Harley/Roberts family from Ruardean, Cinderford & Fleur-de-l (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, March 19, 2018, 00:09 (2445 days ago) @ HalkyardT

Good evening Tracy and a warm welcome to the forum. My what a terribly sad story !. My first thought is the best method of researching these stories would be looking in the old newspapers on the BNA website, have you tried this at all ?

Re Aberfan, near Fleur de Lis of course, I imagine all the names and possibly even family backgrounds of those losses are fully documented, perhaps even in published books or dedicated websites, have you tried this route to look for similar surnames etc ?. But then again, which names, Roberts ?..

Please do you have any more information about Emily ?.

Am I correct when guessing you have her "1890 East Dean" birth details from a Census form ?. Asking as I believe East Dean was usually only used on official Census forms and not other records. East Dean implies she was born in Cinderford or the surrounding area, including Drybrook and neighbouring Ruardean Hill, which are both Roberts strongholds astwere. (oops, sorry, this is in your title..).
So, if you know Ruardean, is there anything else you know ?. I'm asking as I've searched but cannot find a single Emily Roberts born in 1890, yet there are quite a few who were born around that time.
Here's 2 examples just from this site's PRs;

Record_ID: 167206
Entry_Number: 615
Year: 1887
Month: Mar
Day: 27
Parents_Surname: ROBERTS
Child_Forenames: Emily
Fathers_Forenames: George
Mothers_Forenames: Annie
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: East Dean
Occupation: Collier
Officiating_Minister: G Holmes
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: B C Chapel Cinderford
Notes:
Register_Reference: D2598 5/5
Page_Number:
Parish_Chapel: Forest of Dean Bible Christian
Soundex: R163

Or maybe ?

Record_ID: 473345
Entry_Number: 502
Year: 1894
Month: Jan
Day: 26
Parents_Surname: ROBERTS
Child_Forenames: Emily Jane
Fathers_Forenames: Aaron
Mothers_Forenames: Mary
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: The Purlow Ruardean
Occupation: Collier
Officiating_Minister: William Robinson
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P275 IN 1/8
Page_Number: 63
Parish_Chapel: Ruardean
Soundex: R163

Luckily I know this Emily can be discounted, she is my brother-in-law's paternal Grandmother.

This DID seem a perfect fit, Woodside being an early name for Cinderford, my home town and St Stephens is my home church, but see the memoranda note...

Record_ID 89390
Entry_Number 391
Year 1888
Month Nov
Day 7
Parents_Surname ROBERTS
Child_Forenames Emily
Fathers_Forenames George
Mothers_Forenames Mary Ann
Mothers_Surname
Residence Woodside
Occupation Collier
Officiating_Minister C. W. Houlston
Event Baptism
Memoranda Born Dec 21 1873
Notes
Register_Reference P85/2IN 1/1
Page_Number 49
Parish_Chapel Cinderford St Stephen
Soundex R163

Unfortunately this still leaves several other possibles, for example the GlosBMD site has;

Birth Details
Child Surname Child Forename Mother's Former Name Year District Office Register Entry
ROBERTS Emily CLUTTERBUCK 1888 Forest of Dean Westbury on Severn, Newnham 57 489
ROBERTS Emily BEARD 1887 Forest of Dean Westbury on Severn, Newnham 55 478
ROBERTS Emily BIDMEAD 1889 Forest of Dean Westbury on Severn, Newnham 59 369
ROBERTS Emily ASTON 1889 Forest of Dean Monmouth, Coleford 46 347
ROBERTS Emily Louisa 1888 Forest of Dean Westbury on Severn, Newnham 57 376
ROBERTS Martha Emily BOWEN 1893 Forest of Dean Monmouth, Coleford 50 180

http://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/bmd/MainMenu.aspx

"East Dean" births may have been registered at Westbury, Monmouth or even Ross on Wye. In fact I know some Ruardean Hill ROBERTS in my tree who were registered under Ross in Herefordshire, so not listed by GlosBMD site. These were in more recent times, as they worked that side of the Forest, could one of these be our Emily ?

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
Births Mar 1885 (>99%)
Roberts Emily Jane Ross 6a 490

Births Sep 1890 (>99%)
Roberts Emily Elizabeth Ross 6a 450

????

So only found ONE Emily born IN 1890, and hence this, which is close but ???

Surname First name(s) Age District Vol Page
Marriages Dec 1908 (>99%)
FURNIVAL Thomas Bedwellty 11a 244
MOON Mary Bedwellty 11a 244
MOSES John Bedwellty 11a 244
ROBERTS Emily Elizabeth Bedwelty 11a 244

However the 1911 Census shows Thomas married Mary Moon, so not our man, so presumably not our Emily either...

-----

Moving on, I'm struggling to find a Marriage Record for Emily and Thos Harley. FreeBMD has excellent coverage for this area and Monmouthshire, which seems a good starting point given your mention of Ron born Bedwelty c1935. Do you have a Marriage record please ?.

By the way, could this be another child ?

FreeBMD has;
Surname First name(s) Mother District Vol Page
Births Jun 1934 (>99%)
Harley Gilbert F Roberts Bedwelty 11a 187

Births Dec 1935 (>99%)
Harley Ronald A C Roberts Bedwellty 11a 179

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

So Tracy, this is a difficult enquiry. Before we spend much more time & perhaps following the wrong trail, or duplicating your own research, please if you have ANY more info at all, can you post it ? This will help us to help you.

Thanks, Jeff.