Taking a virtual road trip to Pembrokeshire
Licking my wounds after DNA took a knife to my ambitions of Wirksworth ancestry and mostly ripped apart a cracking story, leaving elements of the family tree and lingering doubts...
...it was delightful to scamper through the lanes of Pembrokeshire this last weekend (or two), and frankly mop up, collecting a rather interesting corner of the family tree, and absolutely passing 'Go' on the way back.
Many folk are using cluster tools in DNA to prettily depict connections between various cousins. I must confess I tend to use right click and mouse to home in on any new bunch of names.
I thought it was time to look at the following cluster:
F. R. 21cM
Katherine O. 16cM
Teresa T. 24cM
Shirley G. 22cM
Stuart B. 23cM
Jennifer B. 21cM
ThruLines told me that F. R. was a descendant of John Francis 1817 but was very silent on the others. In theory then all the above folks ought to be related in some way shape or form to my Francises, from Pembrokeshire, being as John was born there, and his brother, my forebear William, too.
Teresa T.'s tree was quite brief, just naming her father, but that was enough to work out that Katherine O. was actually her sister. Both were raised in Utah and have a long pedigree there going back to early settlers, who feature in the buzzing Deseret News of 1862. Speaking of which I had no idea 'til just now that Nevada was formerly part of Utah Territory.
Introducing the James sisters
Shirley G.'s tree I had looked at before, and the way it stacked, I really liked her great-great-grandma, Eleanor Maria James, born in 1844, who was of known Pembrokeshire stock. That seemed to be the link. Poring over the rest of Shirley's tree, I am not seeing Pembrokeshire, or Wales, anywhere.
By the time I came to look at Teresa T. and Katherine O. a few months later, amnesia had set in, and I couldn't remember anything about this. I gaily homed in on THEIR great-great-grandma, Catharine Anne James, born in 1840. Now it would have paid me richly to have attempted to link her up with Eleanor, but of course I didn't do that. I had forgotten all about Eleanor. So I did the spadework the hard way.
Who was Catharine?
Catharine was helpfully listed on all trees everywhere as 'born in Wales'. Yes, well thanks. She had married 'aged about 12' because she needed to be ready to have her first child at 15 to fit the records. Clearly that was all hokum, and her first child, it seems, was a stepchild. She actually married at 20, was out of the country barely a year later, had her own firstborn at St Louis, before crossing the plains and somehow making the famed Deseret News as an arrival in 1862 [tbc]. She would be widowed 7 years later, and yet 6 children would arrive (tbc) before death welcomed her not long later.
It was kind of irritating that no-one had bothered to investigate Catharine. Homing in on her marriage, in Merthyr Tydfil registration district in 1860, we can see that the marriage licenses are on FamilySearch but no way of viewing them short of breaking into a library (discouraged), so the marriage cert. is on order. We next examine ALL those girls named Catharine James who are aged 11 in the 1851 Welsh census for the registration district of Merthyr Tydfil. Just the one:
Catharine A. James, 11, born in 'Harfordwest', Pembrokeshire, employed as a nurse.
Catharine will of course prove to be a sister of Eleanor, and proof comes in the form of their brother, Orson James's obituary, which names Catharine's only surviving child as his next-of-kin.
Funeral services for Orson Franklin James [1852-1926], age 73, who died Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock of ailments incident to old age, at the home of his niece, Mrs. William Baty, were held at the Harper ward chapel at two oclock this afternoon under the direction of Bishop Henry Yates. Following the services, the body was interred in the Brigham City cemetery. Mr. James was born September 17, 1852, in Ayreshire [Aberdare], Glamorganshire, Wales. He emigrated to Utah in 1861, settling at Centerville. Later he moved to Kelton and engaged in ranching and cattle raising. For thirty-five years he had his home at Warren, Idaho, where he followed prospecting and mining. He has resided at Harper during the past two years. Mr James spent a number of years in early days freighting from Corinne into Montana and the northwest. When a young man, he drove a team back to Missouri to assist emigrants n-route to Utah. He passed through the experiences of early pioneer life in Utah and Idaho, and was an Indian war veteran. Mr. James never married, and is survived only by his niece, Mrs Wm. Baty of Harper. From: The Box Elder News; April 16, 1926 (via The Salt Lake Tribune; April 15, 1926)
All eyes are now on the parents of Catharine and Eleanor, John James, labourer and his wife, Maria James (nee Llewhellin). Surely they must be the connection to my family, and the Francis DNA matches, but how?
First, we dispense with the notion that it was the husbands of the two sisters who were the link, being perhaps cousins of each other (this has happened to me before), Eleanor's husband is allegedly from Anglesey, while Daniel is not seemingly from Pembrokeshire. I am taking this a little on trust, but rebuilding all the half-baked trees from unverifiable sources, and I can see 109 of them, is rather out of my scope. For now.
