Dear Nigel
It strikes me as unusual for the period for farmers to move several times
over such a wide area. Some of my nineteenth century farming relatives
moved around one parish, or to an adjoining parish, but when they moved any
distance they tended to stay put in the new farm. Farmers depended so much
on their neighbours for help, for instance at harvest time, that a newcomer
would be at a disadvantage. And anyone trying to farm in Carmarthenshire
without knowing the language would be hard put to make a living - unless
they had a private income. Do you know anything about the type or scale of
farming in Gloucester or Devon? Were they tenants? It's possible that
James may have been a bailiff for a large estate.
DAVIS is not that common in Carmarthenshire - an enumerator would write it
down as DAVIES unless told otherwise.
Best wishes
Anna
-----Original Message-----
From: Nigel Walker <doctech(a)doctech.co.za
To:
CARMARTHENSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com <CARMARTHENSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Date: 25 April 2005 20:16
Subject: RE: [Cmn-L] DAVIS : Cydweli : 1825
Thank you for the input. I do not unfortunately know the accent
spoken, but
considering that the mother - Ellen is noted as born in France, then a
Devon
based enumerator in 1851 would have had great time with the recording
of
Welsh father, with a French born mother and children born between Wales and
Gloucester!
The 1851 census did note that the county as CHH, which I understand is a
Non
Standard Code of the LDS lists the county of Carmarthen in Wales. Thus
I
would suspect that I am looking for somewhere in that county.
By 1841 the family was in Devon, in 1827 & 1829 they were in
Gloucestershire
and 1821 & 1825 in Wales, Carmarthen.
I think my only two strategies are to either look for the marriage between
a
James DAVIS (not an uncommon surname !!) and an Amelia Caroline
(surname
unknown) - but who was born in France.
The other option is to look for a birth of an Amelia Elvia G DAVIS in Wales
circa 1825 - a reasonably uncommon combination of names. Or look for the
birth of Edward Bridges DAVIS - again an uncommon middle name which may be
an indication of surname of his mother Amelia - thus Amelia Caroline
Bridges?
Any more thoughts would of course be very welcome
Nigel Walker
Pretoria, South Africa
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