Bracegirdle

[Rob P]

Looking for any Bracegirdle's in the Caernarfon / North Wales area, especially anyone with a connection to Mary Ellen Bracegirdle (born 1866) daughter of Nehemiah Bracegirdle, a blacksmith.

Cheers

Rob
 

[kimhughes]

If you look at a UK Info cd or North Wales telephone book there are a few in the Caernarfon area

[Keith]

Rob,

I had contact with a gentleman called Peter Bracegirdle about Nehemiah and family last year.

If you want to send me a Personal Message with your contact details I will pass them on to him.

Keith.

[Rob P]

Thank you both for your replies.

Keith, personal message sent.

Regards

Rob

[cymraes73]

Hi hope you don't mind me posting but my maiden name was Bracegirdle. My father is Barry Bracegirdle and still lives in the caernarfon area
Julie

[wrjones]

Hi Julie,welcome to Rootschat!I think I've been in touch with either you or your sister Karen on Genes Reunited in the past!I have your mother's family from Lancashire in my Tree.They are connected to my main Stephens family.

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Iagofawr]

Hi,
I am a Bracegirdle living in Caernarfon, descended from one of the Nehemiah's.
The family line can be traced back to a Nehemiah who 'appeared' in the Beddgelert area in the mid to late 17 hundreds. There are numerous graves of my direct ancestors in the churchyard there, including I believe, Nehemiah's wife and a daughter who died young.
The line runs back from me thus: Ifor, Charles, Charles, Peter, Nehemiah as I recall.
We have been unable to trace Nehemiah's origin prior to his arrival in Beddgelert and he does not show up within the Cheshire grouping of the Bracegirdle line.

Hope this helps a little.

Cheers

J.

[Rob P]

Hi there,

Thanks for your posts, sorry it's taken a little while to reply!

Your information certainly appears to tally with mine. There are Bracegirdle's in the churchyards of Beddgelert and Llanbeblig as far as I remember, but I don't think Nehemiah himself is among them. It's possible his grave was cleared during later building work at Llanbeblig, his burial certainly took place there in 1855.

My information is that Nehemiah came from Knutsford to Beddgelert in the early 1800's to work as a foreman on the Maddocks estate. He was very probably one of the English overseers brought in to keep the locals under control in the Plas Gwynant slate quarry. He lived at Hafod Tan y Graig (which is now an outward bound centre I believe).

After his first wife died, Nehemiah married Ellinor Williams in 1820 and moved to Caernarfon, where his son (also Nehemiah) worked as a smith on Turkey Shore. This Nehemiah had a daughter, Mary Ellen (b. 1866) who was my g-grand-mother.

I've not been able to find a baptism for Nehemiah Sr. in Knutsford despite days and days of fruitless searching in Chester Archives. We'll probably never find out anything more about him, I'm afraid!

Best wishes,

Rob

[Iagofawr]

Hi Rob,
My father spent a lot of his time tracking down the family in the Mobberly area of Cheshire and somewhere (well stashed away...) are photos of numerous graves and church records from there. I suspect that he was following branches rather than the main thread.
Some family anecdotes are that Nehemiah (snr) was once employed as the town hangman in Caernarfon for a while when hangings were fairly common there.
Nehemiah (jnr) is reputed to have moved his smithy business down to Morfa Nefyn in anticipation of the Irish Mail boats being based there. Unfortunately the construction of the two bridges over the Straits meant that Holyhead became the principle port for sea traffic to Ireland and Nehemiah disappeared in to anonymity. I will one day find the time to go through the records at the Nefyn / Morfa Nefyn churches to see if he is recorded there in any way.

Hope this is of interest, best regards.

Jim