Maker in my computer. To date, it has been traced back to 1703 to a place named Broughton Poggs in Oxfordshire. Work continues tracing it further. I have many photographs of my family that date back to the 1870's. Other surnames related to me are "Bromley-Smith", "Dryland", "Pay", "Jones" and "Benbow".  I am a decedent of Vice-Admiral John Benbow who is a well known English naval historical figure who died in 1702.

My wife, Pat,  has Irish origins, but as of this date not much on her family tree has been documented. Pat was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Both her grand parents were born in Ireland, but they didn't meet each other until they were in the U.S. Other surnames related to Pat are "Duddy", "Clements" and "Isham".  I have done some research at the LDS center in Logandale.  The family name Yells' has a very small population. The name hardly shows up anywhere in any genealogical data base.

My great-grandfather Josiah, homesteaded in  Canada at a place called Dagero.  It seems the location, now in present day
Ontario, was in dispute with Manitoba as Provincial boundaries were not settled at the time.  This makes it difficult to trace.  Josiah is buried in Winnipeg, Manitoba but little else of  record is known at this time. Descendants of  Josiah live in Washington State, California, Nevada and British Columbia, Canada.


Humorous Stories

George Dryland (photo), my Grandfather on his mother's side, was an early pioneer automobile driver in England for Daimler
Car Company. He had a license to drive in 1904!  He was also one of the world's greatest practical jokers. I am currently writing a book about George and his humorous exploits as a chauffeur and later as a London taxi driver. The following are some of those stories:

One day Nan and George had been fighting.  (Nan was his wife, my grandmother,  that all us kids called Nan).  Not in a physical sense, but nattering back and forth at each other all day.  Dinner was the stew and dumplings.  During dinner when everyone was sitting down eating, Nan got in one last word.  George exploded and threw his plate of food straight up into the air until it hit the ceiling.  Stew and dumplings and broken china showered everybody.  Mum said it was really funny but nobody dare make a sound.  When they moved years later the stain on the ceiling was still there and some quick explanation had to be made up to cover it.

One day outside Daimler cars, where he worked, was a mat mender.  He was sitting on the grate right outside the front door.  The boss was furious, as this could be bad for business being people had to go right past him.  George said he would get rid of him.  George when down into the machine shop and sharpened a point, using a grinder, on a long piece of shafting.  He then climbed down into the coal cellar and over to underneath the grate where the poor mat mender sat.  "Move along you bum" George said as he poked him in the rear with the pointed shaft.  The boss told George afterwards that he liked his end result but disapproved of his methods.

It was quite common for George to get a chauffeur assignment which would be a one person multiple day tour.  When up in Scotland while touring the British Isles with a doctor they found a very old abbots tomb inside an equally old church.  Being that there was apparently nobody around, the doctor and George decided to see if they could open the tomb.  George got a pry bar from the motorcar and they both started to try and pry off the huge stone cover off the tomb.  Then they were caught red-handed by the church custodian before they got the lid off.  "We just wanted to see how he was holding up after all these years" said George.

An additional story about George during WWII is on the Old family Photos Page 1.


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 Last Updated: 10-25-04


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