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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Carmarthenshire => Topic started by: ianocon on Saturday 02 January 16 03:33 GMT (UK)
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It seems as if there was a tradition to use grandparents first names for the first born children in a family. So if the paternal grandparents were David X and Mary X, David and Mary would be used for the first born son and daughter respectively.
I'm wondering how good an indication this would be to use in constructing a family search?
I have a Henry Jones (b.abt 1810) with first two children David and Mary - his father is David Jones (for sure) but the only certain record for a wife is for an Elizabeth (age 55-60) at the 1841 census. There is no certainty about Elizabeth being Henry's mother.
I'm wondering if Henry's use of Mary could indicate that was his birth mother's name and that his father had a second marriage to Elizabeth. That could change my thinking about the family
If I'm correct about the tradition what was the practice about using maternal grandparents names?
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Hello,
I think it's usual to have the first son named after his paternal grandfather. and first daughter after the maternal grandmother.
The second son to be named after the maternal grandfather and the second daughter after the paternal grandmother.
Depending how many children there were they could continue naming after the parents uncles aunts and Godparents etc.
So in your case the first daughter would be named after her mother's side, (presumably Mary) and any second daughter could be expected to be named Elizabeth.
Expediency rules though. There could be reasons why parents abandon the pattern that we can only guess at.
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I wonder if these naming patterns are a Celtic thing. Us Scots seem to have used a similar naming pattern too - can make for much confusion if you have a Robert who has four sons and all his four sons name their firstborn Robert. It gets even more confusing when looking at census records and they all live in the same street. Many times I've been adding a family only to discover that I've been looking at the wrong grandson of the original Robert (especially easily done when they're all coal miners for example)
Good luck in sorting out your Davids
Kay
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Thanks for replies.
Sadly I don't have enough family ancestor info to pursue this because I'm missing the maternal grandmother's name.
The sequence is:-
Henry John/Jones. His wife was Mary David/Davies.
His parents were (I think):- Her parents were:-
David John and Elizabeth David David + unknown
Their children were:-
David, Mary, John, Ann, William. Daniel, Eleazer, Thomas, Elizabeth.
If the unknown mother was Mary then the sequence starts OK and John could be an alternative to another David but then Ann doesn't fit - should have been Elizabeth!
I'm then going to get stuck because I can't identify the maternal grandparents families so it's not as helpful as I hoped.
Thanks for input tho
Ian