Owen H Jones and Catherine Williams - circa 1860s Caernarvon

[jstjones]

DawnSH:
Thank you again for your interest and help! The names in the 1871 census do match as far as parents (Owen and Ann) and some of the children (Owen and John) as well as age for Owen Jr. However, his middle initial is given prominently as "H" on the marriage document but the 1881 census shows it as "O" and his occupation as Blacksmith whereas over here he was a stone mason (which is consistent with his father's. And I've seen worse inconsistencies than an "O" vs. "H"! So that family is a possiblity. I wonder what the 1891 census looks like as that would be after he emigrated.

[Huwcyn]

I'm afraid Owen O Jones is still in New Street, Ebenezer , Llanddeiniolen in 1891. Its not the worst part of the world to be searching - an awful lot of slate quarrymen from that parish did go to Pennsylvania, and since your second cousins mentioned Caernarfon, its worth noting that Caernarfon is about 6 miles from that area, and that it was the premier town for the quarrying hinterland. Its also the registration district for a lot of quarrying villages.'Caernarfon(Shire)' the county would also include another set of large quarries with Bangor as registration district.
  I think you might have met a dead-end as far as 'free' research is concerned. This site

http://www.northwalesbmd.org.uk/cgi/marrind.cgi?county=northwales

suggests the previously-mentioned marriage between an Owen Jones and an Ann Evans in 1856, and 10 births of an Owen Jones in 1862 in the Caernarfon area. It might be worth the cost of trying to see if one of these birth is consistent with your information. It will cost you to search and find, but you'll be working from official records then rather than hearsay and amateur advice (like my own !)

[jstjones]

Huwcyn,
Thank you very much! I will check that out.

[dawnsh]

A note of caution with regards to birth certificates...

Although civil registration started in 1837, the onus was on the registrar to go around his district and collect registrations rather than rely on parents going to the office. The law changed in 1874 and the onus was then placed on the parents to register the births so for a birth in the early 1860's there may not be a birth cert to find.

[Huwcyn]

Something else which struck me (excuse me if you've already done this) : Look at the Pennsylvania death certificates for someone with parents Owen Jones and Anne (Evans) , born in Wales from 1855 - 1870, say, dying in Luzerne. By and large, people did not travel alone to the USA. Identifying a posssible sister or brother might help with an internet search.
    For a while, the certificates were free-to-view here in Wales, but only for a very short time.