Author Topic: Daviies Family  (Read 89472 times)

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Offline DaveR

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2014, 10:42:03 am »
If the William Davies is Hugh's Grandfather and if William was illegitimate as Hugh thinks then it is possible that Dorothy (age not mentioned) could be William's mother.
That's an interesting idea, Hugo. Good work!

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2014, 06:26:53 pm »
Can you remember the age of Dorothy in the 1911 Census Dave?      It was only an idea but we need more evidence before we can say for certain that Dorothy was Wlliam's mother.


Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2014, 06:42:51 pm »
5. Dad (Hugh) was born in 2 Fron Cottages Cwlach Street Llandudno (1909), William was living at Penmaen View, Caroline St Llandudno (1905) and Catherine Jones was living at Rodonal House, Trinity Street Llandudno (1905). Are these buildings still there? If so, are there any online photos I can view.

Hugh, I visited the Archives today and then drove around town to take photos of the houses you have listed.
The first photo is of Penmaen View Villa  39 Caroline Road Llandudno.
The second photo is of Roden Villa   23   Trinity Square Llandudno.    This large building has been used for various things and in the 1950's and 1960's it was a Dr Barnado's Home for children
The third photo is of what I believe is 2 Fron Cottages Cwlach Street.   The reason I'm not certain is because the street was not listed in the Street Index although we know that it is one of the oldest streets in the old village of Llandudno.  It's the second house on the right as you go from Cwlach Road.        I'll follow that up though.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2014, 06:59:43 pm »
After looking at the Street Indexes, I then had a look at the Burial Indexes for St Tudno's,   St Hilary's in Llanrhos and also Llansanffraid Glan Conwy's and had a look at every William Davies' listed there.
Unfortunately your Grandfather was not listed in the books I looked at.     These Burial Indexes only list the graves with headstones and do not list the others.    Without any idea of the date of death it would not be possible for me to look through all the Obituaries in the Llandudno Advertiser as it would be too time consuming for me.
However there was one very small hope of me finding the grave for your relative and this was because a William Davies who was buried at St Tudno's Church on 6th March 1937 had his grave purchased for him by an Arfon Davies who lived in No 13 Alexandra Road Llandudno.
If you know of a relative of yours by this name then I will look at the relevant copy of the Llandudno Advertiser   (I'll probably look anyway!)
I did go up the Orme and went into the Cemetery of St Tudno's and found grave No Q 45 but this was an unmarked grave and proved nothing.   

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2014, 07:04:34 pm »
3. I think there was another two sons and one daughter born to William and Catherine after 1911. Can anyone suggest a way of finding out details of those births (ie names and dates of birth).

I need to look at the Baptism Records for this info but they only give the dates of the Baptisms and do not give the dates of the births but at least it will help you with tracing their births.

It was only due to lack of time that I couldn't follow this up but will do so on another visit to the Archives

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #20 on: November 24, 2014, 03:15:05 pm »
The Conwy Archives is now closed for stocktaking and will reopen on the 8th December 2014 so I'll have to wait until after then to look for the info.

Offline DownUnder

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #21 on: November 25, 2014, 03:19:44 am »
Those are good finds Dave and DownUnder.    If the William Davies is Hugh's Grandfather and if William was illegitimate as Hugh thinks then it is possible that Dorothy (age not mentioned) could be William's mother.
The Baptism records may help but I'm not sure if Llansanffraid Glan Conwy's records are at the Conwy Archives.   Although Glan Conwy is now in the County of Conwy I know some of the Parish records are elsewhere.   I'll have a look when I'm there next.
Anyway, here's a photo taken today of 7 Alexandra Road Llandudno where William once lived. ( No 7 is the door on the right)

I have joined FindMyPast for 1 month and have been pouring over many, many records to a) make sure I have the correct 1901 Census record for William Davies, and to explore a number of other possibilities. For confirmation of the 1901 Census record, I used 1876 +/- 1yr as the birth date (based on 1911 Census/Marriage Certificate/my father's Birth Certificate), Denbighshire as the Birth County, and Marital Status as Single applied to the 1901 English, Wales and Scotland Census. Of the 19 names listed (without a middle initial) the Llandudno entry is the only one to tick the majority of boxes (although it was more about eliminating the other 18 entries).

Having confirmed what I think is the only logical match for the 1901 Census, I decided to look at the 1891 Census records using 1876 +/- 1yr as the birth date (based on 1911 Census/Marriage Certificate/my father's Birth Certificate/1901 Census), Denbighshire as the Birth County, and Marital Status as Single applied to the 1891 English, Wales and Scotland Census. A total of 17 names were listed (without a middle initial). Only one of the entries looked positive - Birth Place Glan Conway, Occupation - Shoe Maker and even included the Father.  However, when I checked on this family for 1901, William Davies was listed as still living there. All other entries listed birth towns other than Glan Conway or Llansaintffraid in Denbigshire or listed a father.  All in all, nothing positive.

I had previously, around 6 months ago, flagged the possibility of Dorothy being William's mother.  I traced this family from 1841 to 1881. Edward and Margaret had 10 children during this period, 7 of them females, anyone of them potentially the mother of William Davies.  Intriguingly, Dorothy (4) was listed in the 1861 Census but absent from the 1871 Census, only to reappear in the 1881 Census (23) with a William Davies. Will try to find an entry for Dorothy in the 1871 Census but not feeling too confident.

