What happened to Thomas and Mary?

Today I stumbled over something that had thus far escaped my notice. My Great, great Grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Davis, had two children while living in Yorkshire, England, who did not survive. Thomas Davis Junior, born in 1859, and Mary Davis, born in 1861, are missing from the 1871 census. I didn't notice they were not present because my great, great grandparents had two more children once they had returned to Wales and these children were also named Thomas and Mary. Thomas number two was born in 1867 and Mary number two was born in 1869 in the county of Glamorgan.

So what happened to the first Thomas and Mary? I checked for Yorkshire death notices for both children, but found only an 1866 listing for a young Thomas "Davis", not "Davies" as the family was calling themselves while in Yorkshire.

So I checked death notices for the Welsh county of Glamorgan where the family had relocated by 1867. There I found a Thomas and Mary Davies, both born on the correct dates of 1859 and 1861, who had died in the fall of 1866.

Naturally, I started wondering what might have caused both children to die around the same time. I soon discovered that Britain was experiencing the third of three great cholera epidemics in 1866. According to one source I found on the web, as many as 14,000 people died throughout the island. Incredibly, my search revealed that a total of 146 people named Davies died in the same district in 1866.

Now here's the most interesting part. Thomas and Elizabeth Davis, my great great grandparents had a total of five children while living in Yorkshire, England. The two youngest, as we've seen, probably died in the great cholera epidemic of 1866. The next oldest of the five children, young George Davis, somehow survived that tragic time to one day become a very, very important person in my life -- my great grandfather.

UK Trip Update

For those of you who've tuned in late, I constructed this blog to record the myriad of details that have gone into planning for my upcoming trip to Scotland, England, and Wales. The purpose of the trip is to go to all the various towns and villages where my various paternal ancestors lived before they immigrated to the United States in the 1860s and 1870s. At this point everything seems to be moving ahead smoothly as the airline reservations, car-rental, B&B selection, and acquisition of travel passes are in place.

Naturally, since this trip is all about genealogy, what you see in the posting section tends toward observations on my ancestors. Still, you might find some interesting discoveries I have made along the way concerning travel in general.

Please let me know if you notice any errors or inconsistencies in the narrative. My email address is writeguy47@aol.com

Thanks much.

Great Grandfather, George Davis

My great great grandfather named his first-born George. If the name succession listed in the previous posting is correct, my great great great great grandfather may have been a George also. Here's what I found on the Web (part from Wikipedia) about the history of George:

The name George was drived From the Greek name Γεωργιος (Georgios) which was derived from the Greek word γεωργος (georgos) meaning "farmer, earthworker", itself derived from the elements γη (ge) "earth" and εργον (ergon) "work".

In Christian hagiography Saint George (ca. 275-281 – April 23, 303[2]) was a soldier in the Guard of Emperor Diocletian in the Roman Empire, venerated as a martyr.

Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Catholic Churches. He is immortalised in the tale of George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April.

St. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Lod and Moscow, as well as a wide range of professions, organizations and disease sufferers.

Wow, busy guy!

Old English Naming Patterns

Here's something interesting I found on the web that might help me figure out why children received the names they did in my ancestral tree:

The first son was named after the father's father.
The second son was named after the mother's father.
The third son was named after the father.
The fourth son was named after the fathers eldest brother.
The first daughter was named after the mother's mother.
The second daughter was named after the father's mother.
The third daughter was named after the mother.
The fourth daughter was named after the mother's eldest sister.

The Rhydderchs of Llanelli, Breconshire County

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.

Documents Storage

My find of the day is Filesanywhere.com. I've been looking for a place to park my genealogy documents that would be accessible from the Blog while we're in the UK. I wanted one that would allow me to not only retrieve my documents, but also allow me to view them without using a magnifying glass. Filesanywhere.com seems to fit the bill perfectly. You can set up an account for free that allows you one gigabyte of storage space and allows you to pretty much store any type of file in easily-accessible folders. You can do just about anything to your documents that you could do on your own computer. There's also a separate section for listing your contacts, storing your photos, and a couple of dozen other activities. Check it out.

Thomas Rhydderch, Master Blacksmith

Thomas Rhydderch was a master blacksmith. On the 1851 census he's listed as living with his family in Govilon, some 5 miles from Blaenavon in Monmouthshire county. In this area could be found the Garn-DDyrys Forge, where pig iron was converted to wrought iron. I suspect that Thomas may well have been employed there.

Counting Down

This morning my computer's countdown clock says I have 2 months, 18 days, 6 hours, and a swiftly-decreasing number of minutes and seconds before my retirement day. I've spent much of the morning doing some packing in my office while keeping an eye out for my international driver's license, which I can't seem to find. Other than the license, everything is proceeding smoothly. We finally bought the GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 370, which comes complete with European and North American maps. We haven't tried to navigate ourselves yet, but Concetta says the little device is pretty easy and intuitive to use.

We finally have all the various passes that I had determined we needed. We have the Heritage Pass which supposedly gets you into 800 different castles, museums and historic houses throughout the UK. We have the pass that will allow us to ride the tube in London as well as the Red double-decker buses. We also have a pass that promises to gain us entrance to attractions in London not accessible with the Heritage pass.

