My 2x great-grandmother Ann Richards migrated to Nova Scotia, Canada pre1820. (b. abt. 1787 in Wales according to Canadian census info.)Other info: she lived in Toney River N.S. (she was known as “Granny Toney”) & married William McMillan@ 1818. I’d love more info on migration to Canada.
Great idea. I've added it to the list. Welsh Migration to Canada. I'll definitely cover Nova Scotia since it's where most everyone would have come through on their journey, at least in the early years. Also I love the nickname Granny Toney. Our ancestors' nicknames so rarely get preserved it's nice that you have that one.
I found a market-town connection for one of my Gwynned ancesters. He married the daughter of a canal-builder who moved around between different mines on the Welsh borders. It was actually the discovery of a map of Welsh mining areas that I find which made sense of the constant movements I found in census reports. Later I also traced the move to London towards the close of the 19th century. Census addresses showed that cousins from Welsh villages were living streets away from each other in parts of London.
That's awesome. And such a good example of why it's so important to look through the census not just for individual families but as whole neighbourhoods/communities. Love it.
A very interesting video which confirms what I have found when recently researching my family tree. I had relatives who travelled from London to South Wales and also from North to South Wales bearing in mind this was over a hundred + years ago.
Glad you enjoyed and glad the video matched up with what you've been finding! The Wales to London travel, especially, is something I could probably make a whole video on.
I am reasonably confident that one branch of my family comes from Wales. It is now my brick wall on that that branch largely because I am still trying to wrap my head around Welsh history and what records are available for research. Your wonderful video did touch on two things I always wondered about with this branch. First, why did they come to America in the 1830s? Was there something going on historically that pushed them to this move or was it just an opportunity to potentially improve their lot in life? The other question is I am not sure my male ancestor was originally from Wales or his ancestors were not. My family name from all the distribution maps I have seen is not Welsh it is almost always English, which if true raises the question of why did those ancestors come to Wales. Lots of mysteries. Looking forward to learning more about Welsh history and your site has been a valuable resource in that. Very much appreciated.
Sounds like an interesting mystery! Glad the video helped. There's a lot more videos on the channel that might be able to help with your research. I have one on the Top 5 Welsh record sets which might help with figuring out what's available.
My Grandfather moved from "Welsh" Hereford to Bari to work at Bari docks. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with David Davies Llandinam's construction of Barri as a Port but he eventually worked, I believe, on the Pilot Boats bringing ships into the newly built Barri Docks. "Davd Davies was a Welsh industrialist and politician. Having been born in Barry, if it wasn’t for David Davies, my home town wouldn’t have existed, and the prosperity of South Wales in the late 19th/early 20th century would have been weaker. His statue in Barry stands as a proud reminder of why the town-and Wales-prospered." from the Open University website. I am currently considering tracing back my Welsh Grandfather and Grandmother. Diolch am y fideos hynod ddiddorol hyn! 🏴
That's an awesome story! Thanks for sharing! I think you really should look into your Welsh grandparents' family. I bet you'll find more great stories.
Da iawn Dai, another interesting and informative video. On my mother's side of the family were slate quarriers at Corris. Due to the very hard and dangerous nature of this work, each generation some would leave for North America. By the time the industry was really struggling, my great grandfather turned to coal mining. He would spend long periods lodging and working in Glamorganshire, whilst sometimes returning to his wife and children who ran a small dairy in Talybont, north Cardiganshire. It was the is milk industry that then took my grandfather, like many others from Cardiganshire, to work in the dairy trade in London. By the way, I spent my undergrad years at Lampeter, and it's always nice to hear of stories from that area.
Diolch. I'm glad you enjoyed! And thanks for sharing. Slate quarrier, coal miner, dairy trade. All really great examples of the kind of work that makes you move around. The thing that I didn't really talk about in the video but may come later is how all along those pathways that they went for work, there would have been a long network of people that they were building relationships with, helping them, and just who they'd see repeatedly over time. That support network was part of my PhD research before I left the program. Cool stuff. And the Lampeter stories will keep coming because that's all I've been working on for like 2 years now haha
@@GenealCymru Re: the support network. For sure. I've got a very good example that ties in with the same ancestors I mentioned earlier. I will try to dig it out (so that I don't have to write it all again!)
