I corresponded with a Welsh researcher a few years ago, and he told me that surnames
weren't taken very seriously amongst many of the Welsh in the 19th century; that would
have been around the time that the verch and ap prefixes were still in use perhaps? He
cited my family name as an example; it changed even amongst sibling baptisms depending on
who was doing the scribing and clarity of the individual speaking the name, as well as
family feuds where one branch of a family might change names overnight in spite or
whyever.
My family name in 1800 was Worthen; the children's surnames were spelled variously
Worthin, Worthing, Worthen. In the grandchildrens' generation, the names were
Worthing, Worthin and Worthington. My great-great was Worthington while working as a
servant for a British master, and when he had enough money to purchase a farm, he
immediately reverted back to Worthing. My great-grandfather was baptised
Worthington-although he used the name Worthing all the time he was in the UK but when he
emigrated to Australia, he had the use the name on his birth certificate (Worthington) as
did his children.
When my grandfather ended up in Canada, the name Worthington was still used by his family
although my father and his siblings all knew that the name was originally Worthing (they
hadn't known the previous names). I believe that under English common law (although I
may be in error), a person can use any name as long as there is no felonious intent or
criminal association. I know that most people opt nowadays for legal name changes.
I'm not an expert in this area, but the explanation given seemed to make sense to me!
Regards
Karin
Sent from my iPad
On 2013-04-25, at 11:16 AM, Timothy Davis <tdavisfam(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Margaret
Two questions: Is the change of surname name that Llewelyn David/Davies son
John did when he moved from Brecon Farms a common practice. Do you know why
he would change his surname?
Do you know any living, male descendants of Llewelyn David/Davies?
Thank you.
Tim
On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 9:57 AM, Margaret Crouch <
margaret.crouch23(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Thank you Jill, but the Llewelyn Davies with wife Eliizabeth you found is
> not my family.
>
> My Llewelyn David was living at Beacons Farm, Merthyr Tydfil in 1841 with
> his wife, 5 sons, a daughter and his mother-in-law Mary Jones. At that time
> his surname was given as Davies although he had been married in 1812 as
> Llewelyn David and gave his surname in the 1851 census as David again!
> The family eventually settled on Davies as their surname. His oldest son
> John changed his surname to Williams, got married, went farming in the
> Vaynor area then changed his surname back to Davies when he returned to
> Beacons farm to take over from his father.
>
> He and his wife were buried at Vaynor, but when I went there I couldn't
> find the grave, it was all rather overgrown at the time. I did find his
> son's grave there, Llewelyn Davies & his wife Margaret.
>
> It's all very intriguing.
>
> Margaret
> (Mathon)
> ===================
> Visit the Powys Mailing List webpage at:
www.jlb2011.co.uk/powyslist.htm
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> POWYS-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes
> in the subject and the body of the message
===================
Visit the Powys Mailing List webpage at:
www.jlb2011.co.uk/powyslist.htm
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POWYS-request(a)rootsweb.com with the
word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message