Hello BarrieT
I've just spent a week in Anglesey researching three ancestors who were in the 28, and I also wanted to know what information was available about the rescuers. I found various books (some available via the internet) and one especially gives lots of background about events and people locally: "Life and Death on the Royal Charter" by Chris & Lesley Holder.
http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_index.shtml will take you to the Welsh Channel 4's version of BBC i-Player, where a film "Y Royal Charter" with English subtitles can be viewed for a limited period.
I didn't know until last week that the twenty-eight wrote a letter to the Times because they got so fed up of being accused in effect of grave-robbing and profiteering -- the Holders' book gives information about this. Journalists in those days could report inaccurately and readers in England wouldn't be any the wiser: locals wouldn't necessarily get to put their side of the situation, not least because of the language barrier, as in a little fishing village there would be few people who needed to know English. Imagine a British ship being wrecked on the coast of Albania 150 years ago -- how well would survivors and locals have been able to communicate? The Coroner couldn't even find a bilingual jury and had to import an interpreter from Bangor for the proceedings.
I found these publications which may be of interest (I came home with a boxful of books, DVDs, maps etc!)
"Shipwreck! Charles Dickens and the Royal Charter" available from
www.llyfrau-magma.co.uk"Life & Death on the Royal Charter" by Chris & Lesley Holden
www.calgopublications.co.uk "Loss Royal Charter Steam Clipper: Evidential Reports of Inquest Proceedings" produced by Partneriaith Moelfre
DVD "The Royal Charter and the Perfect Hurricane" produced by Teleg Films,
www.telegtv.com Like you I wanted to know details of the rescuers but I haven't found anything that directly answers that question (nothing as straightforward as Evan Evans of such-and-such an address). In order to identify which Williams, Hughes, Pritchard etc was which (especially as Christian names were repeated within families) it's probably best to go through Census records. I thought the 1861 Census would be helpful as it was taken barely 18 months after the event, but when I bought the CD I found that the record for Llanallgo is incomplete. The staff at Llangefni Records office checked for me and confirmed that those records have been lost. However, Moelfre families don't seem to have moved about much so 1851 and 1871 could be helpful -- my g-g-grandmother shows up on every Census in the village from 1841 to 1901 (apart from the missing year) and is with a daughter two miles away on the 1911 record.
I daresay you've tried Googling keywords such as "Royal Charter 1859" and "Moelfre shipwreck" but if not, you could find some fascinating entries and there are various comments on BBC North Wales' web pages. Sadly the BBC doesn't appear to have broadcast anything for the anniversary unless a programme is being made retrospectively: certainly there was little even on the local news.
There are lots of people out there who are descendants of survivors, victims and rescuers, so keep looking and someone may have more information that has come down to them through the family.
Best wishes
Meryll
