Went out for a visit and never came back: Utah husband/Aberdare husband

Ann Thomas/Hughes! As well as having the same name as her mother and daughter, Ann for a while distinguished herself by having no baptism, no death and no census return. To give you some context she is born 13 November 1814 in Merthyr Tydfil, but this fact was extremely hard-won.

Here is the initial diagram as we have it; although 'simple' you won't yet find this on any family tree online. (Margaret's eternal sleep is disturbed by 148 muddled trees, while young Ann her niece is only being bedevilled by a mere befudgement of 88 arbourages.)

We know that her daughter, Ann (only child?) sails for Boston in 1856 age 15 in the company of her aunt, Mrs Giles, grandmother, and Giles family members. They are Mormons and on their way to the Salt Lake valley, their Zion.

I assumed that Ann Thomas/Hughes was dead. Ann junior states that Mrs Giles is her mother and recalls that she 'died on the Plains' (which Mrs Giles indeed did). So what is going on?

Ann junior is born just after the 1841 census despite records which state her as born in 1840. Therefore we only get one crack of the census and by the age of 11 (really only 10) she is with her aunt Mrs Giles, as 'niece'. I would assume she is helping to take care of the little ones in the cramped Tredegar house, particularly as Mr Giles was blind and there is no-one else to help.

Why then does Ann junior accompany her aunt to Utah? This I don't know. I think the might of the Giles family outweighed certain other factors and Mr Giles got his way. The little ones needed their cousin Ann (by now 15).

Ann Thomas/Hughes is not dead. She will appear in Utah herself on Saturday 16 November 1867 when she 'remarries' to Andrew Lee Allen, who is himself separated from his (second) wife. But where has she been for the last FORTY years since her marriage to Mr Hughes in 1827? And why is she in Utah only NOW? Here is the killer entry from findagrave howing Ann DID die in Utah:

Sad as it is to relate, I think it will be obvious by now that one individual has been hinted at but not mentioned. That's right, MR Hughes.

David Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil in about 1812 and is various recorded as a coal miner, fireman and perhaps later 'retired from colliery management'. If I have the right man, he lives to age 75 and his Will, which I have certainly and assuredly ordered, shows that he had a few pennies by the time of his death. He was accompanied through much of his life by his dear and devoted daughter, Mary Ann (born about 1850).

Geek note: Incidentally, freeBMD and the General Register Office have two Mary Anns born in Neath in 1850 (June and December quarters), whilst Neath registrars have only one, born in September quarter. This may be accounted for by Mary Ann being born in the mountains (out of the county borough?) and registered late, but this apparent discrepancy sure as sugar makes no sense to me.

In 1841 I cannot find David Hughes and it may be some family trauma took place around this time that sent forthcoming baby Ann off to the Giles family, or perhaps it is a missing census return*. They will have a peripatetic few years suggesting some workplace challenges for David. In 1851 David Hughes is living with his wife Ann in Aberdare, with two children, of whom the survivor will be Mary Ann. There is definitely 'room' for Ann junior (the 10 year-old) in here.

1851 Blaengwawr Row, Aberdare: David Hughes 38 coalminer =Ann 37 (born Merthyr); Eliza 8 born Merthyr, Mary Ann 2 (born Henllwyn i.e. Onllwyn, up from Neath)

*It is in fact a big old mis-spelling. The Hughes family are listed as Huies, in Isle Wight [road], Merthyr and indexed as Haies. Unbelievably, in the 1880s, Ann junior will be listed as Ann Uce when her son serves as a missionary in the southern States.

In 1861 David Hughes is a married fireman lodging with a Lewis family in Aberdare. His only child is listed as 'Morgan Hughes aged 12 born Aberdare'. I think this is a rather large error and that 'Morgan' is 'Mary Ann', female. The suspiciously neat enumerator has clearly written up his 'fair copy' from scribbled notes.

The challenge is compounded by the fact that a boy called Morgan Prothero Hughes (also aged 12) and his parents (father  also called David) are 'missing' in the 1861 census (likely to be up in Cefncoedycymmer) and that the current FamilySearch tree has associated the Cefncoed David Hughes with the Utah folk.

In 1871 David Hughes is now a widower, living with his married daughter, Mary Ann (who married at only 18 possibly when expecting twins). Despite Mary Ann having six daughters, the female line from her appears to be extinct, which might explain the lack of trees (precisely none) surrounding her, rather noteworthy, existence in the pantheon. He lives on until 1889, with his Will being on order, as mentioned above.

We have a bit of a drama here, methinks. Time to rethink the tree:

Characters

DAVID HUGHES: My wife is not going to Utah and that's final. Note for the actor: Is there anything sinister going on with the moves, the dates, the timings around childrens' birth and marriages, or just bad luck?

THOMAS GILES: Ann (junior) is going to be of great help to our young family. She has stopped with us several years now. She must not be deprived the chance to go to Zion. Her poor parents do not have room for another mouth to feed.

MARGARET GILES: I will do as you say, husband.

ANN HUGHES: I will do as you say, for now, husband.

MARY ANN HUGHES (daughter of David, who remains behind): .... ???. Note for the actor: does she really just go along with her father and sole carer? Is he a protector figure, who is looking after who in this relationship? For Mary Ann, this really must have been the toughest.

In 1863, there is an Ann Hughs, sailing from Liverpool to the United States, a married lady of exactly the right age. Is she now on her visit to her beloved daughter (and mother) in the States? She converts to the Latter-Day Saints, that we know. She would not be chastised on arrival in Utah, and soon she would be of great comfort to Andrew Lee Allen and family: 'a good, loyal and faithful wife', in fact. She lies buried at Provo, Utah, a year or two after David Hughes.

Ann Thomas/Hughes/Allen herself, born 13 November 1814 according to most records, was born three years ahead of her parents' marriage, and even then her mother (now 20) had to elicit approval from an uncle. Ironically Ann's father then provided his own permission for another sister to marry, later that year. It seems that Ann's maternal grandfather may have been another tyrannical individual.

It is really remarkable the information that emerged about this small family unit from the early 1800s, in industrial Merthyr Tydfil; new information that has been synthesised from both Welsh records (which many Americans cannot understand) and Utah records (which this British researcher had mistakenly been ignoring).

Movement, work, family: these challenges have stayed the same, and yet everything is different. A visit where the wife never came back.

The story of Ann's mother is here, and do look up the story of Audacious Women: Early British Mormon Immigrants at http://signaturebookslibrary.org/audacious-women/