(It's from a fb post I made in the summer, so excuse me if it's a bit dis-jointed here) My Great Grandfather and his brother lodged in 67 Oxford St., Pontycymmer in 1891, where he was a Sinker. He'd left the ailing slate mines at Corris to try his luck down south. One of the shop owners in Pontycymmer had come down from Ponterwyd - along with family and staff (they basically moved the whole shop 100km south!). This shop-owner had previously employed one of his young nieces back in Ponterwyd. A few years later my great-grandfather married her, my great grandmother. So it is my guess that this network is the reason my g grandparents met. For many years after that, Nain would run a dairy, a shop, and look after 7 children alone, while great grandad continued to "commute" to the coalfield. In 1901 he was over in Cilfynydd - possibly to fill the void left after the huge disaster there. I think it was the wife of the head of the household in 1901 who came from across the road, from where my g grandfather had been born, so there was obviously a lot of movement aided by family and friend contacts where the work was - as of course was true once people were moving securely over to North America.
Your videos are very helpful!! Am trying to find the pathway to the right Thomas Williams. Seems like everyone with the surname Williams thought Thomas was a great choice. Our Thomas came to Australia around 1853. From a birth record of one of his daughters it said he was from Tremadog another one said Porthmadog So that was a lot of help. Still trying to navigate from there. Can’t find the right TW ‘s arrival in Aust yet. There is about 50 of them in 1853/4 Thanks for the videos!
Awesome! I'm glad you're finding them useful. This may not help, but I've traced a few people from Wales to Australia and back again in one case. If they were able to name their home in Australia, there's a chance they chose an important name from Wales. One of my ancestors named the home Tygwyn, which was their farm back in Wales. And when they returned to Wales, they named their house Westralia. I hope you soon figure out which Thomas is yours!
Really interesting and useful as always. How did you discover the part about your 18th century ancestor studying in England? Pre-census stuff feels like a big step for me that I haven't go to yet. As for migration and travel, I have relatively little, other than my great uncle getting a job as a fitter's apprentice on the railway in Swansea in 1920s, with his father being a railway engine driver in Llandovery at the time. From that, my grandfather followed a few years later and they lived together; my grandfather met my grandmother in late 1930s, whose own family had moved to Swansea from Neath, I suppose for better business opportunities.
Thank you :D I think the key to getting into the pre-census stuff is getting as much as possible as you can from the census era and I mean who your ancestors were hanging out with, what religion they were, what social class they were. Who they are socially. And then that can narrow down what kind of records to look into. Did they have enough money to make a will? Were they Anglican or will they be absent from the parish baptism register? Etc. That ancestor of mine who studied in Hereford is a special case because he was a schoolmaster and most of his students were writers, antiquarians, historians, bards and other people who sent articles into the papers/journals so they wrote a lot about him. In other cases, I find the generation of people who don't get articles and stuff written about them and are born around 1813, with the change in the parish registers, to be really challenging.
I know that a few of my family moved from Lleyn Peninsula to Crewe due to the Rail oppertunity there, I also know or traced back a couple of my Ancestors coming from Isle of Man to Lleyn Peninsula, but have no idea as to why they moved, do you know any reason?
Very cool. Yeah the railways really had a massive impact on how people moved around. Do you know about what years they migrated to the Llyn Peninsula? With a year range you can then look at what's going on economically and socially there and that can give clues as to why they went there.
Hmm that's a time period I haven't really looked into historically yet. I do want to do a big Timeline of Welsh History thing at some point but what I have so far is focussed on the late 1800s just because it's such a time of change (and the best period for genealogy research). There's definitely some religious change for the Wesleyans and economic things happening in relation to the slave trade happening in the early 1800s though. There might be something there or maybe it's just a small local draw that the early newspapers can tell about or something.
@@GenealCymru thank you so much the only thing I can make out is either agricultural trade or it was something to do with the mine in Rhiw (although I am unsure when they began to mine there) thank you again
No worries. I really do need to expand my historical knowledge to North Wales. It's like a whole different world to me at this point. One thing that would be interesting to see from the 1851 census is how common it was for people from the Isle of Man to migrate to that area. If there's a lot of people doing it then there's probably some kind of economic or overarching reason that they ended up there.
This video makes for a good intro to a playlist on Welsh Migration to different countries. What country would you like to see me cover?
