Brick Wall People Redux – Part 6 – Hannah Griffiths

Hannah Griffiths ca 1926 with her daughter
in law, both daughters, and two grandsons

Name: Hannah Griffiths
Birth: 1844, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales
Death: 1933, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Marriage: before 1866, in Wales
Location(s): Newcastle Emlyn, Wales; Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Relation to me: Hanna Griffiths is my maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother, which makes her 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): None known at this time.
Parents: Thomas Griffiths & Frances Bowen
Spouse(s): Benjamin Jones
Children: John, Joseph, Daniel, David, William, May, Sophia
Other Family: Siblings: David, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Margaret, Jane, and Frances; William Bowen & Margaret (no surname known), grandparents.

Details: Like Benjamin, the majority of information I have on Hannah comes from my grandmother. She was lucky enough to travel to Wales with her family once before her grandmother's death, and told me often about meeting her and being allowed to sleep with her in her bed during that visit. I only know a slight bit more about her than I do about her husband, though I have a great deal more pictures of her. As I said, she continued to run the Post Office in Merthyr Tydfil after her husband's death. I also know she blamed herself for her son Davey's death, as he ran into a lake to catch her hat one day when he was still recovering from a cold or the flu, and fell sick with pneumonia, and died.

I now have a much more precise list of her children, though their ages are still not perfect, I think. Other than that, I know little about her, and would love to learn how she came to Merthyr Tydfil from Newcastle Emlyn.

Proof:
1) Like Benjamin, all my details on Hannah in my family tree came from my grandmother, and through her father. Beyond that, I had no specific proof for many years.
2) My first actual proof came from the record of my great-grandfather's death on Family Search, which lists Hannah as his mother. I assume this came from my grandmother or one of her siblings, as with Benjamin.
3) Like I said above, we have many photos of Hannah, both from her life in Wales after Daniel's departure, as well as his visit back with his family.
4) And I also have the stories I mentioned from my grandmother about her visit. There are not many of them, but there are a few that I do recall.

New Proofs I have found of Hannah:
5) Like Benjamin, I have many Census records listing her. The first is the 1851 Census, with her parents and siblings.
6) The 1861 Census lists her with her mother Frances and her sister, Frances and a niece, Naomi.
7) She's then listed in the 1871 with her husband and eldest two sons, John and Joseph.
8) The 1881 lists her and Benjamin with their eldest three sons, David, Joseph, and John.
9) The 1891 has six of their seven children listed: David, John, Daniel, William, Mary, and Sarah.
10) And the 1901 lists six again: Joseph, John, Daniel, William, Mary, and Sarah.
11) Then she is listed in her son Daniel's Wedding record.
12) And also in Daniel's death record.

Needed:
I have more precise BMD information for Hannah than for her husband, though I still need their wedding record. It would be nice to have more exact information for her birth and death info as well. I need to sort through the census records and get her kids' ages sorted out, but that will come with time.

But overall? Hannah's my first success story, as far as I'm concerned. I now have both her parents' names, and also the names of her siblings, and all her children sorted, I believe. So I'm actually quite happy with my knowledge about her now. Which means that she's no longer a brick wall. I'll be jumping another generation back to continue this family line.

Original Post
Other Posts about Hannah Griffiths:

• Brick Walls--A Different Listing
• Advent Calendar - Benjamin Jones & Hannah Griffiths
• Brick Wall Update
• Brick Wall Update 2012
• Matrilinial Monday--Hannah Jones
• Brick Wall Update 2018

Matrilinial Monday – Hannah Jones

Name: Hannah Griffiths

Called by Grandkids: Gu (pronounced Gee, Southern Welsh for grandma)

Birth: 1849, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales

Death: 1933, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Spouse: Benjamin Jones

Marriage: before 1882

Children: Daniel Thomas, David, Joseph, Jack, William, May, Sophia

Parents: unknown

Siblings: unknown

About: Hannah was born near the west coast of Wales. I know nothing of her early life, only her birth date and location. I do know that she and her husband settled in the town of Merthyr Tydfil after marriage, and raised all their children there. They ran the town post office, though I am not sure when they began to run it, and she continued to run it even after her husband's death in the early 1900s.

