How can I get further back with my forebears?
QI have ancestors who lived in Pontypool and worked for a mining company. They were Jonah Nash and Harriet Howells, both born c1820, married in Pontypool in 1841 and then emigrated to the USA in 1849 with their son Adam.
They are my 3x great grandparents. Is there any way to figure out where they were born and who their parents were?
I can find several Harriets, but no Jonahs, born in England/Wales.
Carol Hummer
ASearching findmypast.co.uk revealed their marriage entry in the Trevethin parish register, which recorded Adam Nash and Thomas Howells as the fathers. Jonah and Harriet are recorded as “full age”, meaning 21 or above.
On the 1841 census Jonah and Harriet were living at 16 Bath Terrace, Victoria Ironworks, Manmoel, Bedwellty. Both were recorded as 20 years old, although note that in this census ages for those over 15 were rounded down to the nearest five years. The census also records them as being born outside the county of Monmouthshire, but there are no clues as to where, so this could have been elsewhere in Wales or over the border in England.
I suggest searching US records, to see if you come across any mention of places in Wales or England. Now that both fathers are known, a search for them on the 1841 census in both Wales and England may also prove fruitful. Beryl Evans