Parent's and grandparent's of Catherine Emma Thomas b. 1886-1974 in Cwmavon, Port Talbot, South Wales.

Question

Hello to all, I am looking for the parent's and grandparent's of Catherine Emma Thomas, she was b. 1886-1974 in Cwmavon, Port Talbot, South Wales. I do have certain Name's and date's, but I cannot find any positive source for them. She was married to a Phillip Ashton b. 1883-1960 in the same area. I would be very grateful for any information. Thank you, kind regard's, from Carole.   Ashton-1288

Answer 1

Hi Carole,

 I looked through the 1901 Wales census and focused on the village of Cwmavon with the surnames Thomas and Ashton.

I did find a Catherine Thomas b. 1886 and Philip Ashton b.1883 who were born and lived in Cwmavon. Both were single in this year. I have saved the census to my computer if you need them.

The parents of Catherine in this census Thomas b. 1855 and Martha b. 1859. They both were born in the same village as their daughter Catherine and Philip Ashton.

I have also found the 1911 Wales census that has Catherine E Ashton and her husband Philip Ashton that matches the above information. They also have a 2 1/2 year old son Trevor. In this census they had been married 6 years and had 3 children but 2 were deceased some time before the 1911 census.

I found a marriage index for Catherine and Philip, but limited information to confirm the above. The marriage certificate would have to be bought.

I hope this is helpful

Kind regards

Heather

Comments

Hiya Heather, thank you so much for your reply. I do have the family tree here, and the Name's and date's are the same as mine. The only difference is Catherine's mother, my family alway's thought her mother was a Rachel Bowen? 1852-1895 in Cwmavon. I have been looking through the Name Martha b. 1859, you gave me because my uncle has never had any luck with finding his Maternal side of the family. He had Rachel's parent's ( John Bowen and Ann (unk), but that is as far as he could get. It there any possibility that you could find more re: Martha b. 1859, as perhap's that is why we all hit a brick wall. I have tried all evening and cannot get anywhere. Again, thank you, and kind regard's from Carole.  Ashton-1288

Answer 2

The GRO index [free, just have to register] now includes mother's maiden names which makes life a lot easier ...

Searching from here https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp reveals:

Name:    Mother's Maiden Surname:
THOMAS, CATHERINE  EMMA     BOWEN 
GRO Reference: 1885  D Quarter in NEATH  Volume 11A  Page 620

Note that census years of birth are backed out by subtracting the age from the census year so for those of us with a birthday in April or later (i.e. 75% of people) it will be off by a year.

Here's the corresponding link in the FreeBMD database (which doesn't have the mother's maiden name)

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=r6PlxsAVVZ6BvP8%2BfHdcIQ&scan=1

N.B. There is a second Catherine Emma Thomas registered in Q3 1886, also Neath, which could be confusing. She died in 1974 and from the death record I see her d.o.b. was 21st May 1886, mother's maiden name Morgan.

There certainly was a Rachel Bowen born in Cwm Avon around 1852. Here she is in the 1871 census with her parents John and Ann:

"England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5BJ-HLC : 24 July 2015), Rachel Bowen in entry for John Bowen, 1871

The transcription has many errors but as I subscribe to findmypast I can see the image and it is very hard to read but the birthplace is Cwm Avon. This Rachel's mother's maiden name was Mathews:

BOWEN, RACHEL       MATHEWS
GRO Reference: 1851  D Quarter in OF NEATH  Volume 26  Page 489 

so her parents were John Bowen and Ann Mathews. However, I have not (yet) been able to verify whether she was Catherine's mother. I'll post more later.

Update:

I found Catherine and Phillip in the 1939 register living at 14 Park Row, Port Talbot, Glamorganshire. Their dates of birth are 27 August 1885 and 25 Feb 1883. I also found Catherine's death record from Q2 1974 which gives her d.o.b. as 17 August 1885. So one of them has an error - most likely the death record. This from www.findmypast.co.uk.

I think Heather made a slight error in her post. Thomas's wife (not necessarily Catherine's mother!) is called Elizabeth in 1901 (Philip's mother was called Martha).

"England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSMS-4P6 : 29 August 2015), Thomas Thomas, Michaelstone Lower, Glamorganshire, Wales; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing Margam subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey

The plot thickens ... I think I've found Catherine in the 1891 census but there are two problems. First her age is given as 4 when in fact she would have been 5. Secondly her entry has been forced onto the first line of a new page and that has screwed up the data.

Her singleton entry is here:

"England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HMY3-Y2M : 14 October 2015), Catherine Thomas, Michaelstone Super Avon, Glamorganshire, Wales; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Glamorganshire county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey

While the rest of the family are here:

"England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HMY9-G3Z : 15 October 2015), Thomas Thomas, Michaelstone Super Avon, Glamorganshire, Wales; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Glamorganshire county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey

Catherine has unfortunately not been included in the family grouping however take my word she's just over the page. I've checked that Lily and Mary Ann both had a mother's maiden name of Bowen too and they all have a birthplace of Cwm Avon. The ages are Thomas (37), Rachel (39), Mary A (15), Lily (9)

Comments

Hiya Matthew, thank you for all the information. Sorry I am late getting back to you. I will into the Ann Mathews b. 1828, as we never knew the surname, and you do have the right Name's and the address in Cwmavon, as they were my grandparent's. The Thomas Thomas b. 1855 did marry twice, firstly, we have Rachel Bowen, who you see was the mother of Mary Ann, Lily and Catherine Emma. We had that his second wife was a Elizabeth Roberts. I am confused the you have Phillip's mother as Martha, as his father Rees Ashton married Phillip's mother Elizabeth Christopher in 1869 in Neath register office. His second married was to an Ibertha Evans in 1893. Again, thank you for the Mathews surname and perhap's we can get somewhere. Kind regard's, from Carole.   Ashton-1288

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Yes I'm wrong about Phillip, sorry about that. I found his birth record, it's the only one in Wales matching, and his mother's maiden name is indeed Christopher.

ASHTON, PHILLIP         CHRISTOPHER
GRO Reference: 1883  M Quarter in NEATH  Volume 11A  Page 596