So, you ask, what did I actually find out back in August? (Yes, it has taken me nearly 2 months to write it up. I know. I'm sorry.)
Well, basically the Josephs of Glais had a miserable 19th C. I'm sure they must have had some happy moments, but I'm beginning to wonder.
Griffith Joseph married Ann Thomas in 1830 in Llansamlet, but they lived in the tiny village of Glais, further up the hill, where they had a farm. They rented property, moving from Cefn y Garth, Drumma(u) to Garth Fach and had several children - Rachel, Thomas, William, David, Ann and Sarah.
Well, basically the Josephs of Glais had a miserable 19th C. I'm sure they must have had some happy moments, but I'm beginning to wonder.
Griffith Joseph married Ann Thomas in 1830 in Llansamlet, but they lived in the tiny village of Glais, further up the hill, where they had a farm. They rented property, moving from Cefn y Garth, Drumma(u) to Garth Fach and had several children - Rachel, Thomas, William, David, Ann and Sarah.
(Garth Fach Farm)
Thomas, the eldest son, inherited the farm and lived there until his death in 1892. He never married. Rachel, I needed to investigate, also William, as both of them disappeared from censuses. David drowned, aged 7. Ann had an illegitmate son, Morgan Lewis Joseph (my great-great-grandfather) in 1863, leaving him at the farm with her parents while she continued working as a servant, eventually marrying a cattle drover Thomas Thomas in 1866 and having about 11 other children - no room for poor Morgan.
In the middle of all this, Griffith Joseph was suffering from Parkinsons - one reason they may have been forced to halve the size of their acreage and Sarah, the youngest, lost her husband, leaving her a widow with two young daughters.
I'd have thought that was enough trouble for one family, but no. During my research, I found a burial for William in 1850 and for Rachel in 1878. William died of Phthisis, aged 16, while Rachel, after all these unhappy events, hanged herself.
Plus, my relatives told me to look at the Cambrian online index and it looks as though Thomas attacked some woman at Glais. So now, not only do I have more misery for the Josephs, but I have two articles I should have been looking for in Swansea. I am desperate to know more about why poor Rachel committed suicide - it was a complete shock to find that on the death certificate.
On the positive side, I did discover Griffith's baptism in 1797 and that of his siblings (all girls). He was the son of a William Joseph.
However, this was where I discovered that a lot of Welsh parish registers don't bother to record the mother before the 19th C. In Wales. With all those common surnames where you need all the help you can get, they didn't think the mother's name was useful? Surely even then they would have found it helpful to differentiate between Thomas Thomas who was married to Ann, Thomas Thomas who was married to Mary etc etc. Sexist 18th C Welsh vicars!
I tried looking for Ann Thomas (I know her brother's name and age and that they were both supposed to be born in Cadoxton.). Maybe some examination of the proper registers and other parish material will give me clues, but at the moment it's a case of pick an ancestor! I have to be realistic and acknowledge that there's a possibility I might not get any further with any of my Thomas lines.
Of course, I really should have gone to the archives in Glamorgan and not the NLW, but I know that now.
2 comments:
You certainly seem to have found out quite a lot about this family.
My maternal grandmother had quite a eventful life.
I wrote about it in a family history newsletter I produced. It took one A4 sheet just to summarise.
I had to look up newspaper reports for 3 inquests and I had papers from the orphanage where she spent 10 years of her childhood. I have yet to find out more about her brothers who died due to WW1 and the Flu epidemic.
All right, you just beat me in the my-ancestor-had-a-dreadful-life stakes! ;-)
The thing with the Josephs is they lived on a small farm and for Wales, the surname is relatively uncommon, plus there is still 19th C gossip current in this line. But Rachel hanging herself. Oh... That one came as a shock.
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