Piecing together the family tree (5) - from Rhandirmwyn to Pennsylvania

I had said that my previous post on this blog was going to be my last foray into the ancestry archives for this summer. However, my research has put me in touch with someone who has also been very helpfully researching a branch of what turns out to be part of the same family tree. So there's more than enough resources available for one more 'bonus' post!

My third post from this summer's research explained how I had managed to trace my family tree back to my third great grandparents, Charles and Sarah Williams, innkeepers - amongst other trades - in the Carmarthenshire village of Llansawel. In this post, I want to head back down the family tree from Charles and Sarah. However, instead of taking the branch that leads to my own grandparents, I will instead head in the direction of my newly found US potential cousin - Kathryn!

Charles and Sarah at the George Inn, Llansawel

An 1838 Tithe Map of the village confirms that Charles Williams is occupying the George Inn, and its accompanying land (16 on the map), in the centre of the village:

Llansawel, 1838

The 1841 census listing for the George Inn actually lists Sarah Williams as the publican (it's not clear where Charles is residing at the time of this census):

1841 census for the George Inn, Llansawel

On this page of the census, four of Charles and Sarah's children are listed - Mary (25), Sarah (12), Elizabeth (10) and Daniel (7). I will take each of them in turn, starting with the youngest ... and find some interesting history on the way!

Daniel Williams - a clergyman in rural Radnorshire

Daniel's baptism, on 31st August 1834, is recorded in the register of the parish church of St. Sawyl's - with an error carefully annotated in the margin! 

From the Llansawel Parish Registers for 1834

In the 1851 census, Daniel is still listed as living in Llansawel as a 'scholar' - although he was already sixteen years of age. Clearly, his parents were making sure that he was being educated - but as what? He may be the Daniel Williams 'tailor' visiting his sister Sarah's household in 'Rhandir Abbott' in the 1861 census (see below!) However, his next confirmed appearance in the census records - in 1871 and 1881 - reveal that his ongoing education was to become a vicar:

Daniel Williams - Vicar of Glyncollwn, Llanddetty and St. Harmon's, Rhayader

There are other interesting facts that can be gleaned from these records - for example that Daniel has married Elizabeth, from Ireland, and that their first son, Charles, had been born far away from rural Wales, in Wigan, Lancashire. But it was my US contact Kathryn who was able to point me in the direction of a post from the Radnorshire Society that could put these facts in context:

From the 'Radnorshire Society transactions', 1993

By chance, Daniel's predecessor as Vicar of St.Harmon's in Powys was the diarist Francis Kilvert. Thanks to the interest in Kilvert, some of Daniel's life has also been written about, including the difficulties of being a vicar in rural Radnorshire. The article from the Radnorshire Society explains the following:

 "Writing ... soon after his appointment, he pointed out to the commissioners that he had no parsonage house and there was no house available within three miles of the church where a clergyman could reside with any decency ... Williams repeated his request in 1884 [stating that] he was now living six miles from the church at the extreme edge of the parish. ... His Sunday services, he wrote, commenced at 9.30 a.m. This meant that he had to leave his house two hours earlier, at 7.30 a.m., winter and summer, and walk six miles over a bleak road. His homeward journey would be made in the dark. ... A local commission appointed to investigate the circumstances of the parish reported a population of 832, but that only one person now worked in the mines because of the cessation of that work".

St Harmon's before its 1908 restoration

The article goes on to explain how the vicar eventually managed to persuade the commissioners to award him a healthy annual grant. In fact, it may have been enough to allow him to take an unofficial early retirement, before his death in December 1908.

Elizabeth (Eliza) Williams - a servant in her sister's home

Elizabeth William's baptism record, for 30th October 1831, looks much like that for Daniel, with the address as the 'George Inn'. However, other records suggest that she wasn't afforded the opportunities given to her younger brother.

From the Llansawel Parish Registers for 1831

Without having any other hints about her life story, it's not easy to reliably trace  further records on such a common Welsh name. However, she definitely does appear in one - the 1851 census for Pontypridd - as a 'sister-in-law' in the household of my own second great grandmother, Margaret Rees née Williams:

Eliza Williams, sister-in-law, unmarried, 19, house servant

However, she is also listed as a 'house servant' - presumably to support the Rees household. What became of Eliza is not clear but she clearly wasn't given the life chances to end up being discussed in historical journals like her brother Daniel!