Now, I'm researching the idea of joining "Globalbagtag.com," a company that issues metal tags for your bag that, if your bag goes astray, allows airline personnel to go to Global's web site and pull up your itinerary so they can see where you're supposed to be at any given time. Pretty neat if it works.

Obviously, with only a little less than three months to go before we leave, it's time to get serious and start checking off must-do items from the list. I think we're pretty far along, but seldom does a day go by when I don't think of something I've forgotten. Stay tunned.

More information on the Rhydderch family

After doing more reasearch, here's what I know about the Rhydderch family:

In 1841, the Thomas Rhydderch family is in the census as "Rudderch." They're living at the Victoria Iron works south of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire County. They had lived in Ebbw Vale at least since my ancestor, Elizabeth Jane Rhydderch, was born there in 1836.

In 1851, the Thomas Rhydderch family is in the census as "Ryddch." They're living in the village of Govilon near Blaenavon, Monmouthshire County.

In 1861 I have not found them anywhere yet. But if the family had already moved to the vicinity of St Woollos on the edge of Newport (see below) by 1861, some of those census records were lost.

In 1871, the Thomas Rhydderch family is in the census as "Rhydorch." Thomas Rhydderch, then age 61, is listed with his children, Thomas age 20, and Jane age 27, and they are living in the village of St. Woollos, Monmouthshire County. I have not been able to find Jane after that, but I believe Thomas Junior shows up on the 1880 census in Colombus, Ohio, USA, using the name "Thomas Roderick." No other Thomas Rhydderch\Roderick, born in 1851, shows up in Wales or the USA so I expect it's him.

I found a death notice for 1872 for Thomas Rhydderch of Glamorgan County which is probably my ancestor. I have also found a death notice for 1854 for Thomas' wife, Mary Rhydderch. She died fairly early since she's not found with Thomas on the 1871 census. Though the census-takers somehow misspelled the family's name every year, the death notices had the names spelled correctly.

Searching for the Rhydderch Family

Last night I finally found the Rhydderch family in the 1851 Wales census. For some unknown reason, the Rhydderchs listed their name as "Rudderch" in 1841, then switched to "Ryddch" in 1851. I was surfing the internet last night when I stumbled on someone in Australia searching for a sister of my great great grandmother Elizabeth Rhydderch. Thanks to that cyber conversation on Rootschat.com, I found the family's weird spelling and filled in one more missing piece to my genealogical puzzle. Never give up. They're all out there somewhere!

The surname Rhydderch in the Welsh context is not a very common surname. It can be found spelt as Rhytherch, Rutherch, Rudderch, Rodrick, Rhoderick, abbreviated to Ruddz, and, as you've seen above, Ryddch. Most Welsh Rhydderchs seem to have their roots in the south and west Wales areas. Most seem to be from a small area of Carmarthenshire and West Glamorganshire. Though there are Rhydderchs to be found in other counties such as Cardiganshire, Pembrokeshire, Breconshire and Monmouthshire, by and large the first two counties seem to have provided the World with most of the Rhydderchs of Welsh origin.

If you happen to be a Rhydderch (with its many spelling variations) and would like to read about an ongoing genetic study being done on the family, try accessing the link below for some very interesting reading:

http://members.aol.com/Roderickdna/Roderick/RoderickDna.htm

The Davis family in 1841

The Davis family lived in Blaenavon in 1841. Blaenavon is a village in the parish of Llanover, upper division of the hundred of Abergavenny, county of Monmouth; four miles from Brynmawr, six from Pontypool, and a like distance from Abergavenny. The male members of the Davis clan were iron workers and there were very extensive iron works there.

Interestingly, my future great, great grandmother, Elizabeth Rhydderch, lived just 5 miles up the road in Govilon and shows up on the 1851 Wales census there. By 1851, the Davis family had moved a few miles away to Trevethin near Pontypool. But, I wonder, did the two children possibly attend the same school for a short time? Were they perhaps childhood sweathearts who found their way back to each other nearly two decades later? Something to ponder, especially since if they hadn't met, I might not be here!!!

12 Weeks to go before retirement

This past weekend I passed the 12-week mark. When I first started this blog I had six months to go before retirement. The purpose was to put down my thoughts as I planned a trip to the land of my ancestors. The airline reservations are set (for what that's worth in this day of mergers), the B&Bs are set, the rental car is set, the world phone is purchased, the various passes are purchased, and work on my genealogy is coming along nicely. I want to travel to all the places in Scotland, Wales, and England where my father's ancestors lived and worked. The Davis family, Welshmen all, made their living as iron workers in the mid nineteenth century before they immigrated to America. Other members of the family, the Browns of Scotland, were also iron workers in Wales. At the same time, the Burton family made their living as farmers just down the road from Stonehenge. So, I have plenty of territory to visit. We plan to start in Edinburgh, and motor through Wales, southern England, and return to Scotland along the east coast of England. But for now, the countdown continues.