RootsChat.Com

Hi Tammy,


Thanks to Malky for answering so promptly!

I have nothing to add on Budgate,  but might mention that there is in fact one other page on RootsChat mentioning Milltown of Conage:  it appears about halfway through the opening post in the "daughter thread" mentioned in the post just above yours in this thread,  and demonstrates that Malky and I share the same opinion.  You will find the place easily enough on the Ordnance Survey large scale map -- e.g. via Streetmap.

As to any McDonald connection,  I am afraid I cannot spot anything.  The OPRs show that William M:Donald married Sarah Davis (da. of Thomas Davies the engineer, per me) at Inverness on 6 January 1806;  and the IGI mentions two probable sons -- Thomas (bapt. 14 Apr. 1806 -- bit close!) and Duncan (bapt. 27 Jan. 1808),  both christened at Inverness.  I know of nothing to connect William McDonald himself with Miltown of Conage,  beyond his father-in-law's one-time tenancy there as recorded in the NAS agreement.  At the time of the couple's marriage,  Thomas Davies's canal work would have kept him very close to Inverness;  but I suppose his wife and children could have spent some -- or a lot -- of their time at Miltown,  assuming the tenancy already existed,  and was retained.

So any link between William McDonald and your Katherine and Hugh McDonald would (on present knowledge) be very conjectural.


Rol

Intriguing.  The census entry,  as you of course have seen,  tells a sad tale about the rector's son Edward W[ynne] Lewis:  although the finances may have been OK (rank/profession/occupation Landowner),  he was enumerated as Deaf & Dumb from Birth.  And although aged only 31 on census night in 1871,  he was dead within the year (per the ever-useful annual calendars of probates and admons):

LEWIS Edward Wynne.                   19 February [1872].                      Administration of the effects of Edward Wynne Lewis late of Bryndethol in the Parish of Llangollen in the County of Denbigh Gentleman a Bachelor who died 19 January 1872 at Bryndethol was granted at St. Asaph to Sarah Mary Wynne (Wife of Walter Wynne, Gentleman) of Abergele in the said County the Sister and one of the Next of Kin.
Effects under £800.

I don't know whether you had already noticed this,  but a decade earlier the census shows him as a lodger in London,  again deaf and dumb,  but this time listed as an artist:  RG9/103 fo.121v  p.14.  And in 1851 he was absent from Llanfihangel rectory because his parents had sent him to a special school for the deaf-and-dumb located at 1, Castle Street,  Rugby:  HO107/2069 fo.356v p.53.

But back to the 1871 census.  In your Reply 2 you write:

... Edward Wynne Lewis appears in 1871 to be in the same household as my relative Ann Gabriel born in Llangollen in c 1858. Both appear to be relatives of the Roberts family they are staying with ...

On looking at the census images I am afraid I think that the enumerator concerned has made several "category errors" when filling in his Relation to Head of Family columns.  It seems to me that in Ann Gabriel's line he has written (rather badly) "Nurse" both in that column and in the Rank Profession or Occupation column;  and in Edward W. Lewis's line he has erroneously repeated his Condition [as to Marriage] in the Relation to Head column -- "Unm[arried]".  I notice that a similar mistake has very clearly been made in the bottom line on p.2 of the same census piece.

In Anc**try.com's transcription I see that they show Ann's relationship to head as Niece and Edward's as Uncle.  Although their site offers no suitable field for doing so,  I have improvised a pair of submissions of corrective info..

Sorry that my view about this rather hampers your emerging hypothesis . . . 


Rol

Brian,  as you probably know,  the 1861 returns for quite a few Denbighshire parishes have not survived,  so that must always be a risk.  (Nearest obvious "problem parish" seems to be Betws yn Rhos -- so bad news if members of the family were temporarily there -- e.g.)

Aside from Heather's idea,  here is another possible line of enquiry.  Per Anc**try.com's census indexes,  the only Eglwysfach Mary Ann* born 1860 ±1, with a mother called Ann* (no surnames specified),  seems to be the daughter of an unmarried Anne Jones,  23,  the pair living alone together at Groesfordd,  next door (perhaps uncomfortably!) to the chapel house in the Eglwysfach township of Bodnod;  no mother's occupation shown,  so probably on parish relief.  See RG9/4304 fo.29r p.3.

That mother's age is a bit adrift,  per the 1871;  but probably worth considering/excluding (perhaps you already have),  on the basis that an illegitimate child was often re-surnamed after the mother's eventual marriage.  If they were the right people,  the obvious consequence is that you may need to be looking for a rather later Anne + David Evans marriage than the 1871 census evidence at first sight suggests.


Rol

Glad to be able to help,  Ma'am.


R