Sarah Williams - born in Wales but died in Pennsylvania

Eliza's elder sister Sarah seems to have managed to seize opportunities to lead a different life. Just as with her siblings, her baptism in the parish register records the changing occupations allotted to her father. When Sarah was born in 1828, it was listed as tailor: 

From the Llansawel Parish Registers for 1828

The 1851 census suggests that Sarah might have initially been following the same route through life as Eliza was to do after her. That's because Sarah is also listed as both 'sister-in-law' and 'servant' - in the household of her older married sister, Mary:

1851 census: 'Royal Oak', Rhandir Abbott, Llanfair ar y Bryn. 

However, while there's no record of Elizabeth going on to marry a husband, we do know that Sarah did. The records show that she wed Morgan Williams - a miner, the son of a miner - in the parish church of Cilycwm on Christmas Day 1852:

Morgan Williams marries Sarah Williams in Cilycwm, 1852

But the mines that Morgan and his father worked in above Rhandir Abbott - or Rhandir-mŵyn - weren't  to dig for coal, they were to extract lead ore (mŵyn is the word for 'ore' in Welsh):

The baptism record for Morgan and Sarah's first child, Elinor, is dated January 30 1853 (suggesting she was born very soon after the marriage ...) with the couple's address given as the Red Lion (yes, another pub!) in Llansawel:

From the Llansawel Parish Registers for 1853

After that, however, the records show that the couple and their growing family lived at various addresses in the village of Rhandir-mŵyn itself, including the row of miners' cottages on Pannau Street (also noted on the marriage record above):

The 1871 census shows Morgan as a 'lead ore miner' living with Sarah and six of their children in the village:

1871 census: 'Porthuduon', Rhandir Abbott, Llanfair ar y Bryn. 

When Morgan died in 1877 - apparently back at 'Pannau Row' - at only 49 years of age, the couple had had ten children together. However, Sarah was not to be buried alongside him. Instead, when she died in 1893, her burial took place far far away - at Hollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, in Pennsylvania, USA. As the quote above from rhandirmwyn.net explains - this, along with neighbouring Scranton, were the towns that so many miners and their families headed for to build new lives abroad. Sarah had decided to make the same journey. 

Sarah and Richard Williams, buried in the Hollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Sarah died after living for thirteen years in Pennsylvania. The newspaper report on her death, mentioning both Llansawel and the "rector of St.Herman's", also lists six of her children who had made the same journey to the United States. In fact the US census and death records suggest that nearly all of her surviving children chose to leave Wales for Pennsylvania between the years of 1880 and 1883. Sarah herself is recorded on the passenger list for the 'Arizona' which arrived in New York from Liverpool on 30th August 1880.

Richard Williams - alongside Sarah on the 'Arizona' from Liverpool - but dead at 17.

Sadly, however, as the report above explains, one of the sons who had made the crossing with Sarah, Richard, was not to see out a year in Wilkes Barre before he had been killed in an accident. He died at the age of only seventeen - which is why his name lies under his mother's on the memorial at Hollenback Cemetery.

Fortunately, although these are stories that others would have to tell, it looks to me that the other siblings were able to start building successful new lives on a new continent. 

Mary Williams - of the 'Royal Oak' in Rhandirmwyn

A hint at the last part of this story has already been told above in the 1851 census record that shows Sarah Williams as a 'sister-in-law' residing at the Royal Oak - the pub also shown on the village map as being in the centre of Rhandir-mŵyn. Her 35 year-old older sister, Mary, is, as expected, listed in that census as being born in Llansawel. This matches with the baptism record (which again records Charles, her father, as being a tailor) for August 27th 1815 in the parish register:

From the Llansawel Parish Registers for 1815

However Mary is also listed in the census as being Mary Renowden, married to a husband, John, from St. Ives in Cornwall. Their marriage also has a matching record in the parish registers for August 1843 - but this time for Llanfair-ar-y-Bryn:

Marriage banns for Mary Williams and John Renowden, Llanfair-ar-y-Bryn, 1843

So Mary must have been the first of the two Llansawel sisters to marry a Rhandir-mŵyn miner. However, records show that Mary was actually John Renowden's second wife. His first wife, Ann Davies, had sadly died only four years after the couple had married in 1838. Their marriage record can still be traced as well:

John Renowden's first marriage in Cilycwm, November 1838

Again, there's a couple of extra facts to glean from this marriage record. Firstly, Anne Davies is the daughter of a tailor - perhaps one that knew Charles Williams? Could this be how Mary from Llansawel was introduced to John in Rhandir-mŵyn? Secondly, John is also a miner, son of a miner. However, in this case father and son were originally from Cornwall, so that the Renowdens were probably a tin mining family that then came to Wales to find work in the lead mine at Nantymwyn.