Let's also remind ourselves that the sisters are from Haverfordwest, which is the Francis family stronghold, so we shall not look this genealogical gift-horse in the mouth any longer.
Who's Zooming Who?
We cannot quite click a link to see our 'early modern' forebears in their own homes, which would be awfully helpful. Instead, by genealogical brute-force we have learnt that 6th cousin Stuart B. and his sister Jennifer B. both descend from Elizabeth Francis (1786), sister of our Thomas. Let's immediately eliminate half the possible pain, then, by declaring the James sisters to be relatives of 4xgreat-grandfather Thomas Francis (1783) and not of his wife (a coastal girl).
Illegitimacy in Haverfordwest
Vision of Britain's data shows Haverfordwest had a higher illegitimacy rate than the national average before WW2 (tumbling thereafter until the 1970s). The University of Cambridge's Populations Past has got this rather startling map which it dates as '1851'. Haverfordwest is the south-western hub of illegitimacy at this point, and I would not be at all surprised if one street 'The Quay' was particularly responsible.
I would like to compare illegitimacy with endogamy as I suspect they are inversely related. This article may yet prove useful: English rural societies and geographical marital endogamy, 1700–1837.
Here is a summary of relationships:
The ladies in Utah descend from Catharine and Eleanor.
The death of John James
John James is cited as dying on the waggon trail, pushing a handcart in the winter of 1856. Of course this was not the case at all, he arrived in Utah in some comfort six years later. He is cited as being the son of Samuel James and Margaret Thomas and this we suspect is true. The names are not leading us anywhere near the Francises, however.
Could Samuel or Margaret be a cousin of my 4xgreat-grandfather?
This is unlikely as this would make the two
ladies my seventh cousins, and we would not expect to see them sharing
22 cM with me, if they were related to me (as we suspect) through just the one route. We think that Teresa T. and Shirley G.
are unlikely to be more remote than my half-sixth cousins as they share
upwards of 22 centimorgans, and I am ruling out that they were related
in multiple ways based on their family trees which show only one known
Welsh line. It would be handy to know how much DNA the two ladies share,
to corroborate this.
Could Samuel or Margaret be half-kin to my 4xgreat-grandfather?
This is not impossible. Margaret was from 'Llandeney' which appears to be a some distance from Haverfordwest and in the wrong direction from our stronghold (Wiston). Samuel James was from Uzmaston, and 'late a farmer' suggesting he inherited land. As you can tell I am not favouring this hypothesis, particularly given that none of Samuel's extensive descendants in Pembrokeshire match my DNA, although admittedly these descendants all come down from one child, Catherine Laurence (inn-keeper), who may simply not share DNA with me. It is also a pity that we lack both Samuel and Margaret's baptisms.
Could Margaret have given birth to John James out of wedlock?
We lack John James's baptism. His putative parents, Samuel and Margaret do have a child named Catherine (as does John) and their youngest child's baptism in an independent chapel reveals Margaret's maiden name. John himself calls his first son, Samuel. Records from descendants in Utah list John's parents' names, but we do not know the source yet of this. If Margaret had John out of Wedlock, Thomas Francis senior was then in his 50s (not impossible) whilst Thomas Francis junior was just 20. It all seems a bit unlikely, but apologies for not dwelling on this in more depth.
So, for now, we present the 'death' of John James as a candidate. We have a better one.
The baker's daughter
Maria Llewhellin, wife of John James, mother of Catharine, Eleanor, Samuel, Orson and others, is destined to have quite a life. 'May you live in interesting times', runs the ancient Chinese curse. She is baptised in 1814 at Haverfordwest St Mary, daughter of Thomas and Frances Llewhellin (nee Owens), and appears to be their only surviving child. She is orphaned at 14, and is possibly cared for by an older sibling (before their apparent death), and has an illegitimate child herself age 19, possibly in Northumberland. By the age of 23 she is married to John James, although the marriage record has of course not yet appeared.
In her 30s, she and John move along the coast to Aberdare, Glamorganshire. If this move seems dramatic wait till what's next. John is a labourer, most probably at the ironworks. By age 58 he is just a gardener and the ironworks are on the wane. At some point they must have joined the Mormon Church. If I look at the book Pioneers and prominent men of Utah, I can see two people from Aberdare and five from Merthyr, but I do not yet know much about the LDS activities in the area.
In 1862 John James, wife Maria, and their children arrive in Utah, as per the Deseret News roster of immigrants, published September of that year. Maria may well have continued on until 1891, age 78, but the source for that is shrouded in copies of typed copies of copies of copies. We need to go back to her parents.
The baker
Maria Llewhellin was baptised on 15 March 1814 and was born on 13 March 1813 according to (copies of typed copies of copies of copies). Her father, Thomas Llewhellin was baker in Quay Street (likely not the best part of town) and her mother, Frances Llewhellin, well is unknown.
