Trying to trace my Welsh ancestors has been a challenge. It required a lot of detective work and taught me a lot about Wales, a country I knew little about. My great, great grandparents were Harriet Jones and Thomas Powell, who were both born in Ruabon in the North of Wales. I have had little success with Harriet's family, but the Powell's have proved a little easier.
Jones is the most common surname in Wales and Powell is in the top twenty. Why are there so few different surnames in Wales? The Welsh traditionally used a system of patronymic naming, that is derived from the name of the father. Thus Jones came from John the first name of the father. In Celtic times "ab" or "ap" meaning "son of" was put in front of names. Eventually the "a" was dropped and lots of welsh names began with "P" or "B", so the original welsh name "ap Howell", son of Howell became shortened to Phowell and finally the welsh name we know today - Powell.
The next obstacle to overcome was place names, sometimes an ancestor would have different places of birth on different records. It would vary between Ruabon, Rhosymedre, Cefn Mawr and sometimes Wrexham. Ruabon is both a town and a parish. The parish of Ruabon included the smaller villages of Rhosymedre and Cefn Mawr until 1844. In that year Rhosymedre became a parish itself and included Cefn Mawr within its boundaries. With compulsory registration in 1837, Wrexham was the town for registration in this area. I must admit it took a while to get this clear in my head.
In 1841, the Ruabon parish had a population of 11,292 and owed its prosperity to the abundance of iron and coal in the area. About 1,500 men and boys were employed in associated industries, my ancestors amongst them. Thomas Powell was one of 8 boys and a girl born to John Powell and Sarah Rudge. Sarah unfortunately died when her youngest child, Harriet was only 5 years old, leaving John to raise the family. John was a forgeman. The 1871 census showed he was still working at that job at the age of 67. He died 4 years later. Being one of the main sources of employment in Ruabon, all 8 sons had little choice but to follow in their father's footsteps, working in the industry either as forgemen, puddlers, forge rollers or furnace heaters. Even Harriet, the only daughter married an iron moulder. However, they didn't all remain in Ruabon.
Four of the brothers, Thomas, Arthur, Henry and Isaac went to Thornaby-on-Tees in North Yorkshire and continued as iron workers. Only Isaac returned to Ruabon in his later years. John, Frederick and Harriett all remained in Ruabon and connected to the iron works. Peter, a mill furnace man, moved to Hanley in Staffordshire and William, as yet, I have been unable to track.
I was lucky in being able to track my Powell ancestors. Harriet, the youngest and only girl proved the most difficult until I obtained her father's death certificate. It had been filled in by his son-in-law, Benjamin Butterton. As he only had one son-in-law, I knew who Harriet had married. Not only that, it opened up a bit of a can of worms, with many more people to add to the family tree. Harriet like her mother had 8 sons, but she also had 5 daughters, a total of 13 children in 21 years. Not a bad effort! Thomas Powell, my great, great grandfather had only one child, a daughter Emily, but he had 41 nieces and nephews that I have found so far, which shows how quickly a family can grow. There was also one adopted nephew, William Brillingford which might make a good story another time!
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