Jenkins family history

Hannah McCarthy's Obituary 1931

It has been an amazing experience learning more about the Jenkins/McCarthy families from Wales.  I wish my grandfather was here to see what I have found but sadly he passed when I was two years old.

I have been collaborating with two cousins, including one who lives in Wales about this research.  There have been a number of people involved from Wales in the Genealogy society, BDM registrars, Father David, librarians, friends of Cathays cemetery and cemetery registrars who have all helped us find more about our ancestors. We have found the family history for the Jenkins from Bridgend/Pontipridd and McCarthy natives from Cork Ireland and Cardiff.

It has not been very difficult to find information on the internet.  There are many websites, chat forums and BDM and parish record databases aimed at researching family history. I also found the Welsh people to be very friendly and helpful.

To confirm the research we (my cousins and I) purchased birth, death and marriage certificates.  The birth records show names of parents as wanted to know the maiden names of Mothers as you know these are harder to trace, on wedding records the names of the Fathers and then death records the cause of death.

We had been working on this since early March this year, and it has taken many hours of research and some money to find the story.  I plan to provide a report to my direct family and also cousin Charles who is very interested in this history.

There was a story about my great Grandmother 'Granny' Jenkins and her brother being sent to an orphanage because their parents died.  Since then we have discovered their Father Thomas McCarthy a shipwright and native of County Cork died from Tuberculosis at the age of 40 years, and then the two younger children were sent to Ely Schools in Cardiff.  To confirm they were at Ely Schools, I have contacted the Glamorgan Records office and will pay them for the research but have not sent the cheque 30 pounds yet. We have also found them listed under Ely Schools on the 1891 Wales census record.

We did not know what happened to their mother Hannah after her husband had passed away, and assumed that she remarried because we could not find her death either.  So I searched the marriage records at Cardiff and Pontipridd and found nothing.

Our cousin Lynfa in Wales found that Hannah had lived in Pontipridd for 30 years and had been living with her daughter Julia! They must have sent the younger children to the orphanage because they were so poor. Hannah was buried in Pontipridd Cemetery 1931.  The Pontipridd Library found her obituary published in the Pontipridd Observer May 21931.   My Granny Jenkins and Julia's families all lived on Danygraig Street, so I was very happy to know that the family had stayed together through all of their hardship.

On the Jenkin's side we have traced back to 1777 with help from Father David Lloyd.  He has sent me some amazing photos of the old church St Illtyds in Bridgend which was built in 1100.  We found that some of our ancestor's were baptised at St Illtyds and they had lived in the area to 1777 as found in the Parish records.

Anyway, I am not going to summarise it all here because there is a folder full of the research.  What an amazing journey and I cannot wait to share it with my family.