I’ve been sorting out my Welsh lineage and I’ll tell you, it’s a tangle! I’m sure I see it that way only because I have so little experience with genealogy, for as many days and weeks and years worth of time my Grandma Elizabeth has spent immersed in it; she’s the expert. Now that she is older and her memory isn’t what it used to be, it’s important to me to understand all of this — and so, I’ll ask you to forgive any errors in spelling or information, and I’ll tell you what I know as best I can.
Ready?
Lewis and Davies…
Thomas Lewis was born in Morgam, Glamorganshire in 1809. They called him The Pilot. What did he pilot, I wonder?
Thomas married Margaret Davies, who had been born in 1814. The son of Margaret and Thomas… was Evan Lewis.
Evan was born in his mother’s home town of Taibach, Glamorganshire in 1841. Evan helped to lay the Atlantic Cable, and he married Hannah Davies, a seamstress and restaurant owner who had been born in Briton Ferry in 1852.
Hannah Davies Lewis is reported to have had quite a voice on her — she was known for her gorgeous contralto, and she sang in a vocal quartet with her brothers. Hannah’s father, Daniel J. Davies, was born in 1827. I think we’ve determined that he was from Llanelly in southeast Wales. But I do know that Hannah’s father Daniel was a blacksmith and foreman, and we think his wife, Hannah’s mother, was Elizabeth, born in Briton Ferry in 1832.
To Hannah and Evan was born my great-grandfather Daniel Lewis, perhaps named for Hannah’s father!
Now that you have (briefly) met Daniel Lewis…
Dennis and Jenkins…
Stop there, and step back again to 1819 in Cwmavon, where we will begin again with the birth of William Willis Dennis, whose trade was tin annealing — a process that changes the strength and hardness of metal. He married Jennet Philip, who had been born in the same year.
When William and Jennet were both 25 years old, their son was born in Cwmavon as well — Thomas Philip Dennis, who followed in his father’s footsteps and eventually came to manage a tin mill.
Thomas Philip Dennis married Mary Jenkins (born in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire in 1846, the daughter of John and Betsy Jenkins). Thomas and Mary had twelve children in Cwmavon, among them Margaret Dennis, my great-grandmother!
Margaret Dennis was their youngest child. She left Wales at 7 years of age when her father Thomas was hired to start a tin mill in the States.
In America, Margaret Dennis later married Daniel Lewis — and their daughter was Elizabeth Lewis, my grandmother, who lives now in Ohio near the city of Niles, where she grew up.
And thensome…
Grandma Elizabeth married Cyril DeChant, who although primarily German and French also had a significant influence of Welsh, Irish and English on the side of his mother, Mary Wilthew.
Their daughter was Elizabeth Ann DeChant — Betsy, my mother! — and then, of course, there’s me. Megan Elizabeth Morris.
There is more to this than I can possibly comprehend; I know we have specific Morris and Llewellyn lineage in addition to the swath of Lewis, Davies, Dennis and Jenkins. I have relatives I’m aware of in Port Talbot, New Castle upon Tyne, and Llangollen — by the names Short, Mahoney, Mortimer, and Evans — who I am hoping to be in touch with while I’m here, if I’m lucky!
As for Morris…
You may be wondering now about my surname and the fact that I haven’t mentioned my father’s side of the family, yes? My father’s family is from Russia and Poland. My father, Roger J. Morris, was born to Moses Mordechai Morris (called Mac) and Mina Berger (whose family was originally from Russia and Bavaria). Mac’s father was Sam from Poland, who in crossing through Ellis Island was given the name Morris to replace his original surname: Snadowsky or Schnadowsky — we’re not sure of the spelling. So you see, my surname itself didn’t come from Welsh stock — but funny, isn’t it, that they gave Sam a name that his great-great-granddaughter would bear rightfully through her complex Welsh genealogy!
I have a feeling that genealogy is just like that. ;}
This post is ripe for additions and probably error correction, but I’ll post it for now and decide what else I can find later. In fact, this may call for a “Megan’s Welsh Lineage” page somewhere…
What do you think? (Did you maybe just discover that we’re related? How cool would that be!)
