from my email:-

Dear Sir:
I have been researching my family roots for several years now and am hoping you can help me.

My ggrandfather was William Richards born 1826 to Evan and Margaret (Evans) Richards.

William was born at Mallwyd where the family lived for some time. They had either 6 or 7 children. One,

Owen, who I found a baptism record for in 1824 at Troed y Rhiw, I have been unable to trace further. William married Alice Jones in 1855 at Llanwddyn. Alice died in 1882 and in Feb. 1883,
William and his four children emigrated to Canada, the youngest child only 6 years old.

From Evan Richards' will of 1884, I discovered that he inherited, jointly, Deunant Fawr with his uncle William Richard's widow Gaenor. William died in 1839 and from his 1834 will there are nephews, nieces and sisters but no addresses - so where to start!


By the way, I am writing from Alberta Canada.

I sent for a Bishops Transcripts Church Record of Llanymawddwy 1672-1885 and feel I made some progress.This uncle William Richard was born 1764 to William & Mary Richard. There was a daughter Jane born in 1760.

The elder William Richard died July 26, 1766. His widow, Mary had been a widow when she married William.
Mary was married first to Griffith Jones in 1745 and they had Gwen, Mary, Richard and a David. It appears that Griffith died either in 1753 or 1756.

In the 1834 will, mention is made of sister Mary Griffiths. I then found a marriage of a Mary Jones to a Robert Griffith in 1788 but I haven't had a chance to further investigate this.

Also, in this will, mention is made of nephews, William and John Richard. Through my research, I have been in contact with people who also lived at Deunant and that it is possible that a Magdalen Richards, daughter of John Richards married a John Roberts is a relative.

To get to the bottom of this, I was wondering if it is possible for you to check the 1841 and 1851 census for the family of John Richards who were living at Bryn Melyn, Llanuwchllyn when Magdalen was married in Nov. 1851.

I was also told that there were a couple of graves at Deunant Fawr.

I contact the archives at Gwynedd and they were not aware of this.
I apologize for this long letter but wanted to give you a little bit of background to my family history.

I thank you in advance and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Catherine Johanson

<< thanks - posted at OPs request

Hugh W