Bastardy bond for Eliza Williams, baptised Jan 8, 1837, in Bettws Cedewain.

[p.aulb.erry]

I'm hoping someone might help identify the father of my maternal great-great-grandmother, Eliza Williams. Eliza was baptised on Jan 8, 1837. Her place of birth is listed as "Near the Old Castle, Bettws Cedewain"--likely the ruins of Dolforwyn Castle. I understand this to be in the Diocese of St. Asaph's, and St Beuno's church was likely where the records originated.

Eliza's mother is Jane Williams, a servant, and her father is "unknown". Jane Williams never married, and had no other children. She appears in the censuses 1841 through 1871, though she has a different age listed on each one. As far as I can confirm she was born in Llandyssil around 1797. Because of the commonality of her name, and the dodgy dates of birth, I have not been able to identify Jane's parents. Since she and Eliza lived together into the 1850s, with no occupation listed for Jane until after Eliza left home--at which time Jane took work as a domestic servant--I suspect there must have been a bastardy bond issued to support Eliza until she was old enough to work.

If anyone knows where I might locate such a bond, I would be very grateful for the help.   

[p.aulb.erry]

I've done some more digging and have found Jane Williams' parents, as well as the date and location of her baptism: April 14, 1797 in Llanllwchaearn. She was, as far as I can make out, an only child. Her parents, Edward Williams and Sarah Goodwin were married 7 months before Jane's birth, and had no additional children.

[rosie99]

Welcome to rootschat

As the baptism states Father unknown I suspect that there would be no bastardy payments, Possibly she would be the responsibility of the parish if Jane was not able to support her.

ADDED Have you looked at online newspapers as they often carry information about child maintenance

[p.aulb.erry]

Thank you rosie99,

Jane appears not have had any independent means of support, and no occupation is listed in the 1841 (Park Street, Hendidley Township, Borough of Newtown) census. In the 1851 census, she is located in Tregynon Village, Aberhaley Township as a House Holder with a lodger. By the 1861 census she had moved to Welshpool and was working as a servant in the house of a widow named Jemima Biggs. Eliza was then also in Welshpool and working as a servant at the Royal Oak Inn. If they were supported by the parish in 1841 through 1851 (when Eliza turned 14) do you know  records might have been kept by the churchwarden?

Thanks also for the tip re. online newspapers, I hadn't thought to look there and will give it a go.

-Paul
     

Welcome to rootschat

As the baptism states Father unknown I suspect that there would be no bastardy payments, Possibly she would be the responsibility of the parish if Jane was not able to support her.

ADDED Have you looked at online newspapers as they often carry information about child maintenance

[Gadget]

Hi and welcome

An outside possibility could be some kind of 'out relief' .

Both Bettws and  Llanllwchaearn come under the Newtown Poor Law Union

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Newtown/

It might be that Powys Archives might have some information:

https://en.powys.gov.uk/archives


Gadget

[Gadget]

If you can't find anything, it might be worth doing  DNA test. Using the shared DNA matches that come up  and with the usual genealogical methods, you might be able to identify him or, at least, the family.

I found my maternal great grandfather  using this method. It took about 3 months of intensive work though.

Gadget

[4b2]

If you can't find anything, it might be worth doing  DNA test. Using the shared DNA matches that come up  and with the usual genealogical methods, you might be able to identify him or, at least, the family.

I found my maternal great grandfather  using this method. It took about 3 months of intensive work though.

Gadget

This may be the only way. I have/had four large holes in my tree and have been chipping away at them with DNA matches. Getting all the cousins, uncles etc. you can tested is useful, as the DNA is inherited in an irregular fashion and tend to be genealogically useful have about 4th-5th cousins.

It depends on how many matches you have and how close they are, as to how you will fare. If you have 2nd cousin or closer matches on a line it can be quite simple to pin point the common ancestors. And you need such closer matches to determine the how different clusters of matches fit together.

Last week I was finally able to find a missing great-great-grandmother with the help of DNA. I had one close match and from our common matches I believed he was a half 2nd cousin of this great-great-grandmother. But all I had to go on was his name. He did not answer a message. There were only three UK births with his name. So I thought I'd patch together trees for each of them. I started with the one with a Welsh surname for his mother's maiden name. Ten minutes later I was looking at the 1911 census for his great-grandmother. I first observed the birth place of the father was Churchstoke, Montgomeryshire. Then I looked down - his wife was listed as born in Aberhaves (sic), Montgomeryshire. I scrolled left to the name and read - Elizabeth Annie - the name and place of birth of my missing great-great-grandmother. A few minutes later I confirmed it was her.

It can be very heavy lifting though. My maternal great-grandmother was India and I had next to nothing to go on to locate her. Just a name (no surname) and an approximate year of birth from word of mouth. Luckily there were two 2nd cousins in a cluster of about 37 matches. But even then it took maybe 20 hours of lifting - filling in trees, documenting lines etc. - to figure out the exact connection. And now what was a 100% gap, is now a 50% gap.