My 2x great-grandmother Ann Richards migrated to Nova Scotia, Canada pre1820. (b. abt. 1787 in Wales according to Canadian census info.)Other info: she lived in Toney River N.S. (she was known as “Granny Toney”) & married William McMillan@ 1818. I’d love more info on migration to Canada.
Great idea. I've added it to the list. Welsh Migration to Canada. I'll definitely cover Nova Scotia since it's where most everyone would have come through on their journey, at least in the early years. Also I love the nickname Granny Toney. Our ancestors' nicknames so rarely get preserved it's nice that you have that one.
I found a market-town connection for one of my Gwynned ancesters. He married the daughter of a canal-builder who moved around between different mines on the Welsh borders. It was actually the discovery of a map of Welsh mining areas that I find which made sense of the constant movements I found in census reports.
Later I also traced the move to London towards the close of the 19th century. Census addresses showed that cousins from Welsh villages were living streets away from each other in parts of London.
That's awesome. And such a good example of why it's so important to look through the census not just for individual families but as whole neighbourhoods/communities. Love it.
A very interesting video which confirms what I have found when recently researching my family tree. I had relatives who travelled from London to South Wales and also from North to South Wales bearing in mind this was over a hundred + years ago.
Glad you enjoyed and glad the video matched up with what you've been finding! The Wales to London travel, especially, is something I could probably make a whole video on.
I am reasonably confident that one branch of my family comes from Wales. It is now my brick wall on that that branch largely because I am still trying to wrap my head around Welsh history and what records are available for research. Your wonderful video did touch on two things I always wondered about with this branch. First, why did they come to America in the 1830s? Was there something going on historically that pushed them to this move or was it just an opportunity to potentially improve their lot in life? The other question is I am not sure my male ancestor was originally from Wales or his ancestors were not. My family name from all the distribution maps I have seen is not Welsh it is almost always English, which if true raises the question of why did those ancestors come to Wales. Lots of mysteries. Looking forward to learning more about Welsh history and your site has been a valuable resource in that. Very much appreciated.
Sounds like an interesting mystery! Glad the video helped. There's a lot more videos on the channel that might be able to help with your research. I have one on the Top 5 Welsh record sets which might help with figuring out what's available.
My Grandfather moved from "Welsh" Hereford to Bari to work at Bari docks. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with David Davies Llandinam's construction of Barri as a Port but he eventually worked, I believe, on the Pilot Boats bringing ships into the newly built Barri Docks.
"Davd Davies was a Welsh industrialist and politician. Having been born in Barry, if it wasn’t for David Davies, my home town wouldn’t have existed, and the prosperity of South Wales in the late 19th/early 20th century would have been weaker. His statue in Barry stands as a proud reminder of why the town-and Wales-prospered."
from the Open University website.
I am currently considering tracing back my Welsh Grandfather and Grandmother.
Diolch am y fideos hynod ddiddorol hyn! 🏴
That's an awesome story! Thanks for sharing! I think you really should look into your Welsh grandparents' family. I bet you'll find more great stories.
Da iawn Dai, another interesting and informative video. On my mother's side of the family were slate quarriers at Corris. Due to the very hard and dangerous nature of this work, each generation some would leave for North America. By the time the industry was really struggling, my great grandfather turned to coal mining. He would spend long periods lodging and working in Glamorganshire, whilst sometimes returning to his wife and children who ran a small dairy in Talybont, north Cardiganshire. It was the is milk industry that then took my grandfather, like many others from Cardiganshire, to work in the dairy trade in London.
By the way, I spent my undergrad years at Lampeter, and it's always nice to hear of stories from that area.
Diolch. I'm glad you enjoyed! And thanks for sharing. Slate quarrier, coal miner, dairy trade. All really great examples of the kind of work that makes you move around. The thing that I didn't really talk about in the video but may come later is how all along those pathways that they went for work, there would have been a long network of people that they were building relationships with, helping them, and just who they'd see repeatedly over time. That support network was part of my PhD research before I left the program. Cool stuff. And the Lampeter stories will keep coming because that's all I've been working on for like 2 years now haha
@@GenealCymru Re: the support network. For sure. I've got a very good example that ties in with the same ancestors I mentioned earlier. I will try to dig it out (so that I don't have to write it all again!)
