T - Thomas

There are a fair few Thomas’ in our tree. It is a name which appears both as a first name and a surname. As a first name it is well represented across many families and many generations. Some families seemed to choose their children’s names from a very short list of names; so each Thomas might have an uncle Thomas and at least 3 cousins called Thomas as well ! As a surname, it is spread across many counties, provinces, states and countries.

I have a Thomas family I would like to find out a bit more about eventually. I’ll tell you what I know (or think I know).

John Thomas was born about 1790 in Llanfechan, Montgomeryshire, Wales. This information comes from census’ he is recorded on with his family. His wife Ann (maiden name uncertain) was born around the same time in Llanshaidr, Denbighshire, Wales. I have found them on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 UK census’. With a name like Thomas, in Wales you can never be entirely sure you have the right family, but I am fairly confident that I have the right one.

I found them when looking for the family of my 4 x great-grandmother Ann Thomas who I knew had married Henry James (another GREAT name to research !) in Brimfield, Herefordshire in 1843.

For a long time we didn’t do much research with this branch – I mean where do you start with Thomas’ and James’ ? We had Henry and Ann’s marriage certificate, and the birth certificates of both their daughters; Elizabeth & Mary who were born at Broadward Bridge near Clungunford, Shropshire. It wasn’t until we discovered that Ann had had another daughter prior to marrying Henry that the search began. We had been searching for a long time to find when Elizabeth (Aunt Lizzie) had emigrated to America. That turned out to be much earlier than the story relayed to us by Nana, and the passenger record indicated she was travelling to live with her brother-in-law...which meant she had another sister.

Finding Ellen then became the focus. She was about 5 years old at the time of the 1841 census. My cousin Jackie in the States had found what appeared to be the most likely record of baptism; in Llanymynech/Carreghofa in 1836. Below is the family in the parish of Llandrinio, Montgomeryshire. This was in the registration district of Llanfyllin and sub district of Llansantffraid.

 

John THOMAS         48      Sayer (sic)    Y

Ann                        48                          N

Richard                  21                          Y

Hugh                      11                          Y

Edward                   7                            Y

Evans                     6                            Y

Harriot                   16                          Y

Elen                        5                            Y

I am fairly confident that I have identified their daughter Ann as a servant at Jay House in Heath & Jay Herefordshire – just a hop step and a jump from Leintwardine & Bucknell which her (then future) husband gave as his birthplace in various census’.

In 1851 & 1861 John and Ann can be found in Domgay, still in the Llanfyllin registration district where John is a Sawyer, which ties in with the occupation given for him on the marriage certificates for two daughters. In 1851 their daughter Ann, her husband and two daughters were living in Dudley with the Duffill family. Another daughter of John and Ann, Mary, was married to Thomas Duffill, a tailor. Mary was in fact wife #4 of 5. Ellen hasn’t been confirmed on this census, she was likely to be in service elsewhere aged, about 15. By 1861 she had returned to Dudley and was married to John Duffill, her aunt’s stepson. Ellen’s birthplace on the census was transcribed as Slangyowich, which turned out to be Llanymynech !

Mary had died by 1861 and Thomas Duffill had married again. Ann and her family haven’t been located as yet (years of searching) on the 1861 census, but in 1871 Henry was a widower. We have a death certificate for Ann, not entirely sure it is the right one, but the age, location and date seem most likely. Ann was the informant on her sister Mary’s death certificate in 1859. If I could find the 1861 census, it would help make the 1865 death even more likely.

After the death of wife #5 the entire Duffill family, including Ellen, her husband and young children emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where “Aunt Lizzie” would join them 40 years later.

Ellen’s marriage certificate records her father’s name as Thomas Thomas (!), her death certificate states John Thomas (her grandfather’s name). Her baptism record implies that her father may be Edward Owens. But that is another puzzle, for one day. The Thomas’ seem to all vanish from records after 1861 too.

In amongst our DNA matches there are some glimmers of hope – people who have Thomas in their trees, or who have Duffill which for us can only mean a link to the Thomas’.

5 Generations of migration and location

Well, my feed has been full of these amazing pedigree charts from fellow genealogists, so I just had to join in. In fact I've done four - my parents, my own and my daughters, to see the differences a generation makes in both directions. 

No wonder that DNA puzzle is hard to solve.

This was all initiated by J Paul Hawthorne. What a great idea.

ME

DAD

MUM

LAUREN

There you go - not as pretty as they could be, but you get the general idea. You might need to enlarge them to read closely.

Croeso, Cymru

Since leaving Scotland and driving south we have been mostly in Wales. Three countries and no passports required. Love it. 

On our way south we stopped off at the teeny tiny o-l-d village of Kemberton in Shropshire where a branch of the family had lived in the 1800's. No evidence of them in the churchyard though, even though some still lived there as little as 100 years ago.

We spent 4 nights at a little cottage "Stargazer's Loft" near Hay-on-Wye, Actually pretty much on the border, so we slept in England and shopped and ate in Wales. Also, there were only two windows at either end of the loft so not really much stargazing either.

I'm a bit over driving, but we had a good look around. Hay is famous for books and their annual book festival. There are bookshops everywhere and lots of choice for food as well plus two castles. Trouble with books is that they are heavy...but it cant be helped. A couple just begged to come with us. 

One day we drove to Dolgellau in north west Wales, in the Snowdonia National Park, but near the coast to visit a friend of Lauren's. She was staying in her grandmother's cottage high up on a hill, accessible by a very steep, single track road. Luckily the only car we met on the way up, was her Mum at the farm gate, and on the way down another at the intersection of the main road. Whew. 

Another day we went to Ludlow and then on to Llanymynech. Ludlow is very quaint full of all that Old English charm, black and white timbered houses and buildings, a market (with more books begging to join those others we'd taken in at Hay) and a castle ruin dating back to 1086. Llanymynech is associated with family as the James and Thomas families (try tracing those names in this part of the world) came from border towns which were sometimes Wales, sometimes Hereford or Shropshire depending on where the border was at the time. Today the border goes right through Llanymynech.

And then it was time to leave and relocate to Cardiff. However, we came to Cardiff via Taunton ! Seems stupid I know, to spend so much time in the car on motorways when I'm so over driving. But, Lauren's boots were there and we thought we should go and get them while we still had the use of a rental car.

It was good to be able to visit and catch up with some of the Somerset folk who we had stayed with earlier in our trip. We caught a glimpse of some of the balloons at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta as we headed back toward Wales in the evening. Trying to take photos at speed though proved a bit tricky (not me mind, Lauren was the photographer).

So now we are in Cardiff, which seems like a great place, lovely architecture, a good balance of old and new, and a busy town centre with great shopping and food. 

The real reason for visiting Cardiff was so that I could attend my "Try Out" for the Pack (volunteers) for the Rugby World Cup 2015. So I have done that this morning. 20,000 applied, 10,000 were invited to attend a "Try Out" and 6,000 will be lucky enough to be involved at the actual event. It was a great experience: id photos, some informal mixing, icebreaker activities (rugby passes etc), a short video about what the roles could entail, a 20 minute interview and then uniform fittings. Now the waiting begins as they don't expect to be informing the successful 6,000 until Jan/Feb 2015.