Hi,
I know Rhydwen fairly well as I was in school with a boy who lived there, he
was a Rowlands though and not an Owen. I also worked in a pub called the
Gwernan Lake Hotel during a gap between school and collage which is on the
same road as Rhydwen. Rhydwen is still there and can be found on the
Ordinance Survey web site by quoting the grid reference SH 715 168.
If you fancy writing to the farmers at Rhydwen on spec for a photo of the
place, or to see whether they are descended from your lot the address is
Fferm Rhydwen, Ffordd Gwernan, Dolgellau Gwynedd LL40 1TD. (If the grid
reference doesn't work on OS, and it might not because I'm not too good at
working them out, try entering this post code instead).
Your best bet for finding your people may be looking in the 1841 census as
they should be there before emigrating. You may have tried the 41 already and
failed to see anything under Dolgelley. This would be because the earlier
census return are enumerated according to old townships rather than with
parishes, I think that Rhydwen is in the township of Brithdir & Islawrdref,
which adjoined Dolgelley to the South. If you can't get to a copy of the 1841
census I will look it up for you, but this might not be for a couple of
months as I live in a very rural area without regular access to these things.
Another slight chance you may have of tracing your family further than 1841
is that if they were part of the family of Rhydwen, rather than servants on
the farm, there is a chance that they will be in a tome called The History of
the Princes, the Lords Marcher and the ancient nobility of Powys Fadog by J.
Y. W. Lloyd. This is a huge work of family trees published between 1881 &
1887 in about 6 volumes. Many of the gentlemen farmers of Merionethshire are
included in it, and as Rhydwen is a largish farm (in Welsh terms) it may be
included. Unfortunately I do not have ready access to this book, but somebody
on the list might know how you can get a look up done in it.
The parish registers for Dolgellau are pretty well preserved and should be
available on film from LDS centres, although, if your people had a family
Bible the chances are that they would be nonconformists and only on the state
church books for burial. I am not sure what noncomformist records are
availiable, but the National Library of Wales should be able to let you know.
The Congregationalist use to have a chapel in Islawrdref called Peniel and
the Presbyterians had two one called Rhiwspardyn and the other called
Rehoboth, all three of these are now closed. If their records have survived
the chances are that they would be in Dolgellau records office.
I hope this information is of some help.
In a message dated 20/02/01 02:29:37 GMT Standard Time, bugwalkr(a)bigsky.net
writes:
<<
Forgive me for jumping in here and I am probably too late with a request but
when I saw Dolgellau I really perked up.
I am wondering how to go about finding my ggrandfather. From a page of a
bible and family oral history I have this information.
Griffith Roberts and Mary Owen Roberts lived near Dolgelly (Dolgellau)
Rhydwen . In 1839 their daughter Anne was 16. Sons were Evan George, Hugh
and Griffith. The family came to America in 1842. This is all the
information I have.
Can you give me some direction? I would be grateful as my line is a real
dead end here.
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