Smile

[Megan Roberts]

Whilst looking through the 1851 census for someone I came across the Owens family living in Llanllyfni, Caernarvonshire (Piece 2515 Folio 130 Page 10), whose 26 year old daughter is called "Happy". I thought to myself that's not very Welsh!

So I went backwards and had a look in the 1841 census to see if I could find them there. Luckily they had their son Edward, and he's the only Edward Owens in the village, so it wasn't hard to track them down, and now I am pretty certain that "Happy" was really Abegail which isn't Welsh either - in fact in 1841 there are only 5 girls with that name in the whole of Wales, so I am no clearer than I was in the beginning.

[Sue Mackay]

I remember a woman in Canada giving birth to twins on the day that Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the maternity ward. She named them Happy and Gloria! I often wonder how happy Happy felt about it in later life

[helachau]

FMP has the baptism of Abigail Owen, 21 Sep 1823, Llanllyfni, parents David and Mary ( as per 1851 Census)

I take"Happy" to be the enumerator mishearing "Abby".

[Megan Roberts]

FMP has the baptism of Abigail Owen, 21 Sep 1823, Llanllyfni, parents David and Mary ( as per 1851 Census)

I take"Happy" to be the enumerator mishearing "Abby".

Could well be - I've already found "mainer" for "miner"!

[thewideeyedowl]

Good evening to you all...

I think that 'Happy' is easy to explain here. As Hellachau has already said, there could be an element of mis-hearing but I suspect it was a problem with aspirate ('h') sounds*. Here, an 'h' being sounded where it shouldn't be ('Happy' instead of 'Abby').

'b' and 'p' are, respectively, the voiced ('b') and unvoiced ('p') versions of the same sound, made with the lips. And if, like me, you lip-read, 'b' and 'p' (and 'm') are the same. Very confusing!

Swooping off.

Owl

* An initial 'h' may also be omitted, e.g. "Come 'ere, 'Enry!" for "Come here, Henry!"