{"id":928,"date":"2022-03-16T07:06:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T07:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/?p=928"},"modified":"2024-03-01T08:08:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T08:08:53","slug":"its-been-a-long-time-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/its-been-a-long-time-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s been a long time coming …"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Well, what can I say? It would appear that I\u2019ve been rather idle for a while. I can assure you that is far from the truth.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Most of my research over that period has been for The Wates Family Saga.<\/p>

The original version of \u2018The Wates Family Saga\u2019 was compiled by Margaret Pitt (pictured) and \u2018completed\u2019 in 1974.\u00a0 This was well before the days when personal computers and wordprocessors were widely used.\u00a0 The first edition was typed and hand-written notes were found on an original version, added by Margaret over time.<\/p>

From the foreword of the 6th edition, by <\/sub>Brian Wate<\/sub><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Margaret Pitt<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Williams Family Tree and the Wates families are linked via my 3rd cousin Michael Richards. When I heard about the Saga I became interested and asked if I might have a copy and set about adding the “Wates” to my database. It has taken many years to add the data as life and other issues got in the way. The crunch came when Brian Wates and Ian Roberts informed me that they were going to produce the 6th and final edition of the Saga.<\/p>

After some discussion, Brian and Ian agreed to hold on to publication until I had gone through the information in the Saga. So, six months of solid research on nothing but the Wates and associated families later, it is done. Or rather, it is done for now!<\/p>

Maybe someone will take over and produce another edition. Maybe not. Either way, the information will remain on this website along with any new or interesting data I come across.<\/p>

If you have any updates or corrections to the information presented here please get in touch with me via this website. Brian and Ian can be contacted via this link: www.brian-wates.co.uk\/WatesFamily\/Wates.html<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Twists and Turns<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I continually receive messages by email, Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and The Williams Family Tree Guestbook. These messages are generally about a connection to the family or perhaps some corrections, updates or additions to a particular branch. Replying to these messages drives me to research the particular connection and I often end up adding a lot more information to my database. Because that’s what I do!<\/p>

More recently, Facebook and Messenger are being used to communicate and this is part of one such message sent to me by Hefin:<\/p>

\u201cI remember two maiden sisters Aunts Maggie and Mary. Maggie was a school teacher and Mary was the housekeeper. We used to visit them regularly. I do have a photograph of Maggie somewhere. Dressed in black she looked very severe!! On the way to Aber, on the right hand side of the road there are two houses with canopies over the doors. They stand out from the rest of the houses. They lived in the second one next to Aber.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

Everyone from my home village of Aberdyfi knows who Hefin is and that \u201cAber\u201d refers to Aberystwyth. The question interested me and so I took a look on Google street map to see if I could find the house in question. I did.<\/p>

The photos show the street view and a close-up of the window where you can just make out the name of the house – “Gwelfryn” (see inset).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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My first thought was to check the 1939 Register. In 1939 the occupant of “Gwelfryn” was Morwenna Aspinall Jones. The “Aspinall” rang a very loud bell. I remembered that Captain Owen Williams’ second marriage was to Jane Aspinall (n\u00e9e Roberts). Morwenna was Jane’s granddaughter and the daughter of Owen Jones and May Aspinall. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Until this episode I had not heard of May but she turns out to be the daughter of Abraham Aspinall and Jane Roberts. Jane, of course, went on to marry Captain Owen Williams after Abraham’s death. Morwenna is therefore, our 3rd cousin once removed.
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May Aspinall lived with her grandmother Elizabeth Roberts nee Owens in Talybont. Whether it was in “Gwelfryn” or not I don’t know. I am now in touch with Morwenna’s son Iwan Richards after he replied to a post on the Aberdovey Londoner<\/a> blog. Unfortunately, he does not know of the sisters Mary and Maggie so the search continues. <\/span><\/p>

Morwenna’s brother was John William Jones. Iwan has confirmed that, for some reason, he was referred to as Gwilym! Perhaps to differentiate between another John William Jones? Us Welsh have a habit of not referring to people by their proper name!<\/p>

Time went on and for some reason I went back to the 1939 Register and discovered a missing piece. The “see page …” bit in red escaped my notice the first time. Above Morwenna’s name is Margaret J. Jenkins born 16 Feb 1869. Could this be one of the sisters that Hefin mentioned?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Taking a good look at the 1911 Census, I finally found Marg’t Jane Jenkins age 42, an Elementary School Teacher in and from Talybont. Bingo! Now, can I find her sister Mary?<\/p>

Knowing that Margaret was born in Talybont, searching becomes a little easier. The 1901 census has her living with her mother Jane and her sister – Anne Mary Jenkins age 38, a Housekeeper. Remember what I said about not referring to people by their proper name?<\/p>

So, now I have the two sisters with the correct occupations living in Talybont. The next question is how are they related to the Williams family?<\/p>

Jane Jenkins age 74 is a widow from Bow Street. Who was her husband and what was her maiden name?<\/p>

Her husband’s name was easy enough to find, just search through the earlier census returns and he is recorded as a Master Tailor from Llanfihangel Genau’r Glyn. His name? Richard Jenkins – born about 1822 in Llanfihangel Genau’r-Glyn.<\/p>

Jane’s maiden name? From the GRO indexes for the two sisters there is a good possibility that she was an Owens. There is a marriage registration between Richard Jenkins and Jane Owens in 1858, Aberystwyth. In fact, I found the marriage certificate.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This pretty much confirms that I am on the right track, but I still don’t know how the Jenkins and\/or the Owens are related to us.<\/p>

We know that Captain Owen Williams first married Elizabeth Davies. Her parents were David Davies and Ann Owens. Ann Owens was born in 1809, Bow Street. Her parents were Thomas and Ann Owens. The parents of Jane Owens (who married Richard Jenkins) were Thomas and Mary. This Thomas was born about 1801. Were Ann born 1809 and Thomas born 1801 siblings?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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My 4th Cousin and Lady Br\u00e2n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Let me take you back a step. I mentioned above that I was now in touch with Iwan, the son of Morwenna Aspinall Jones. The photo is Iwan with his wife Eileen.<\/p>

Iwan had no idea that he had any cousins, let alone so many! I am continuing to research his background as well as that of Eileen.<\/p>

According to family gossip, Eileen is purportedly descended from Llowarch ap Br\u00e2n, Lord of Menai who was born about 1120. Sadly, I’ve not yet been able to prove a connection, but you never know!<\/p>

You can read about Llowarch ap Br\u00e2n here: http:\/\/www.ancientwalesstudies.org\/id32.html<\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Well, what can I say? It would appear that I\u2019ve been rather idle for a while. I can assure you that is far from the truth. Most of my research over that period has been for The Wates Family Saga. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsfamilytree.co.uk\/pw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}