1871 census look up please - WILLIAMS

[D ap D]

PS does anyone know if WILLIAMS is particularily a Welsh name or could it just as easily be English.

I think the basis of the surname is Welsh, from the Patronymic naming system (if you want a more detailed explanation, let PM me your email address and I'll send on some info).
On tracing one of my 3 Williams lines back I found one that originated in Cornwall. Digging around there a bit, I found out that the Cornish also had a patronymic naming system (like the Welsh), and that Williams was nearly as common in Cornwall as in Wales. Furthermore, when the tin mining industry boomed in Cornwall, a lot of south Walians moved there, and their descendant moved back to South Wales later when coal mining was booming.

Doesn't make things any easier to trace though.

D

[ard]

Yes and there seems to have been just as much movement between Devon and Cornwall... It would have been interesting if those old censuses took note of language spoken! I knew that in some cases adding S to a name to mean Son of... was a kind of Welsh thing to but apparently not exclusively.

cheers

ard

[D ap D]

no, the only census' to have an extra column for language spoken were 1891 and 1901, where they could enter "Welsh", "English" or "both".

What is interesting, but at the same time a great pity - in 1891 all my ancestors could speak Welsh only, whether in Glamorgan, Cardiganshire, Caernarfonshire or Anglesey.

From all the cousins I have traced who are descended from the Glamorgan and Cardiganshire branches, my brother and I are the only ones who speak Welsh at all. From the Caernarfonshire and Anglesey family, this is higher, but approx 40 % have no knowledge of Welsh. Frightening what can happen to a language in 4 generations.

[ard]

Every time a language dies, it makes our world a little less rich in so many ways. A living language might evlve but to die altogether is sad indeed. Luckly there are people who realize that and are fighting to keep their languages alive.

For anyone who might be connected or following this,
I now have a copy of the marriage entry certificate for Rebecca (then Lyne), widow, and John Harding. The married June 8, 1843 at Cornwall st., Stoke Damerel, DVN and Rebecca's father was John WILLIAMS, labourer. It doen't say he is deceased at that time.

So now I am on a quest to find Rebecca's and Roger's parents. They were born in Great Torrington.