(It's from a fb post I made in the summer, so excuse me if it's a bit dis-jointed here)
My Great Grandfather and his brother lodged in 67 Oxford St., Pontycymmer in 1891, where he was a Sinker. He'd left the ailing slate mines at Corris to try his luck down south.
One of the shop owners in Pontycymmer had come down from Ponterwyd - along with family and staff (they basically moved the whole shop 100km south!). This shop-owner had previously employed one of his young nieces back in Ponterwyd. A few years later my great-grandfather married her, my great grandmother. So it is my guess that this network is the reason my g grandparents met.
For many years after that, Nain would run a dairy, a shop, and look after 7 children alone, while great grandad continued to "commute" to the coalfield.
In 1901 he was over in Cilfynydd - possibly to fill the void left after the huge disaster there. I think it was the wife of the head of the household in 1901 who came from across the road, from where my g grandfather had been born, so there was obviously a lot of movement aided by family and friend contacts where the work was - as of course was true once people were moving securely over to North America.
That's so cool. Thanks for sharing! Such a good story of interconnectedness!
Your videos are very helpful!! Am trying to find the pathway to the right Thomas Williams. Seems like everyone with the surname Williams thought Thomas was a great choice.
Our Thomas came to Australia around 1853. From a birth record of one of his daughters it said he was from Tremadog another one said Porthmadog
So that was a lot of help. Still trying to navigate from there. Can’t find the right TW ‘s arrival in Aust yet. There is about 50 of them in 1853/4
Thanks for the videos!
Awesome! I'm glad you're finding them useful. This may not help, but I've traced a few people from Wales to Australia and back again in one case. If they were able to name their home in Australia, there's a chance they chose an important name from Wales. One of my ancestors named the home Tygwyn, which was their farm back in Wales. And when they returned to Wales, they named their house Westralia. I hope you soon figure out which Thomas is yours!
Really interesting and useful as always. How did you discover the part about your 18th century ancestor studying in England? Pre-census stuff feels like a big step for me that I haven't go to yet. As for migration and travel, I have relatively little, other than my great uncle getting a job as a fitter's apprentice on the railway in Swansea in 1920s, with his father being a railway engine driver in Llandovery at the time. From that, my grandfather followed a few years later and they lived together; my grandfather met my grandmother in late 1930s, whose own family had moved to Swansea from Neath, I suppose for better business opportunities.
Thank you :D I think the key to getting into the pre-census stuff is getting as much as possible as you can from the census era and I mean who your ancestors were hanging out with, what religion they were, what social class they were. Who they are socially. And then that can narrow down what kind of records to look into. Did they have enough money to make a will? Were they Anglican or will they be absent from the parish baptism register? Etc. That ancestor of mine who studied in Hereford is a special case because he was a schoolmaster and most of his students were writers, antiquarians, historians, bards and other people who sent articles into the papers/journals so they wrote a lot about him. In other cases, I find the generation of people who don't get articles and stuff written about them and are born around 1813, with the change in the parish registers, to be really challenging.
I know that a few of my family moved from Lleyn Peninsula to Crewe due to the Rail oppertunity there,
I also know or traced back a couple of my Ancestors coming from Isle of Man to Lleyn Peninsula, but have no idea as to why they moved, do you know any reason?
Very cool. Yeah the railways really had a massive impact on how people moved around. Do you know about what years they migrated to the Llyn Peninsula? With a year range you can then look at what's going on economically and socially there and that can give clues as to why they went there.
@@GenealCymru it was around the the end of 1790s to early 1800s, I have not pin poined the precise date yet but around that time
Hmm that's a time period I haven't really looked into historically yet. I do want to do a big Timeline of Welsh History thing at some point but what I have so far is focussed on the late 1800s just because it's such a time of change (and the best period for genealogy research). There's definitely some religious change for the Wesleyans and economic things happening in relation to the slave trade happening in the early 1800s though. There might be something there or maybe it's just a small local draw that the early newspapers can tell about or something.
@@GenealCymru thank you so much the only thing I can make out is either agricultural trade or it was something to do with the mine in Rhiw (although I am unsure when they began to mine there) thank you again
No worries. I really do need to expand my historical knowledge to North Wales. It's like a whole different world to me at this point. One thing that would be interesting to see from the 1851 census is how common it was for people from the Isle of Man to migrate to that area. If there's a lot of people doing it then there's probably some kind of economic or overarching reason that they ended up there.