I rashly accepted a challenge on Twitter’s #AncestryHour this week! We’d been discussing those common surnames which tend to get side-lined to the “too difficult list” because it’s so hard to pin down who’s who – names like Smith or Brown and Welsh names like Jones, Davies, Williams, Evans and Roberts.
Throwing down the gauntlet
I can’t quite remember how it happened now, but after a bit of banter with fellow blogger, Jane Hough (allthosebefore.org) about being brave enough to have a go one day, Natalie at genealogystories.co.uk laid down the gauntlet by challenging us to “go for it!”
So, my mission – having agreed to accept it – is to try and learn more about my Roberts line, with the hope (as I said to Natalie) to uncover some Welsh ancestry. Which is perfectly feasible, given that my Roberts family lived close to the Welsh border in rural Shropshire.
What I know so far
My paternal great-grandmother (pictured above) was Eliza Roberts, born in 1858 in Pontesbury, Shropshire (right hand photo), the youngest of 7 children, the others being: Ann, Sarah, Jonathan, Mary, Thomas and George.
Eliza’s father was Timothy Roberts, a coal miner, born in 1812, in Pontesbury like his daughter, and his father was Samuel Roberts. And that’s about the sum of my current knowledge!
I do know a little about Eliza’s older sister Mary, who played a key part in the life of my great aunt Annie, but apart from that, I know nothing about the other siblings.
So, what will my research uncover? Will I find some Welsh ancestry? Or will I simply hit a brick wall? We shall see.
And if you’ve had some success researching a common name on your tree, any tips would be gratefully received!
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That’s amazing, Tracey! Strangely enough, my husband and I are pretty convinced we’re related. His family come from Suffolk and Essex whereas mine are from Shropshire & Staffordshire. But I discovered my London-based great-grandmother also had Suffolk roots. We traced back our respective families to the same village and a surname in my husband’s family was also my great grandmother’s middle name. It was quite spooky!
Oh, Carolyn, I do sympathise with missing the chance to visit places because of not realising the relevance. We found out about connections to my husband’s Australian family history a couple of years after a trip over there and we’d been within only a few miles of a significant location in the story!
I have Cornish and Devon Ancestry as well - as does my partner. We found out a couple of years ago that one of my paternal 2nd cousins (on her maternal side) is also a 5th cousin of my partner on her paternal side via our Cornish ancestry. Living in Australia, many Cornish miners came here during the goldrush and also to the copper mines of South Australia. My partner and I have very similar ethnicity percentages and regions and have so far found 3 links in our trees. I was previously married for almost 20 years and have been with my current partner for almost 11 years, so it was amazing when I started working on his tree and…
Wendy, I lived in Devon for quite a few years, as did my parents, but it wasn't really until I left that I realised I have loads of ancestors who came from Devon, as well as Wiltshire and, of course Cornwall! I wished I had realised while I lived there! I would have visited their parishes. I have never heard of people reusing birth certificates!!! But I guess that it must have happened. What a nightmare for researchers!
Yes, Carolyn, I think I might find myself going down the DNA route at some point. How lovely to have Cornish ancestors - notwithstanding the headaches they caused you, of course. I’ve always hoped to find myself some Devon links, having lived here for over 40 years, now. But nothing so far... This practice of naming a child after one who died can be most confusing, can’t it? I once read in a how-to genealogy book that one family even reused the dead child’s birth certificate, thereby not only recycling the name but saving on the the cost of registration, too!