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  1. #1
    hilarykellis
    Guest

    Default Help with Welsh ancestors with similar names!

    Hello all,

    I have been slowly working away at my Welsh side of the family for several years on and off. My current brickwall is Jane Roberts. Jane married William Edwards in Llanelidan, Denbighshire on 1 Jun 1807. The groom was from Llangollen and bride was of the parish. Witnesses were David Wynne and Margaret Davies; so far I don't know if these were relations of just friends. Thanks to a distant cousin, I have William traced pretty well as his family lived on the same farm in Llangollen for generations and some left wills. But I haven't been able to find any record of Jane. Unfortunately, she also died fairly young on 14 Mar 1846 in Llangollen, age 54 per the parish register. I found her in the 1841 census and she is given as 50 years old. Her husband is a collier and they live in Trevor Issa, Llangollen.
    I am not sure where to go from here because the name Jane Roberts is so common in Wales and because I don't know her exact birth year (seems to be between 1790-1792) or birthplace, siblings' names, etc.
    Her children were also given fairly standard names:
    Mary, William, Ann, Eliza, Edward, Richard, Sarah, Harriet, another Edward, and another Ann in that order.
    Jane's husband's parents were Edward and Mary. He didn't have any sisters I'm aware of so some of the girls' names may be from Jane's family. He also did not have any brothers named Richard, so there's a possibility for Jane's father's name (pure speculation, of course).
    Any suggestions, please let me know and thank you in advance!

  2. #2
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default

    I wish you luck, and you might find come across something.

    I've checked the Church of Wales parish register for Llanelidan, which Findmypast have, and there is no baptism for a Jane Roberts in the 1790s.

    This is a link to the GENUKI page Llanelidan parish:
    https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/DEN/Llanelidan

    It lists all the non-conformist chapels, and its quite possible that they were members of the chapel.

    She and William Edwards would have had to have married in the Church of Wales, because that was the only legal place to do so.

    I had a quick look to see if Family Search have the non-conformist chapel registers, but I can't spot them.

    Back in the 19th century non-conformists were required to provide copies of their registers to Govt and these are available under the National Archives series RG4, 5 and 8. The link below is to the National Archives guide.
    https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...and-and-wales/

    You will see from that guide that they have done a deal with BMD Registers to make them available on line and that is a pay to view site.

    Another speculative thought might be to try looking at the 1841 census for the parish of Llanelidan - there are only 18 Roberts family there at that time.

  3. #3
    Knowledgeable and helpful
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Wiltshire
    Posts
    731

    Default

    Hilary, May I direct you to a book titled The Surnames of Wales by John & Sheila Rowlands, first published 1996 by FFHS. They tackle the question of locating Welsh surnames, and while you already have a place, their survey of surnames will give you some sense of the scale of what is before you. ROBERTS is definitely a name of North Wales, particularly Caerarvonshire, Denbighshire and Merionethshire. The usage/occurence is 15% of the names there compared with an average over the country of 3.9% EDWARDS is also one of the more common names but not so clearly located.They also have pie charts showing the religious interests of the various regions, and in Denbighshire, Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodist outstrip Church of Wales (C of E?) by far.
    My own interest is the family of Mary Roberts born circa 1831 whose baptism I found in a Methodist chapel near Llannefydd.Father's name: Robert!No younger siblings found but father was a widower, so there may be some older. pwholt

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