Could Maria be an illegitimate child of Thomas Francis (1783) by now settled miles away the other side of town on the coast? I think that question just got answered. Although T. Llewhellin the 'father' was elderly, I think he'd have noticed a fisherman from the coast visiting a far-off baker (his good self) and spending too much time with the baker's wife and sent them packing. We'll instead assume Maria was born in wedlock, her father being 48 and her mother 47, well at least according to the burial registers of 1826 (age 60) and 1828 (age 61), respectively.
Thomas Llewhellin (c. 1766) is hardly likely to be a half-brother of Thomas Francis (1783) but I am ready to believe anything at this point.
Frances Llewhellin (nee Owens) (c. 1767) is not recorded at all, beyond the marriage and burial, and therefore I cannot confirm if she's a half-sister of Thomas Francis (1783) either. Remember, I am saying that they 'cannot' be any more remotely connected to us, e.g. cousins of Thomas, as that would mean our lovely Utah ladies are 7th cousins, which the centimorgans don't seem to indicate. (Although anything is possible, as cited ad nauseum throughout!)
What about if Frances Llewhellin (nee Owens) was not born in 1767 at all! We can then turn our eyes carefully to the following baptismal record in Haverfordwest, which at the very least requires our attention:
Mary Frances
Owen baptised 14 Sep 1776 Haverfordwest St Mary daughter of Mary Owen
She's illegitimate. Is it possible that the age on Frances's burial record is wrong, out by ten years. It would mean a bit of a change in her biographical tale, meaning she's 38 (not 38) at the birth of her youngest child. And married at 25 (not 35), to a much older man, which frankly would befit her circumstances as an illegitimate child. We're invited to believe she was known as 'Frances', which is not a particularly rare name in the town. There's no other trace of Mary Frances Owen under this name, suggesting we might be on to something.
State of Independence
American Independence Day is going to help us here. Frances's daughter, or Frances herself, may not have known her exact age, but she would definitely have known she was born a few months after American Independence (2 July 1776). The humble clerk then gets out his cold tired hands (it was a week before Christmas of 1828) and attempts to start with seven and take off the two, or should he start with the 100 and take off the seventy-six, and add back the twenty-eight after? He comes up with an age at death of 61, exactly ten years (and a twelvemonth) out. Near enough!
So WHO could be the father of Mary Frances Owen, if she became Frances Llewellyn? How about Thomas FRANCIS (c. 1750) who is based six miles out of town at Wiston, does not marry for five years (fingers burnt?) and generally keeps out of Haverfordwest from here on in. This would make Frances (as she was known) a half-sister to our Thomas Francis (1783) and to Elizabeth Francis (1786) and thus account for the 21-or-so centimorgans that their descendants appear to share.
Not in Love
Discussing the family set-up with close relatives, I wondered why Thomas Francis senior never married Mary Owen. We've seen the high level of illegitimacy in the town in the 1851 era and no reason to think it would be vastly different in 1776. Not all the illegitimacies in the parish registers show people in the poor-house, and there's work to do on finding out varying levels of Workhouse admissions for children around the country (relative to population). I would imagine families stretched their hearts, minds and rooms to incorporate an extra mouth to feed.
I think Mary Owen and Thomas Francis were asked by their families, are you 'in love': will you marry? They were not, and did not. The lack of contraception must have meant families could not afford to be sanctimonious and I doubt the churches were particularly dominant in promoting fire and brimstone in 1770s Pembrokeshire. With all the comings and goings from Ireland, Devonshire and along the coast, too many sailors and single folk would muddy the waters. Not to mention the heady feeling of walking through Haverfordwest Town on a Friday night.
Leaving Pembrokeshire
When Frances Owen married, the witnesses were two ladies who appear in the records without other trace 'Elizabeth Garnett, Mary Jermin', together with John Perkins. We hope that all three ladies avoided the workhouse. We also hope that some residual connection was kept, beyond the DNA, with the half-brother and his family out on the coast. For when Thomas Francis (1783) came to the great wen, Merthyr Tydfil, in the 1830s, it was Maria (seemingly now his half-niece) who followed ten years later to nearby Aberdare.
But we will need to read and absorb the following work to see just how common, or not, moves from rural Pembrokeshire were to the new industrial centres of mid-Glamorgan: John L. Williams, 'The move from the land', in Trevor Herbert and Gareth Elwyn Jones (eds), Wales 1880–1914 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1988), 30.
In the meantime, we now have some good reasons to visit Pembrokeshire. I do not want the experience however, of John Jenkins, of Llangym, who at half-four on a January morning [1830s] took a lighter (vessel) from The Quay, Haverfordwest, belonging to another, contemporaneous, Mrs Thomas Llewhellin (not ours), and who fell overboard on his way home half a mile from town (source: local newspapers).
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I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this perambulation through your possible Welsh relations! Thank you
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