WILLIAMS Ann born Llandegai 1850

[100%Gog]

I am trying to find my great grandmother's birth date but because of the number of girls with the same name in the area it is proving frustrating.

The details I have for her are as follows:

Name: Ann WILLIAMS
Born: about June/July 1850
Place: Llandegai (now called Llandygai)
Parents: Hugh WILLIAMS & Jane WILLIAMS (nee Jones)

I have all the census records for her from 1851 through to 1911 and her place of birth is listed as Llandegai but also Llanfechell, Anglesey on others. The 1851 census has her with her family in Llandegai aged 10 months and it states she was born in Llandegai.

You would think with all that information I could pin point her but no this is welsh family history and not as simple as that

Any help or ideas will be gratefully received.

100%Gog

[rosie99]

Do you have baptisms or birth registrations for the other children

Rosie

[100%Gog]

Hi rosie99

Although I have the names of Ann's siblings I do not have their birth registrations or baptisms. As with Ann they have common names for the area as you can see below:

Jane Williams b. abt. 1841 Llandegai
Elizabeth Williams b. abt. 1843 Llandegai
Hugh Williams b. abt. 1845 Llandegai
Mary Williams b. abt. 1847 Llandegai
John Williams b. abt. 1853 Llanfechell

I have checked the parish records around Llandegai and could not find any of them. However, I have not found the records for St Tegai Church yet. I have Ann's marriage certificate for 1871 and she was married at a non-conformist chapel in Bangor so I am wondering if she may have been baptised at a non-conformist chapel?

In 1852 the family moved from Llandegai to Llanfechell which is Ann's maternal family home.

100%Gog

[rosie99]

It is quite possible that their births were not registered. Although registration started mid 1837 it was not until the late 1870's that the system was clamped down on.

Rosie

[100%Gog]

It is quite possible that their births were not registered. Although registration started mid 1837 it was not until the late 1870's that the system was clamped down on.

Rosie

This is true but I had a similar problem with another ancestor with a common welsh name (Hughes) and it turned out that her birth was registered under a different name (Jones). For some reason her father changed his surname from Jones to Hughes-Jones and then finally Hughes his mother's maiden name. So her birth certificate was Jones and her marriage certificate was Hughes, confusing or what?

Could something similar have happend with Ann Williams? From her parents marriage certificate I noticed they both had different surnames to their respective fathers. Her parents as mentioned previously were Hugh Williams and Jane Jones but their fathers were a William Hughes and a John Hughes. So they have followed the traditional welsh naming pattern of taking the father's first name as their surname. On all Ann's census records up to her marriage she is recorded as Williams as well as her marriage certificate in 1871 (to the gentleman in the photo on the right) but maybe her birth certificate shows Hughes as her surname.

The plot thickens!

[Jo Harding]

Hello 100% Gog,

There is a Genuki page on Llandegai and it lists many non conformist chapels and churches there:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CAE/Llandegai/

In many cases, the records for these places did not survive.

I wondered how you obtained the quite precise information on the possible birth months and year of Ann?

Jo.

[100%Gog]

I wondered how you obtained the quite precise information on the possible birth months and year of Ann?

Jo.

Hi Jo,

Thanks for the link and yes you are right there are a lot of non-comformist chapels in the Llandegai area. I do note that there is an Independent chapel in the list which may be a possibility as Ann was married at an Independent chapel in Bangor. However, in my experience non-conformist records are not easy to come by for Wales so my search may have to continue through other avenues.

In answer to your question above; I have Ann's August 1871 marriage certificate and it states she was 21 years old making her birth year September 1849 - August 1850. She is also on the 1851 census with her family in Llandegai which states she is 10 months old. As the 1851 census was carried out on 30/31 March I calculated she was born June/July 1850.

100% Gog

[100%Gog]

I have finally managed to find my g-grandmother's birth date, thanks to Caernarfon registry office who were a big help.

My thoughts of her being a June/July 1850 birth were spot on as she was born 28 June 1850 in Llandegai. A couple of things threw me slightly in my previous searches for her; she was registered as Anne not Ann and her mother's maiden name was recorded as her family surname of Hughes and not her patronymic name of Jones which was shown on her baptism and her marriage certificate.

My next search will be for Anne's date of death which will prove harder to find as I do not have any idea when she died.

Thanks to all who gave me suggestions or advice.

100%Gog