I am trying to find the baptism record for one of my GG Grandfathers Owen Owen/Evans (1798-1851) but the possible solutions I have found do not seem to follow the expected Welsh tradition of retaining family names i.e. first son named after paternal grandfather, second son named after maternal grandfather, etc.
At his wedding to Elizabeth Hughes in Caerhun in 1824 Owen’s second name was Owen, by the time of the baptism of his third child, Mary, in 1828 it had changed to Evans. This was a common occurrence at the time. I had assumed from this that the first name was patronymic i.e. his father’s first name was Owen, and then Owen had later taken his father’s second name Evan as a surname. For years I have had to leave it at this point since I could not find a match since the only clue I had to Owen’s birthplace was from the 1841 Census and that only indicated that it was Caernarvonshire. Since then I have found the scan of the register for Mary’s baptism at Roe Calvanistic Methodist Chapel in Caerhun, this gives Owen’s birth parish as Gyffin.
There are two boys named Owen baptised in Gyffin around 1798:
Owen son of David Owen Labourer and his wife Elizabeth
Owen son of Thomas Evans Farmer and his wife Anne
My problem is that none of those first names appear in the list of Owen and Elizabeth’s children who are:
Evan, Grace, Mary, William, Jane, William, Robert and Hugh
Elizabeth’s parents were Hugh Thomas and Grace Williams also Grace’s parents were William Roberts and Jane Evans. This would indicate that Owen and Elizabeth were following the tradition of naming their children after their parents and grandparents. Who were Evan, Mary and Robert named after?
I would be grateful for any thoughts on the matter.
Glyn