Strange parish records!

[Wireman]

Whilst checking on possible baptisms at Heneglwys Parish church at Anglesey for any children of Lewis Owen I came across the following entry:

"The son of Lewis Owen was baptised the sixteenth day of February 1706"

On further checking I have found other examples of baptisms were no first name is entered in the church records.

Another strange church record I found was for the burial of Lewis Owen's wife at Amlwch in September 1711 (she appears to have died sometime after giving birth to her son Hugh Owen in the August), instead of being buried under her married name of Anne Owen, the burial record shows that she was buried using her maiden name of Anne Jones.

Was there any reason why they would use her maiden name at the burial?

[dragonT]

...
Another strange church record I found was for the burial of Lewis Owen's wife at Amlwch in September 1711 (she appears to have died sometime after giving birth to her son Hugh Owen in the August), instead of being buried under her married name of Anne Owen, the burial record shows that she was buried using her maiden name of Anne Jones.

Was there any reason why they would use her maiden name at the burial?

This would have been normal under the Welsh patronymic naming system - a married woman kept her 'surname' (actually her father's first name, Jones derived from John) after marriage. Alternatively, her burial would have been recorded as Anne, wife of Lewis Owen.

There are similar examples much later in more rural areas of Anglesey - from my own tree Anne, widow of Hugh Lewis was buried at Bodewryd, Anglesey in 1835 as Anne Jones.

[Wireman]

Thanks dragonT for the explanation, it is reassuring to know that there are other examples of using a wife's maiden name at the burial service.

There is an image of the Amlwch burial on 'Find My Past' but parts of it are of poor quality and unable to read the section relating to Anne Jones' burial entry so have relied on the 'transcription' record.