It's my grandfathers fault

When I was young my grandfather told me a tale about how the family were descended from an itinerant tinker who travelled to all the big houses in North Wales, repairing kitchen tools mainly. He visited the same houses once a year and in one met a servant girl and over the years developed a relationship, eventually they married and she travelled with him.

As is often the way with young couples it was not long before children arrived at which point she suggested they settle in a town to raise their family. My quest became finding out more about them but in 40 years I have got nowhere with that line, other lines go back to 1500 but his line is still stuck in 1813 with no sign of a tinker - carpenters, joiners, hairdressers and tobacconists plenty.

I have also found out he was an inveterate storyteller, or just a liar, none of the facts he gave me, including his birth date are correct, but I have had fun on the journey.

 

That is a great story, although it's a shame that it wasn't true!

 

Well there is still a chance it might be, he named both his children with Ellis as their middle name 'as it is a family tradition.' This week through the GRO indexes I found his grandmother was an Ellis and I might have found the family in the 1801 census in Anglesey. Yes that is correct the 1801 census!

 

The surname used a middle name is so useful and since you are looking in Wales you are fortunate it's not Evans or Jones. Not to suggest that someone is the family was a bit of a scallywag but did you look at this ? I did also think about Poor Law Records because I had itinerant family in Norfolk around 1830-1840. I hadn't looked at the available information in some time because my"lot" were shipped to Canada and eventually went to the United States so I hadn't seen this site. Don't be put off by the ads, even if it's not useful to you thank you for making me update my "knowledge base"

 

Thanks for reminding me of those two sites, I have used them both before, but more things get forgotten than remembered these days.

Surnames as middle names has been a great help in many lines, not only with illegitimate births but also tracing families scattered to the colonies.

The Welsh lines are a problem, I seem to have a full set of Davies, Edwards, Williams, Evans, Price and Jones ,although Jones has it's roots in England. Life is made more interesting by people with the same name marrying and as a lot are on the boarder I found some Welsh events recorded in England.

My search for the tinker is now back in the late 18th century, and I believe it was an illegal trade then, not that that would stop our family doing something. Interestingly one Edwards line connects to Norfolk in 1820-30, John Edwards