The Royal Oak, Rhandirmwyn, in 2023

The census records show that John and Mary Renowden lived at the 'Royal Oak' in Rhandir-mŵyn throughout their lives. It's a pub that still exists today. Five of their six surviving children are listed as living there with their parents in the 1871 census. The daughter, Amelia, is listed as a 'barmaid', John and his older sons (John, Wiiliam and Daniel) all listed as either 'miner' or as 'lead ore dresser':

1871 census: 'Royal Oak', Rhandir Abbott, Llanfair ar y Bryn. 

By the time of the 1881 census, only the youngest son Daniel is still living with John and Mary. Father and son are still 'lead ore dressers', of course. The spare rooms in the pub are now filled by a locally-born domestic servant, an engine fitter from Montgomery, and their grandson David - son of their daughter Amelia, now Rees.

1881 census: 'Royal Oak', Rhandir Abbott, Llanfair ar y Bryn. 

A gravestone in the churchyard of St. Barnabas Church, Rhandirmwyn, carries the names of both Mary and John Renowden. It gives Mary's date of death as being April 7 1882, dying at the age of 66 years:

Mary and John's gravestone

John Renowden lived on until 1890, dying at the age of 75, far older than his brother-in-law Morgan Williams. Perhaps the work as a 'lead ore dresser' and sometime publican was more forgiving than that of a 'lead ore miner'. The probate shows that John ended his life as the publican (licensed victualler) of the Royal Oak:

1891 Probate record for John Renowden

There's a slight puzzle in that record, however, because the record states that probate was granted to his widow, Mary. Clearly this can't be Mary Williams as she is already lying in St.Barnabas' churchyard! The answer appears to be that John remarried for a third time - to a 'Mary Jones' in 1884.  There's a further probate record that's probably for this second 'Mary Renowden of the Royal Oak', a widow dying in May 1916. But investigating that would only lead me down further rabbit-holes ....

One more 'Mary Renowden' at the Royal Oak

Three Renowden children also head to Pennsylvania

Again, there's one more part of the tale to tell. As set out above, most of Sarah and Morgan Williams' children left Wales and headed to Pennsylvania to join their other compatriots working in the anthracite mines. The US census records show that three of Mary and John Renowden's children did the same - Amelia, Charles and William. Each of then have descendants that are "fourth cousin" DNA matches with me, hopefully confirming that the family tree has been correctly pieced together.

It must have been Charles who was first to make the trip to Pennsylvania - to be later followed by his siblings and cousins. That's why his name is missing from the 1871 census for Rhandir Abbott above. Instead, he is listed on the passenger list for the 'City of Paris' that arrived in New York from Liverpool on the 3rd October 1870. He is also buried in the Hollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, his obituary describing him as an 'expert miner' originally from Rhandirmwyn:

Charles Renowden - blazing the trail to Pennsylvania

Amelia and William did not follow Charles to the United States until later. There's a passenger list for the 'Wyoming', arriving in New York on 9 Aug 1882 that lists Amelia (now Rees) and her six children, and Margaret Renowden, the wife of William, with their three children, Mary, Elizabeth and Daniel. Their husbands are either listed separately or, quite probably, have already made the crossing before:

Amelia and Margaret Renowden arrive in New York in 1882

However, the nicest piece of evidence is these handwritten notes in a family copy of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' handed down through the American descendants of the Renowdens. They state that the handwriting belongs to John Renowden, the miner and publican buried in the churchyard at St.Barnabas, Rhandirmwyn (so the handwriting should match that on the signature of the marriage certificate above):

It records the birth of Anne in 1840, a daughter from his first wife Anne (Davies). It then records the birth of Elinor, daughter of Mary (Williams), his second wife, in 1844 (who died as an infant). Next comes John, born on what looks like the 10th of November 1845 'about half past three at noon'. This matches the baptism record for John - of 'Pannau Place' - in January 1846 - but the book annotation gives that wonderful additional personal detail of the date and time of birth.

From the Parish Registers for 1846 in Cilycwm

The final two names listed are Amelia - 'born 16th of November 1847 at 5 o'clock in the morning' and Charles - 'born on the 22nd December 1849 at 9 o'clock in the morning'. One of these siblings must have taken the book with them to America. I'll finish this post with Amelia's gravestone - interestingly engraved as 'Renowden' rather than 'Rees' - as a last memorial linking Rhandirmwyn with Wilkes-Barre, PA.

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