William Thomas of Cefn Ydfa, Llangynwyd

[thomasg]

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To any good person able to help,

I am new to research and am stuck with my relative William Thomas.  He is found on the Glamorgan 1841 census living at Cefn Ydfa farm, Llangynwyd nr Maesteg with is wife Elizabeth and children.  His estimated year of birth is 1796.  His last child Elizabeth Thomas was born in approx 1845.  He is not to be found on future census records and his wife Elizabeth is recorded as a widow.

I have no information as to his birth, marriage, death, parents or siblings.  Since he was the farmer of Cefn Ydfa I wonder if he is in someway related to Ann Thomas the Maid of Cefn Ydfa from the early 1700's who's father was also William Thomas.

If anyone has or can find out any information on my William Thomas, and his history at Cefn Ydfa farm, along with any possible link to the family of Ann Thomas (maid of Cefn Ydfa) I would be most grateful.

Kind Regards

[Chasing-fireflies]

hi there
my family are from llangynwyd and i am related to the maid of cefn ydfa via my great grandmother . you can obtain the history of Ann thomas and will hopkin from merthyr mawr church

[thomasg]

Thank you for your reply to my post.  Do you have any information as to siblings of William Thomas, Ann Thomas's father?  I am trying to investigate the possibility that my family that farmed Cefn Ydfa in the late 1700's through the mid 1800's is related to William, Ann's father - since Ann was an only child as far as I am aware.

I am trying to research remotely as unfortunately I do not live in Wales and am unable to make a quick visit to the locality to the Glamorgan Family History Centre.  If you have any information on Ann and her fathers family that you would be willing to pass on I would be most grateful?

Kind regards

Gareth Thomas

[Ricardian]

Try looking at www.clan-davies.org website. There is quite a lot of information on the Thomas and Maddocks families.

There is also a book called History of Llangynwd (it's quite old, my sister has a copy) written by Cadrawd  (his bardic name. I think his surname was Evans)who is the father of the author Michael Gareth Llewellyn ( White Wheat - the story of the Maid of Cefn Ydfa) The old book has quite a lot in it about the Thomas family and it may or may not be of help.

Regards

Ricardian

[newbie]

Ricardian,
thank you for the link to the Davies website, that is an amazing site, fascinating, one I will be going back to.
thanks,
newbie

[Chasing-fireflies]

I have the book White Wheat but its not really of any use to myself or Thomasg as we are both stuck at the same generation. I have had a local historian from Bridgend on the case and she cant really come up with too much either. I think Parish records are the only way to go to solve this mystery.

[thomasg]

On the point of the parish records, I spent last Saturday at my local LDS Family History Centre noting entries from a Micro Film I ordered in of Bishop Transcripts from 1721 to the mid 1800's.  I will be returning many times to complete this task.  I have started to put together charts of local family trees from Llangynwyd parish where the Thomas name appears.  I will post when this is complete and let you know how I can make it available to you.  This information is currently no wholly indexed in the IGI.  So far I have completed the years 1721-1728 and have entries for the famous Ann Thomas and Anthony Maddocks relating to marriage and deaths.

Watch this space.

Regards

Gareth.

[Chasing-fireflies]

I have been attempting to gain access to the wills of the Thomas' and Maddocs via neath university as they have copies but i think i will have to pay them a visit instead. The problem with Llangynwyd is even though its a small place the amount of Thomas' there with similar names is baffling!! The Historian from Bridgend is not convinced by the legend even though there are records for the people she claims there is no proof it is anything more than folklore. Not a great help there!!! If i come across anything more i will let yoy know but at the moment status is still the same.
 

[Ricardian]

Last night I tried putting Cadrawd into Google and came up with some info. It looks as if the National Archives have got some information on him and also it appears that the Mid Glamorgan Library Service re-issued the History of Llangynwyd in 1992. So I would immagine that there must be a copy somewhere. Hope this helps.

It is so frustrating when you can't get any further. My family legend happens to be that we are related to Anthony Maddocks, however, since reading the book I realise that he would not have had any descendants named Maddocks because he only had daughters. Several other Maddocks families have been told the same thing. Ron Davies of Clan Davies has lots of information on all the various families and he has actively searched for a connection but is not able to find one. I just feel that there must be something if all the families had the story handed down verbally. Will just have to keep plodding on.

Ricardian