Irish/Caramarthenshire links

[Paul_B]

In the 1851 census, many individuals have Birthplace in Ireland but with welsh place name - for example

                                                                                                                                    
Amer Thomas      abt 1843     Conwill, Carlow, Ireland     Daughter     Conwil Elfet

in Carmarthenshire

Can anyone explain what's going on here please?

[Cell]

Hi Paul,
Have you looked at the original image?
If this is the one  you are referring to: HO107/2474, folio 153 page 9, I think the  birthplace of Ireland  is a total mistranscription .  I can't see Ireland anywhere on the  actual image for anyone's birth on the page, unless it's the "tre something name mistranscribed by Ancestry  as Ireland - but that looks like it reads "Tre something " and does not look like Ireland to me at all. Treleach(Trelech) maybe: It's  written as Carmarthen Tre"something" anyway.

 Irrespectively of what it does read though it is not in "Amer's" column for her birth place but it's in another person's birth column (her  older sibling) , so it should not  be listed as Amer's birth place in the transcription( It also does not say "do"  under this  word in "Amer's" birthplace column ,like it does in her elder siblings columns which would indicate that she was born there too).

 Looking at the image: " Amer's" birthplace is written as "do" only under the Carmarthen word, then after the "do"  word in her column - only the word Conwill is written for her birthplace. I think it  should  read that "Amer"  was born in Carmarthen Conwill - nothing less and nothing more.

There are many places in Ireland which have the same names as in Wales,  Bangor for instance but I don't think this is one of them. Looking at the actual image it just  looks as if it's one of Ancestry's many,many mistranscriptions to me, as I can not see the word Ireland in any of the birthplace columns on the image

Hope that helps 

P.S.  I just had a thought: I think it's the Carm word they are getting Ireland from lol  - they are mistranscribing "Carm" as Carlow in Ireland for those people on that page. They did it with "Som" as well ( somerset) -  they transcribed Som as Somalia.  Ancestry transcribers lol

[Paul_B]

Thanks - that's a very helpful suggestion: if you look at many other entries you'll see too many matches to be just a coincidence (like Bangor).  I'd begun to think it was some odd administrative convenience just for that census; I like the idea that Carm was transcribed as Carlow; my only reservation is that to my recollection there seems to be too many apparently Irish born in other Welsh counties for them all to be transcribed as Carm -> Carlow

[Arranroots]

Thanks - that's a very helpful suggestion: if you look at many other entries you'll see too many matches to be just a coincidence (like Bangor). 

I think the lesson here is always to check the originals and not rely on others' transcription.

I have Irish who came to Wales to work in my tree**, some direct from Waterford and others via London.  Mostly they ended up in the more industrial areas though.  Carmarthenshire folk were moving to these areas at much the same time, as the crisis in the woollen industry hit and the mines became a major employer.

Maybe we need to look at them on a case-by-case basis?

kind regards, Arranroots 



** just re-read that & realise the syntax is not quite right, but it made me laugh, so I left it!!

[D ap D]

Paul,

I've had that on several occasions. It is just a red herring that ancestry needs to get sorted.

It threw me the first time I came across it as well, but fortunately I had other information to confirm that I didn't have any links to Ireland after all.

As cell said, it is essential that you check the information with the original image.

D