John,
Not *too* cautionary, I hope -- not enough to dampen your enthusiasm, anyway.
Your uncles would never have been able to accomplish much back in WW1 as the census are
held for 100 years before public release and they wouldn't have had the knowledge base
to work from, I'm sure.
Always work *backward* in time using all available documentation. Never rely only on one
census record as details often differ from one census to the next -- sometimes, people
referred to a larger town as their birthplace when they were really born in a nearby
parish.
You should locate the marriage record for your Thomas JOSEPH and his wife, as well as look
for any obituaries, monumental inscriptions, wills, etc. Thomas was significantly older
than she was -- it's likely he was married before and widowed. The marriage record
will state whether he was a widower or bachelor at the time.
Regards,
Julie Preston
juliefpreston(a)sbcglobal.net
----- Original Message -----
From: John Hopkins
To: WLS-RADNORSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 7:02 PM
Subject: RE: [WLS-RAD] Thomas Joseph - Llanerhangel [Llanfihangel] (c1775)
Thank you once again Paul and Julie. Very informative, and cautionary. It
all seems like I may be mixed up in a myth, like one of the common myths
here of times past - if anyone who was Pakeha (i.e. European in origin)
claimed some Maori ancestry, it always seemed as though their male ancestor
married "a Maori princess"! I am sure there is an American equivalent.
This of course also raises cautionary doubts about my Hopkins ancestry - I
have always been told the Hopkins family originated in Wales, and my
father's cousin insisted that part of the evidence for this was that my
great grandfather (her grandfather) taught her to count in Welsh!
He and my great grandmother migrated here from the Forest of Dean. Thus far,
I have not been able to trace the Hopkins family back beyond my great great
grandfather Hopkins, still in the FOD! I have only been able to find the one
census record for any ancestry in Wales - my great grandmother's father
(Thomas Joseph)!
When my three uncles went to WW1, they tried to trace family but were
unsuccessful - and this would have only been approx 60 years since
migration. It appears as though this will be a long and winding road, so
thank you for the signposts you have provided.
John
Thank you once again Paul and Julie. Very informative, and cautionary. It
all seems like I may be mixed up in a myth, like one of the common myths
here of times past - if anyone who was Pakeha (i.e. European in origin)
claimed some Maori ancestry, it always seemed as though their male ancestor
married "a Maori princess"! I am sure there is an American equivalent.
This of course also raises cautionary doubts about my Hopkins ancestry - I
have always been told the Hopkins family originated in Wales, and my
father's cousin insisted that part of the evidence for this was that my
great grandfather (her grandfather) taught her to count in Welsh!
He and my great grandmother migrated here from the Forest of Dean. Thus far,
I have not been able to trace the Hopkins family back beyond my great great
grandfather Hopkins, still in the FOD! I have only been able to find the one
census record for any ancestry in Wales - my great grandmother's father
(Thomas Joseph)!
When my three uncles went to WW1, they tried to trace family but were
unsuccessful - and this would have only been approx 60 years since
migration. It appears as though this will be a long and winding road, so
thank you for the signposts you have provided.
John