Hi Jim,
I would go with the
Ancestry.com census first as the St Catherine's House
indexes to births marriages and deaths can take some time to go through. I
am not sure if they are online now but have a feeling that they are.
It appears from what the other lister has said that Christmas Griffiths was
not from Bangor but another place in Wales... Get the details of all the 19
Christmas Griffiths she mentioned to pin your search down. I wouldn't be
surprised if he was actually from Pembrokeshire or Denbighshire looking at
the frequency of occurence of the name Christmas in those two counties.
Ancestry.com's 1871 census should tell you for sure. You have a name and
age... should be easy??? Am I right in saying he was 4 or so in 1861? Make
a note of ALL of them as you may find they are all (or some) related as
names like this were conserved in different branches of families.
If Mr Griffiths originated from one of the North Wales counties
(Denbighshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire, Caernarvonshire, Anglesey),
Dafydd Hayes marriage index is as good a place as any for a search for his
marriage. For 5 pounds per county per name or so, he will give a detailed
breakdown of any marriages that occur in parish registers or Bishops
transcripts of parish registers. For such a relatively small sum, you can't
beat it especially for pre-civil registration days (ie pre 1837). It is
very comprehensive. It covers Shropshire as well but not Cheshire or
Lancashire (for Liverpool) where some "stray" Welsh people migrated... Like
my own. He can search by christian name or surname of bride and/or groom.
Research from the US by post or online is not always easy but at least you
have an unusual name to help your search.
I wouldn't be at all surprised with an unusual name like Christmas if there
hasn't been some interest in the name before... Writing to the relevant
Family History Society once you have located your man will hopefully elicit
something. As I say, I wonder if Bangor is the right place, though? Be
prepared to re-evaluate that one on the basis of the census info...
There are a number of online research interest pages accessible through
GENUKI and Rootsweb. Maybe there is a Christmas researcher listed on one of
those?
I am not on Ancestry so, anyone?... :-) As with a lot of the stuff on list,
I am fascinated to know more.
Yours,
Ian
Kennington
London