Can you help me with my husband’s great great grandparents?
QI am trying to trace the marriage and birth records of my husband’s great great grandparents, John and Mary Ann Williams. The censuses show John was born about 1844 in North Wales in Whitford, Holywell, or Llanerch-y-môr. Mary Ann was born around the same time in Holywell. The family moved to Derbyshire in the 1870s, via Staffordshire. Mary Ann’s maiden name was also Williams, according to the birth certificate of their son Robert in 1877, but I can’t find any trace of them before the 1871 census. John died in 1922, while Mary Ann died in 1923 (possibly).
Sue Cooper
AWhitford and Holywell are neighbouring parishes, with Llanerch-y-môr forming part of Whitford, so a search for a birth or baptism should focus on these parishes to begin with. The registers are at Flintshire Record Office and on findmypast.co.uk. An initial search did not find a John Williams born c1845 in the parish baptisms, but further investigation is recommended.
A search for a marriage between John
Williams and a Mary (Anne) Williams between 1865 and 1868 in Flintshire found two possible entries on Findmypast. The first was on 16 August 1865 at Rhyl: John and Mary Anne Williams, both aged 21, John a collier and his father Robert Williams, labourer; Mary’s father was Thomas Williams, labourer. The second was on 17 November 1865 at Northop: John and Mary Williams, both aged 20, again John a collier, son of William Williams, miner, and Mary, daughter of John Williams, labourer.
Neither parish is far from Holywell. But the Rhyl entry is for Mary Anne, not just Mary, while John’s father is Robert and the couple named their son Robert, so do more research in Rhyl and Northop.
Finally, I assume your John and Mary Anne Williams are those in Greenfield, Holywell, in 1871 (pictured), with their daughters Mary Ellen (eight months old) and Margaret Anne (three years old). It’s worth checking their birth records to see if the addresses are in the Rhyl or Northop area and match either marriage entry. Beryl Evans