My apologies for delays in thanking you all or providing input.  I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and have been particularly out of sorts in the past few weeks.

Offline DaveR

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #22 on: November 25, 2014, 09:46:28 am »
Sorry to hear you've not been well. Please keep posting, you have a fascinating search on your hands.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #23 on: November 25, 2014, 10:24:04 am »
I'm sorry to hear that you have Chronic Fatigue syndrome,   my wife suffers from the same illness so I know how debilitating it must be for you.
With research it can be so frustrating when you are looking for some one as you think that you've found them but need conclusive proof before you can say for certain that that is the person you are looking for.
Once the Archives are open again I'll pop down there and see what I can find, unfortunately there are no guarantees that I'll find something, sometimes you just need that bit of luck.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #24 on: November 25, 2014, 08:05:51 pm »
Just a thought Hugh, in your original enquiry you referred to the witnesses and one was Maggie Smith.    As Maggie is the pet name for Margaret I'm just wondering if this was the Margaret Davies of Lleweni  Caroline St that you found in the 1901 Census as  William was a boarder there.
It's possible that William was in fact related to Samuel T Davies & Maggie Davies as families often helped each other out in those days.

Offline DownUnder

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #25 on: November 26, 2014, 08:24:59 am »
Just a thought Hugh, in your original enquiry you referred to the witnesses and one was Maggie Smith.    As Maggie is the pet name for Margaret I'm just wondering if this was the Margaret Davies of Lleweni  Caroline St that you found in the 1901 Census as  William was a boarder there.
It's possible that William was in fact related to Samuel T Davies & Maggie Davies as families often helped each other out in those days.

Great suggestion Hugo. I will start a trace on Samuel T Davies which hopefully will uncover a fresh link. As for the CFS, it affects me mainly in the afternoon/evening when my ability to reason logically or think cohesively becomes a challenge.  I'm sorry to hear your wife is a sufferer.  I have found (for me) a 20 minute walk each day builds up my energy levels and I can function pretty well on a day-to-day basis.  If I stop walking (as I have recently), I tend to go down hill fairly quickly.

On a positive note, Brisbane seems to have weathered the recent G20 Summit without the normal upheaval and destruction associated with this event elsewhere. I think the record high temperatures for November set the weekend of the G20 made any physical exertion a real challenge. It was that weekend our granddaughter was baptised and a celebration party held at our home (what else are grandparents for) - fortunately we have air conditioning which made things bearable (but only just).

Offline DaveR

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #26 on: November 26, 2014, 09:22:20 am »
What sort of temperatures are are you getting over there? Currently 8 Degrees here in Llandudno!

Offline DownUnder

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #27 on: November 26, 2014, 10:18:29 am »
What sort of temperatures are are you getting over there? Currently 8 Degrees here in Llandudno!

The temperature for that day was forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius.  Brisbane is a sub-tropical climate and whilst I have been in Melbourne on days reaching 40 degrees, it was like standing in front of a hair dryer. Brisbane at that temperature is more like being in a sauna - high temperature with high humidity. Having said that, we are near the bay and we normally get some sea breezes of an afternoon on our back deck. 

There was a tourist campaign a number of years ago along the lines of 'Queensland - Sunshine one day, perfect the next'.  I think a more accurate line was delivered by a comedian (may have been Billy Connelly), "Queensland does have a Winter, It lasts for one or two days around the middle of July".  My wife and I have been to Tasmania in the middle of Winter where scraping the ice of the car window was a daily event, and loved the experience of the cold weather. Would I swap for good? It would not be out of the question.  Spring in Brisbane is absolutely beautiful. Cool crisp mornings followed by bright sunshine and mild temperatures for the rest of the day.

We did get over to the UK in 2002 (first time since emigrating to Australia in 1955) for our son's wedding in London.  We had to be in Scotland for my uncle's 70 the birthday party but did arrive there via Wales. Can't remember where we stayed overnight in Wales but I do fondly remember going to the local pub and listening to the lovely Welsh lilt - not heard by me since the death of my father in 1970. We did spend some time in Llandudno trying to find the house my dad was born in, but without much success. I do know that I was very impressed by the town and regretted that we did not have more time to spend there.

Sorry. Seems a very long response to your question, but  whilst 8 degrees does sound very cold, I can imagine that rugged up with all the appropriate winter gear, the beer would still taste good at the local.  Z**

Offline DaveR

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #28 on: November 26, 2014, 10:36:50 am »
Very interesting, thank you. I'm not sure I'd swap our 8 Degrees for your 40 Degrees. I like it warm but not quite that hot!

Offline Hugo

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Re: Daviies Family
« Reply #29 on: November 26, 2014, 07:53:11 pm »
That CFC affects people in different ways, the heat affects my wife and it's one of the reasons we can't go to see her natural father who lives in Western Australia.  He said last Summer that the temperature where he lives was 50C which is unimaginable.
I can't do much before the 8th December but I'll have a think about things and see if it can help you in any way.
I've posted a photo of where I think your father was born at 2 Fron Cottages Cwlach Street but I want to be absolutely certain that this is the address and I'll let you know on here.  The other addresses are all confirmed.