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  1. #1
    Brick wall demolition expert!
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    Cool A Christmas well spent

    Over the Christmas holiday I thought that I would take advantage of the rest from “normal” life to take another look at my Roberts family tree and see if there were any “new” records that I could add to it.

    One of the first things I looked at was to try and solve the riddle of why my gt. gt. grandfather, Evan, stopped being a shoemaker in the late 1880s and became instead a quarry labourer. I knew that he couldn’t have been completely destitute, because when he died in 1899 it is apparent from his Will that he owned his house. So I asked the Gwynedd FHS, if they had any ideas about what was happening in the local economy of Caernarfon at that time, and one of their members said, that they knew that one of their ancestors who had been a shoemaker had been driven out of business by the arrival of mass produced shoes from factories. A quick check of census data supports that. In the census years up to and including 1881 there were around 130 shoemakers in the Carnarvon registration district, and this fell by 50% by the 1891 census.

    Another mystery concerned, Evan’s son, Evan, or as he appears on some censuses “Evan Evan Roberts”! I knew that he was born around 1870, but not exactly where, as it was about the time the family left Caernarfon town for smaller villages. All the birth records that I had tracked down for the children of Evan senior showed just one first name, although all his sons often appeared with “Evan” as a middle name, and so as the name Evan Roberts is not uncommon in Caernarfonshire, the chances of finding the correct birth certificate had been slim, but now with GRO index complete with mother’s maiden name available, I have found it, and it has proved crucial in the next step of the story.

    Family lore had it that Evan junior had emigrated to the USA in the early 1900s, and that he had a son called Emlyn, who was born in Wales, and that Evan junior would send money home to his widowed mother from time to time. One of my father’s cousins had a picture of Evan and Emlyn standing in front of the “Barre Granite Works”. The last definite record found for Evan junior was the 1881 census.

    Well I used all my “skills” over a number of years trying to verify this, and was convinced that he must have gone to Vermont, USA as there is a place called “Barre” there. About 5 years ago a lady in the USA pointed me in the direction of some records in Pennsylvania, which looked liked they could be him and his son, but how to verify it? The over Christmas I found on line his Pennsylvanian death certificate, which has his date of birth and his parents’ names (including his mother’s maiden name)!

    So I now know that he emigrated in 1888, that he married in New York State in 1900, that his son was born there not in Wales, and that he ended up being a very successful businessman owning his own monumental masonry business called the BARRIE Granite Works, (note the extra “i”) in Scranton, PA. I can only guess that he emigrated about the same time that his father’s shoemaking business in Caernarfonshire failed. What an undertaking for an eighteen year old man who probably spoke very little English when he left home.

    So all in all a well spent few days.

  2. #2

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    Well done, Megan. It is so satisfying isn't it when loose ends get tied up. I have a vision of you grinning from ear to ear.
    Alma

  3. #3
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    A fantastic story Megan. Once again your perseverance has paid off. Congratulations.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  4. #4

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    Well done, Megan. You’ll have to do a One Place Study of Caermarfon - you get to watch history happening as occupations, etc, change...

  5. #5
    Super Moderator - Completely bonkers and will never change.
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    A classic example of the importance of checking for new records every so often. Even a year can make a difference in what else you can find.

    So pleased that you've been able to finish off another loose end - it's a lovely feeling, isn't it.

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  6. #6
    Famous for offering help & advice
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    Definitely well spent!

  7. #7
    Brick wall demolition expert!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lesley Robertson View Post
    Well done, Megan. You’ll have to do a One Place Study of Caermarfon - you get to watch history happening as occupations, etc, change...
    There are those who know a lot more about Caernarfon than I do, so I would not dare!

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