Most of their children stayed close to home. I don't have specifics on most of the boys, but my great-grandfather, whom I believe was their eldest child, travelled to Canada with a group of friends, and ended up staying there and marrying a nice Welsh girl he met in Vancouver BC. The family came back to Wales to visit once or twice before Gu's death, and my grandmother remembered her fondly.

David, fondly called Davey, was recovering from a bout of flu when his mother's hat was swept away by a gust of wind and landed in a pond. He insisted upon retrieving it for her, and ended up with pneumonia and died. She always blamed herself for his death. Of the other three sons, I have no further information beyond names. May and Sophia married and settled happily with their husbands, staying near their mother. Sophia and her husband had at least three children I am aware of. Though I suspect that there were other children in the extended family, I have no record of them at this time.

I actually know relatively little about Hannah's life and how she lived, so any information from family would be greatly welcome.

Hannah with Eliza, Basil, May, Sofia and Ivor ca 1924.

Brick Wall People – Part 6 – Hannah Griffiths

Hannah and family ca 1920s

Name: Hannah Griffiths

Birth: 1849, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales

Death: 1933 Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Marriage: before 1882, in Wales

Location(s): Newcastle Emlyn, Wales; Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Relation to me: Hanna Griffiths is my maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother, which makes her 5^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Benjamin Jones

Children: Daniel, David, Joseph, Jack, William, May, Sophia

Other Family: No other direct family known.

Details: Like Benjamin, the majority of information I have on Hannah comes from my grandmother. She was lucky enough to travel to Wales with her family once before her grandmother's death, and told me often about meeting her and being allowed to sleep with her in her bed. I only know a slight bit more about her than I do about her husband, though I have a great deal more pictures of her. As I said, she continued to run the Post Office in Merthyr Tydfil after her husband's death. I also know she blamed herself for her son Davey's death, as he ran into a lake to catch her hat one day when he was still recovering from a cold or the flu, and fell sick with pneumonia, and died.

Other than that, I know little about her, and would love to learn how she came to Merthyr Tydfil from Newcastle Emlyn.

Proof:

1)      Like Benjamin, all my details on Hannah in my family tree came from my grandmother, and through her father. Beyond that, I had no specific proof for many years.

2)      My first actual proof came from the record of my great-grandfather's death on Family Search, which lists Hannah as his mother. I assume this came from my grandmother or one of her siblings, as with Benjamin.

3)      Like I said above, we have many photos of Hannah, both from her life in Wales after Daniel's departure, as well as his visit back with his family.

4)      And I also have the stories I mentioned from my grandmother about her visit. There are not many of them, but there are a few that I do recall.

Needed:

I have more precise BMD information for Hannah than for her husband, though I still want their wedding record, and it would be nice to have more exact information for her birth and death info. What I really want to know is who her parents were and if she had siblings, and how many there were. Other than that, I'm actually pretty happy with my knowledge about her, though I do look forward to learning more about her as I find more information.

If you're a member of the Jones family who knows more about Hannah, I'd love to hear the stories you have, and I'd love to share what I have as well. Please feel free to contact me.

Surname Saturday 2.0: The Griffiths

The Griffiths Family

Like my Jewish ancestry, this is one of my dead-end lines, and like the great-great grandmothers on those lines, I only have one person with this surname, my great-great grandmother Hannah. Unlike them, though, I have a more direct connection to Hannah. When my grandmother was small, her parents took her to Wales, where she got to meet much of her Welsh family still living there. She told me many times about how much she enjoyed visiting her grandmother, whom she knew as "Gu" (pronounced gee), and that she was allowed to sleep in her grandmother's bed with her while they stayed.

Hannah was born in 1849 in a small southwestern Welsh town called Newcastle Emlyn. I know nothing about her parents, or whether she had any siblings, despite many years of attempting to find out more about her.

What I do know is that sometime before 1882, she met and married a man named Benjamin Jones, and the two settled in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The couple had seven children together, though I know little about most of them. Apparently they ran the area post office, and Hannah was still doing so when my grandmother's family came to visit.

Hannah's son, Daniel, was my grandmother's father. He left Wales in the early 1900s with a group of friends on a trip, and upon meeting my great-grandmother, ended up settling in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Another son, David, known as Davey, fell ill and died after wading into a lake to retrieve his mother's hat one day. He had been recovering from a flu or cold, and took a turn for the worse, and never recovered. Hannah blamed herself for his death.

