Hello Anthony,
I remember discussing deafness in Ashton families with you a year or so
ago. Margaret Brownrigg had evidence of deafness in her Ashton ancestry,
who originally came from Trefeglwys and Llanidloes and ended up in Gwent
circa 1850 and probably earlier.
1851 census at Tredegar, Mon
H0107-2448-f228
36, Peter street, Tredegar
Charles Ashton h m 27 lab Trefeglwys, MGY
Anne Ashton w m 25 Llanidloes, MGY
also found this:-
H0107-2448-67-9
20, Queens Square, Tredegar
Ashton Thomas h m 57 grocers porter Trefeglwys, MGY
Ashton Roger s u 30 coacher ,, ,,
Ashton John s u 23 coacher ,, ,,
Ashton David s u 21 dragger ,, ,,
Ashton Ann d u 26 ,, ,,
Not sure if these families are related, but, it may be that Thomas is
Charles father? Will have to check MGY 1841 census, although I only have
the scanned images version.
I haven't heard from Margaret and I am not sure that she is subscribed
to this list a the moment. I had a feeling that Anne, Charles wife was a
Humphreys but without Margaret's confirmation not sure. There are
Humphreys in Tredegar area in 1851 from Trefeglwys and Llanidloes.
These Ashton families are not in my line as Edward Ashton, born in
Llandinam, MGY 1807 was married in Aberystwyth in 1833 and the family
worked their way over to Carmarthenshire (Llansadwrn) and the family
branched to various parts of South Glamorgan, Swansea and Bridgend and
mine to Dowlais.
best regards
Barrie Jones, Gwent
In message Anthony Francis <Lynnant(a)shaw.ca> writes:-
Hi Alison,
Regarding the disabled family of Ashton's, I feel sure that there was
much medical interest at the time regarding the genetics problems caused by
a marriage between first cousins and wonder if the two Ashton doctors,
Dr.Joseph of Carno and Dr.John Caradoc of Machynlleth, did any studies in
their day. If you feel the need to study the genetics further, you might
like to look into the ancestry of Dr. Joseph Ashton. I understand that many
families had marriages between first cousins in those days but only a few
suffered a genetic catastrophe.
I did wonder if the pollution in their drinking water might have affected
their nervous systems, as has been discovered in the last 40 years, but
then it seems that few, if any, of their neighbours were similarly
affected. It might have been a combination of these factors that hit the
family - perhaps a weakening of their immune systems by pollution at the
same time as some particularly nasty virus was visiting the area. This sort
of thing might happen to anyone, as I have discovered.
Cheers, Tony