My ancestors, the Rhydderchs, claim on their census forms from the mid 1800s to have been born in the village of Llanelli (or Llanelly) in the county of Breconshire around the beginning of the 19th century. Researching on the internet, I discovered that the population of Llanelli in 1795 was only 500 people. Considering most families had from five to ten members in those years, there would have been relatively few families in Llanelli, perhaps between 50 and 100, when the Rhydderchs started having children there. When I researched how many Llanelli males had the name Rhydderch (or something similar) and also recorded a birthdate sometime around the date of my great, great, great grandfather's in 1810, I found several:
Rosser Roderick, born 1795
William Rytharsh, born 1801
Watkin Rudderch, born 1806.
I suspect that all of these men are Rhydderchs, a name that census-takers tended to butcher unmercifly, and are brothers of my ancestor, Thomas Rhydderch. Thomas was born in 1810. In 1841, he, too, was using the name "Rudderch," just as we find Watkin doing in that time period.
By 1810, the population of Llanelli had jumped from 500 to over 2,000 as the industrial revolution reached southern Breconshire.
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