Hannah and Benjamin had two daughters, May and Sophia. Both married, and my grandmother had many photos of each of their families. At least one of the sisters was still alive when my grandfather served in World War II, as he visited her and her husband while he was on leave.

Of the other three sons, Joseph, Jack, and William, I know absolutely nothing. I have no dates for any of the children aside from my great-grandfather, birth or death. I also don't know when Hanna and Benjamin married. Any help with any of this would be greatly appreciated.

The Griffith line as I currently know it is as follows, for those interested:

* Hannah Griffith married Benjamin Jones sometime before 1882 in Wales. She was born 1849 and died in 1933. They had seven children: Daniel, David, Joseph, Jack, William, May, Sophia.

* Daniel was born in 1882, and left Wales sometime in the early 1900s, traveling to Canada. There he met Eliza Jones, and married her in 1911. They had three daughters and a son. Daniel died in 1964.

* May married Brinley Jones. I do not have any dates for her, and am uncertain if they had any children.

* Sophia married Cyril Samuel. I do not have any dates for her, but I have three children listed: Basil, Beryl and Lyn.
+ Basil was born about 1920. He married Elizabeth (uncertain of last name), and the two had two children, a daughter and a son. If they or their families are reading this, I would love to get in contact with you. Particularly if you remember my great-grandmother, Bessie.
+ Beryl married Gerald Fox. I have nothing else about her, dates or if there were any children.
+ I have no further information on Lyn, either.

* The other children, I have no further information on, aside from the story of Davy's death above.

* Daniel and Eliza's children all had children of their own, and most of us still live in the Pacific Northwest today.
+ Marjorie Grace was born 1912 in Vancouver, BC. She married Herbert "Bert" Robinson in 1936, and they had three daughters, and their children and grandchildren are scattered throughout America. She died in 2011.
+ Edwina Hannah (named for her grandmother) was born in 1913. She married Kenneth Merilees in 1951, and helped raise his two older sons, and had a son with him as well. She died in 2010.
+ Merle Tydfil (named for her father's hometown) was born in 1915. She married George Bordewick in 1939, and the two had two sons and two daughters together. She died this year (2012) shortly after meeting her second great-grandchild.
+ Ivor Howell was born 1920. He married twice: Marjorie Carnahan in 1946, with whom he had two daughters, and Mary Nixon in 1952. He has several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He died in 2005.

What I don't know:

* I would like to know Hannah's parents' names.

* I would also love to know if she had siblings.

* I would love more information on her early life, and how she met Benjamin.

* I also want to know about her children, particularly the three sons I have absolutely no information on but names.

Other information about this branch of the family:
● Brick Walls: a Different Listing
● Brick Wall Update
● Griffiths

Advent Calendar: Benjamin Jones and Hannah Griffith

Benjamin Jones

Born 1865, Died before 1915
Lived in: Caio, Wales; Merthyr Tydil, Wales
Married: Hannah Griffiths
Children:
Daniel Jones
David Jones
Joseph Jones
Jack Jones
William Jones
May Jones
Sophia Jones

Benjamin Jones was born in the small town of Caio, Wales, which is situated near the Dolaucothi Gold Mines, an old Roman mine over 2000 years old. He married Hannah Griffiths, and the two eventually settled on a farm in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, where they raised their children. Aside from their eldest son, the entire family stayed in the area well into adulthood, and Benjamin and Hannah lived in Merthyr Tydful until their deaths.

Hannah Jones nee Griffiths, aka Gu (pronounced Gee)
(Gu is the Southern Welsh word for "Grandma")

Born 1863, died 1933, aged 69
Lived in: Newcastle Emlyn, Wales; Merthyr Tydful, Wales
Married: Benjamin Jones
Children:
Daniel Jones
David Jones
Joseph Jones
Jack Jones
William Jones
May Jones
Sophia Jones

Hannah was born near the West coast of Wales in a small town called Newcastle Emlyn. After marrying Benjamin Jones, the two settled on a farm in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, where they raised seven children together. Aside from their eldest son Daniel, the entire family stayed in the area well into adulthood. Hannah did get to meet Daniel's children when his family came to Wales to visit in the twenties.