Henry DAVIES b abt 1853 Mathry, Pembrokeshire (Parish Records)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, June 29, 2014, 15:59 (3582 days ago) @ huw100

Thanks to MPG, "1891 Wales Census, 12 Alma Street Aberdare
Language Spoken: WELSH
DAVIES
Henry - 37 - Coal Miner, born Tremsarshog Pembrokeshire (as transcribed)
Sarah - 39 - born Llanthefirent Carmarthenshire"

Where & when were they born ?
I've tried to locate both these placenames in my atlas and also from the various placenames included within Pembrokeshire & Camarthenshire Districts off from the FreeBMD site, but no luck at all.
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/pem.html
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/carmarthen.html

Searching the births on FreeBMD shows far too many Henry Davies births and marriages to Sarahs, even in "just" Camarthenshire for example, so what now ???

Huw, I don't know if you're aware but even non-subscribers like me can use the Ancestry site's search engine to access the 1881 Census. Similarly the LDS aka Family Search site (see my earlier post) can be used to access all the Census' altho the 1881 is usually the only one for which you can get complete households in one page. Hence I've searched for Henry and Sarah and in 1881 they were already living in Alma Street Aberdare, but at Number 19 #. I cannot give an easy listing off Ancestry but usefully it states

1881 Census 19 Alma St Aberdare

Henry (coal miner) was born abt 1854 "Mathry, Pembrokeshire, Wales"
Sarah was born abt 1852 "Llanddevsant, Carmarthenshire, Wales"
Their children are William Jas (James) born abt 1875
Henry Thos (Thomas) born Aberdare abt 1877
Mary Jane born Aberdare abt 1878
John Griffiths born Aberdare abt 1880

HOWEVER I still CANNOT find "Llanddevsant", or anything similar, clearly we need tonhope the couple were married by the 1871 Census and hope that's more forthcoming ??.
However I can find Mathry, hurrah!. Henry Davies was born in North West Pembrokeshire on the coast midway twixt St Davids and Fishguard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathry
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/PEM/Mathry/

The Genuki entry is quite helpfull if you wish to trace this back further.

The UKBMD site shows Mathry is in Haverfordwest District, ref http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/haverfordwest.html

So looking for Henry's birth record on FreeBMD in JUST this District and abt 1854 should be easier. However that site lists several Henry Davies' born abt that time & place; it rather looks like there are as many Henry Davies in Mathry as there were my William Jones in Lydbrook, not easy at all !. In this instance earlier Census records will hopefully be more helpfull and possibly include his parents/siblings ??

Sorry can't be more helpfull...

# thats IF the Ancestry transcription is correct, a curly 2 on the aforementioned 12 might easily look like a 19, etc. Ancestry often show some unlikely transcriptions, always best to read the actual Census form images yourself !