So who really put the Powell into the Powell-Davies?

If you happen to have come upon this post, then please be warned that this is really a set of notes for my own benefit - otherwise (as I have done before now!) I'll forget what I've worked out and will have to start from scratch all over again ...

After working out fairly conclusively the origins - and certainly the later life - of Mary Powell, my great-grandmother, there's a puzzle still to solve. Who did 'Mary Davies' of Glyn Neath marry in the 1870s to become 'Mary Powell' by the time my grandfather was born in 1880? And, if so, what became of her former 'Powell' husband for her to be a 'widow' when she then married Thomas Morgan in 1883?

Searching for a Mary Davies + "Mr. Powell "marriage

There is, of course, the possibility that no such marriage took place or, if it did, it wasn't formally recorded. However, if the marriage is somewhere on the 'Find My Past' online database, then these are the six possibilities that I can trace in the England and Wales Civil Marriages records for Glamorganshire in the 1870s:


For any of these to be the right ones, I'd need to also be able to find a record of the husband's death before 1880, somewhere in the Glamorganshire area. I can find no such record for an "Edwin Powell" - so I shall discount him - nor for a "Charles Powell" (although I'll return to him later because his roots in "Neath" nevertheless count in his favour). Let me work through the other possible marriages first:

A Victorian map of Glamorgan

Potential husband (1) - William Powell - NOW RULED OUT

If William Powell did indeed marry Mary Davies in 1874 in Merthyr Tydfil, but then passed away before 1880, then I can trace two possible records for the deaths of young men with that name at this time:

Civil Registration Record 11A 231 - Death Date: Oct-Dec 1876 in Merthyr Tydfil


This 1876 death from TB in Merthyr Tydfil is reported by a brother-in-law with what looks like an "Owens" surname. Cross-checking the Temperance Street address in the 1881 census, a Jessie Powell lives at No.19 with the rest of the Owens family. So this William Powell's marriage is the one listed below, not that to Mary Davies:


Civil Registration Record 11A 297 - Death Date: Oct-Dec 1875 in Bridgend

What about this alternative 'William Powell' ? His death matches with an Anglican burial record for the parish of Llangynwyd (to the north of Bridgend), for William Powell, aged 27, of Maesteg, in October 1875:


This could have been a possibility - particularly as it would match with Mary having moved nearer to Bridgend - where my grandfather's birth is registered in Llantwit Major in 1880. However, Maesteg seems a long way from where the matching marriage took place the year previously, in Merthyr Tydfil.

However, having ordered the Marriage Certificate, this is NOT the right marriage - it IS between William Powell and Mary Davies, but Mary is a 22 year-old living in Builth with a father called Evan Davies - so this is ruled out.

Potential husband (2) - Thomas Powell - RULED OUT

The potential marriage in this case is in 1874 in Pontypridd and, if 'Thomas Powell' then dies in the next five years, there are three possible death records:

However, there is a 1911 census record - admittedly for Merthyr Tydfil rather than Pontypridd but the distance isn't great - for a 'wood sawyer' Thomas Powell and his wife Mary, with a marriage date of 1874, matching our potential marriage above. There are also records for the same family (with Thomas as a carpenter) going back to the 1881 census too. 


If this is the married couple from 1874, then it can't be the couple I'm looking for.

Potential husband (3) - David Powell - ONE OF THEM IS A POSSIBILITY

This time, there are two possible marriages, both occurring at the very start of the possible 'window' for the marriage - 1870 in Neath and in the first quarter of 1871 in Merthyr Tydfil. 

In this case, however, the date of the two possible marriages means that the newly married couples should appear in the April 1871 census. One of them (probably from the marriage recorded as being in the 'Merthyr Tydfil' district) must be the following young couple recorded as living in Rose Cottage, Llwydcoed, Aberdare:


I think that this same couple can also be traced to Cefnpennar, Aberdare, in the 1881 census, now with four children. This is not therefore "my" Mary Powell:


But what about the other 1870 "Neath" marriage. Could that be my great grandmother's? It is even listed as "Mary Ann", as she was known as a child, not just as 'Mary'. She would only have been around 15 or 16, but this still could be a possibility (and I haven't traced an obvious match to the other possible marriage - with a 'David Richards')


If so, could the young husband David Powell be one of the two deaths that I have traced? These are set out in this table below. Both deaths follow soon after the potential marriage, although neither are registered in the Neath district, but elsewhere in Glamorgan:

But, if this is the right marriage, the couple should still be recorded somewhere in the 1871 census - but I can't trace them. That's problematic.

Is there any possibility that there is another untraced earlier death, or that the marriage had immediately failed for some other reason, but that Mary retained her newly married name as Mary Powell? If so, then there is an 1871 census record that would match her that I had earlier considered as a possible record for my great grandmother when I started looking for her online records. This is for a servant, Mary Powell, aged 16, from Glyn Neath - which would all be a good match, if now under the 'Powell' surname (but also recorded as 'unmarried'):


This census record is for Ty Mawr, a farm in the hamlet of Garth in Pentyrch parish, which is not so far from where the future foster father, Thomas Davies, was living at this time, in nearby Llantwit Fardre. But I may be clutching at straws!

A final potential husband (4) - Charles Powell - RULED OUT

Just to make sure that all straws are fully clutched, I should return to the possibility of Mary Davies having married Charles Powell, a marriage that may have taken place in the Neath district in 1874 (frustratingly, there are always two possible husbands because of the way the records are listed online!):


Usefully, there are records in both the 1861 and 1871 censuses of a Charles Powell living with his family on Licros Farm, Blaenhonddan, outside Cadoxton-juxta-Neath:


This would mean Charles was of a similar age to my great grandmother and living at least in the same parish, if not particularly close to Glyn Neath.

However, if they did marry in 1874, then the 1881 census raises a significant issue - because Charles is again recorded as being certainly still alive - as a miner, now 26 - still living in Blaenhonddan (now described as being on the 'Gilfach Road), and 'unmarried'. That doesn't look such a good match after all!


I can see through Charles' family tree that his older sister, Mary, had by now emigrated to Ohio - and the possibility of emigration to the US is always another complication in tracing ancestry records in Wales at this time - but this doesn't seem to be significant here if this Charles is recorded as 'unmarried' in the 1881 census.

Just to finally rule out Charles, a check for the other possible husband from the 1874 marriage, Thomas James, brings up a 1911 census record listing a Thomas James from Glyn Neath and his wife, Mary. It states that they have been married for 36 years. So it looks like this was the couple who got married in 1874, not Charles Powell, nor my great grandmother!





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