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Difficult to say the oldest sampled DNA in a study seems to have come from a person who died in 1930, but that does not mean older samples would not be viable.

The DNA of the Romanov bodies who died in 1918 was tested in the 1990s to confirm their identities. I believe that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh supplied a blood sample for DNA for the testing as he was the closest descendant on the maternal line - his grandmother was sister to the Tsarina (and they were both also grand-daughters of Queen Victoria).  Apparently they used the mitochondrial DNA to match.

This was initially checked in the 1990s but  believe more sophisticated tests were made in the 2000s

Nesta

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/prince-philip-family-russia-murder-b1829742.html

Hello,
St David's (also known as County) Hospital, the children & maternity hospital in Bangor was not built until 1913, it was closed and then demolished in 1994.  I was born there  in 1962 and my son in 1983  I still have two bricks from the demolition as they sold them for charity - it was a big red brick building.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_David%27s_Hospital,_Bangor

Hello
There is a massive amount of information online about the welsh in Patagonia; not just family history.   I would suggest a general google search as well.
Sorry at work so can't help further atm.
Nesta

Apologies - disappeared off on holiday whilst my friend looked for more information.   Thank you again for all the information, they are off to Carew in the next few days to see where their great-grandparents were.

We found the family bible which listed all the children born and the dates they died and they didn't just lose two children before 1911 (daughters) but another little boy died in 1915 aged 18 months.

A daughter was born in Wales in 1905, their son was born in Ireland in 1908 and they were back in Wales by the 1911 census so we have really narrowed down the timescale for when they were in Ireland.  As Sinann says

There was a fire there in 1909 in the engine room which resulted in, according to the paper “A number of men have been thrown idle” perhaps that was the reason for the family returning to England

    so I agree with their supposition that the fire caused their return to Wales.

If they are in existence I would think about checking passenger records and possibly school records.    The family were non-conformist so I do not think there would be any parish church records.  There may be estate records but I doubt it.   Does anyone have any other suggestions.   

Regards
Nesta

Hi

It could be a finacial relationship in that as the mother had to work then the David's were acting as foster parents to the child.    This was quite a common occurrence in those times, there are some horror stories where the foster or nurse child were murdered or badly treated but I assume, hopefully, that most of these relationships worked.  They were called nurse children from the premise that the woman looking after them was a wet nurse but these children stayed with the foster family for many years.

In 1850, "nurse-children" referred to infants placed in the care of someone other than their parents, often due to economic necessity or the shame of illegitimacy, with women who took care of them known as "nurses" or "wet nurses".

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=772027.0

Nesta