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

Just researching in to my grandfather's family history - his name was Edward Roberts (my mother's father) and he was born in 1887 and died in 1977 - before The Great War he spent 9 years in Canada.....

His mother was Mary Roberts (my mother's grandmother) and her father was John Roberts (died 1901) of pa of Llanddwywe, her mother was Magdalen Richards
Magdalen Richards' father was John Richards of Brynmelyn, who was born in the parish of Llanfor.

John Roberts married Magdalen Richards in November 1851 in Llanuwchllyn - I have a copy of the marriage certificate.

Kind Regards

Iwan

Just researching in to my grandfather's family history - his name was Edward Roberts (my mother's father) and he was born in 1887 and died in 1977 - before The Great War he spent 9 years in Canada.....
His mother was Mary Roberts (my mother's grandmother) and her father was John Roberts (died 1901) of pa of Llanddwywe, her mother was Magdalen Richards (died 1910) of Brynmelyn, Llanuwchllyn/Llangower but who lived most of her married life in Penbryncoch,Llanycil until her death.

Magdalen Richards' father was John Richards of Brynmelyn, who was born in the parish of Llanfor.


John Roberts married Magdalen Richards in November 1851 in Llanuwchllyn. By obtaining a copy of the original marriage certificate we have established that John Roberts' father was Robert Mathew of Pyrse and was originally from Llanddwywe and died in 1850. John Roberts lived with his sister and brother David in Pyrse,Llanuwchllyn according to the 1851 Census

We have a picture of Magdalen Richards dressed in black after losing John as well as a picture of her son David ("Yncl Dei") - these pictures were required to be taken by the Glanllyn Estate as part of their tenancy agreement.

Hi there

To find out what happened to Magdalen Richards Brynmelyn, Llanuwchllyn, daughter of John Richards, who married John Roberts pa of Llanddwywe (but who at the time of the wedding lived in Pyrse,Llanuwchllyn) in November 1851. To find Magdalen and her family go to GENUKI 1851 census Llanuwchllyn shows her showing in "Brynmelyn".

Having married she lives with John in the parish of Llanycil by 1871 with children:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llanycil/1871f.html


and during the 1891 Census she is grandmother to my 4 year old grandfather, Edward "Ted" Roberts:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llanycil/1891f.html

and look under "Penbryncoch" under the above links.

Kind Regards

Iwan

This post was deleted by the author on 18 Mar 2012 4:34PM GMT

Hi Catherine

Christmas Roberts and Robert John left either Llanymawddwy or Dinas Mawddwy (South of Bala & Dolgellau)
and emigrated to Alberta Canada in the 1900s.

Robert John had 6 children in Canada including Edward Roberts and William Roberts who live in Drayton Valley,Alberta,Canada today.

Both brothers have visited Wales in recent years to visit my 81 yr mother,Gwyneth (the oldest daughter of Edward "Ted" Roberts who was 4 yrs old on the 1891 Census) and Alun and Emyr Puw who are from Dinas Mawddwy but both now live in Llanuwchllyn.

Their grandfather was Thomas Roberts, son of Magdalen who was a farmer who moved to Dinas Mawddwy and was a poet whose poetical name was "Llafar" - Llafar is also the name of the valley of Parc,Llanuwchllyn.

I was not aware that John Richards is the son of Richard & Jane Griffith but knew from the Census he was living in Brynmelyn, Llanuwchllyn with his family including daughter Magdalen in 1851.

In this period, the old Welsh/Celtic tradition was used of being named after your father i.e the son of. In earlier times they used "ap" between both names but by 17C/18C this appears to have been dropped and by 19C the Welsh seemed to adopted the Anglo-Saxon tradition of surnames. This means tracing your ancestors becomes more difficult in this period.

Hence, when we saw Magdalen Richards and John Roberts marriage cerificate John's father was Robert Mathew and not for example Robert Roberts. Mathew may have been John's grandfather in the Celtic tradition of knowing who you were related to i.e your ancestry which was more important to the old Celts than for example your social class e.g being middle class or upper class.

I was not aware of the link to Rhiwaedog - will make enquiries - or that John Richards died 1869 at Plas Deon, Llanuwchllyn - but it is possiblee as these places are in Penllyn and the Bala area.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards

Iwan

Just looking at the 1891 Census for Llanuwchllyn:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llanuwchllyn/1891b.html

A Jane Williams lives with her husband in Plas Deon and children but significant is the fact she is from the parish of Llanfor - the same parish as John Richards of Brynmelyn.

In the year that 32 yrs old John Roberts marries Magdalen Richards (i.e November 1851)lives with his 28 yr old brother David (Head)and 30 yr old sister, Jane in Pyrse (Robert Mathew home according to the marriage certificate):

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llanuwchllyn/1851.html

Hope this helps

Kind Regards

Iwan

Hi Catherine

Possibly not really relevant to your current research but relevant link in John Roberts' ancestry - David his brother remained at Pyrse and married and was with children by 1871:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llanuwchllyn/1871.html

The Richards of Brynmelyn and Roberts of Pyrse lived within a few miles of each other.

Llanfor is approximately 7 miles from Llanuwchllyn with Llanfor only a mile from Bala:

http://www.visitbala.org/history-of-bala/

http://www.roman-britain.org/places/llanfor.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanuwchllyn

You might find the above attachments useful.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards

Iwan

this link explains about Welsh surnames:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_surnames
and you find this interesting:

http://www.welshleigh.org/genealogy/welshnames.html

Kind Regards

Iwan

Mary Jones & William Richard had 2 children - Jane Williams B. 1760; D. 1847 at Deunant who married Rowland Evans in 1803. Rowland d. 1840 and they no children.
The 2nd child was William Richard B. 1764; M. Gaynor Thomas 1808; William d. 1839 at Deuant and Gaynor died 1861 at Deunant. They also had no children.
Catherine