Completed: William Watkins 1835 Neath

[sirsimon]

I have found a John Watkin, born in Neath 1761 to parents Hopkin Watkin and Mary,may not be him though

[osprey]

the will mentions only William & Gwenllian, so possibly the other children were born to another John Watkins or had died by 1835. John's burial shows his age at 62, so too young for the 1761 baptism.

http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/SearchResults.pl?RecordType=Burials&RecordID=7671931

more than one possible marriage for a John Watkin around the time you're looking for.

[sirsimon]

Wow, this is so confusing and irritating. We are only at the end of 18th century, names and dates shouldn't be so hard to figure out.

So we have a John Watkin, 1773 - 1835

and a Gwenllian 1783 - 1873

now we just need to see if there is a link to William Watkins, born 1800/1802 in Neath. Does his baptism give any hints towards parentage other than just a name of the father. Its 1800 so I doubt much will be given

[osprey]

father's name only & no occupation given, so no way of knowing which family it is.

There's a John Watkin + Catherine Williams marriage in 1796 and a John Watkin + Mary Thomas in 1798.  Those 2 Johns both made their mark when they married, the John of the 1835 will signed his will, so I'd have my doubts about both those marriages.

There's also a John & Margaret and a John & Elizabeth having children baptised around Neath at that time. Baptisms from 1813 should show the occupation for the father. John & Margaret have a daughter Catherine in 1813 and he is noted as collier.

 

[sirsimon]

I appreciate the help provided so far, but it looks like we are not going to get very far. I am amazed by how notoriously difficult the search is for the parents of William Watkins. This is the late 1700s, should not be so difficult to find out information

All we know is that William's father was named John, but there are many Johns

Can we also be certain the William mentioned in the will of 1835 is actually the William born in 1800 Neath, the one whom had a child named William in 1835? 

[osprey]

in a word, no, you can't be sure. One way to go about it would be to build up a picture of all the Watkin(s) families in the area with the children belonging to each one and check for burials & marriages for all. One thing you can't do when you get back to parish records is to leap back another generation without a lot of searching to make sure there aren't other possible candidates for the person you're looking for when you're dealing with a common name.

Where did you get the info that William senior was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1802?

Not all parish records are available online, so you may need to get access to the records at an LDS centre if you can't get to archives.

[sirsimon]

Sorry I meant 1800, not 1802

[sirsimon]

Haven't had much luck since our last search, anyone had better success?

William was definitely born in 1800 in Neath according to the 1851 census and I was unable to access the will for John Watkin 1835

[*Sandra*]

Haven't had much luck since our last search, anyone had better success?

William was definitely born in 1800 in Neath according to the 1851 census and I was unable to access the will for John Watkin 1835

This was a great find by Osprey. The link to the will was in reply 9 - the reference  http://hdl.handle.net/10107/195885. You needed to scroll through the pages until you found John Watkins 1835 Llantwit-juxta-Neath, Glamorgan, Victualler.  Item 117
   

It was on page 12 of that link. Have you looked properly at the link ? Click on image 1 and you can read it  Not sure what the problem is. 


Just to reiterate what Osprey said  - Not all parish records are available online, so you may need to get access to the records at an LDS centre if you can't get to archives.

Sandra