WILLIAM THOMAS AND SARAH ANN THOMAS, LLANHILLETH

[Thom123]

Hi,
I am trying to find out more information about my Grandfathers family, his name was John Thomas and he was born in Llanhilleth 1913. His father was William Thomas b1863 and his Mother Sarah Ann Thomas (formerly Price) b1871 Ebbw Vale.
I have the 1901 and the 1911 census details but thats as far as I've got at the moment, I am more or less a beginner at family research so any help or advice to find out more and go further back would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading.

[groom]

Hi

Welcome to Rootschat. As Sarah Ann's father was William, as in the 1901 census, this could be her family in 1881

RG11; Piece: 5244; Folio: 13; Page: 23
15 Himalaya Range, Tredegar Bedwelty

William Price             36     Coal miner   Racca, Breconshire, Wales
Mary Ann Price             35                         Beaufort, Breconshire, Wales
William Price             11                         Tredegar, Monmouth, Wales
Sarah Ann Price       8                         Ebbw Vale, Monmouth, Wales
Thomas M. Price       6                         Ebbw Vale, Monmouth, Wales
John Price                    4                          Tredegar, Monmouth, Wales
Morgan R. Price        8 mths                     Bedwellty, Monmouth, Wales


Do you have William and Sarah Ann's marriage certificate as this would give their father's names.

[Thom123]

Hi,
thanks for the welcome, and many thanks for the information 
I do not have William and Sarah Ann's marriage certificate but I think I have found the entry for it, so I guess the next step is to order it and hopefully the names etc will match up.

[Richards74]

Be prepared to spend a lot of money ordering birth and marriage certificates!   

[Thom123]

Hi,
I can see what you mean, I can imagine it can be quite expensive because there are so many family members the further back you go, but it will be worth it if I can find out more.
Have you been researching long, how far have you got?

[Richards74]

Early 1800's, late 1700's.  That's from Birth records, census and marriage certificates.  It gets harder the further you go back, although chances are some people have already done some of the work for you.  The less common the surnames, the easier it is. 

[Thom123]

My search for more info on William Thomas and Sarah Ann Price continues, I now have a wedding certificate which I'm pretty sure is them, the only doubt I had was that on the Cert it states that William is 4 years older than Sarah, BUT on the census returns for 1901 and 1911 he is apparentley 8 years older, so I asked one of the rootschat members for some advice, which was kindly given, she thought he might of fibbed to make the match seem more respectable, which makes sense, because most of the other daetails seem to match and I can't find any other wedding index's for them.

I'm just wondering why I cant seem to find any other info them such as earlier census records?

[Richards74]

From my experience, ages can vary quite widely, someone can be older, then younger.  Normally you can expect a difference of one year.  Women might have reduced their ages a bit.  Perhaps they did not know or remember how old they were.

Try finding the census returns for 1871 for William, he was probably married then.  Try not to be too specific with the searches, perhaps a wider search is needed.  Also try and get the marriage certificate for them from the GRO.  This will give you both parents names and the locations where Sarah and William lived.   You can move back further then.

Unusual names are a good help, William would be very common, he might also be recorder as Wm for short.

My advice would be, get a subscription to one of the family tree research sites, order the marriage certificate (if you can find it) then do more searches.  This works piece by piece.  You will get a sense of achievement when you find something out.  Also, don't assume anything.  A family can look like your relations, but in fact they are someone different!  I ordered loads of certficates, even the odd one which was not related to me in error.

Prepare to spend a lot of time on this!

Good luck!   

Richards74

[groom]

Hi Richards74

Also try and get the marriage certificate for them from the GRO.  This will give you both parents names and the locations where Sarah and William lived.   You can move back further then.

Thoms123 already has what he thinks is the correct marriage certificate for Sarah and William in 1889, it says that the father of William is John Thomas, and the father of Sarah Ann is William Price. The couple have been found in 1901 and 1911 (with Sarah's father living with them) but not in 1891. I found Sarah in 1881, but can't find William. It appears that he was born about 1863.

If this is the correct marriage in 1889, it would have made Sarah only 17 or 18. I believe that William may well have changed his age on the certificate as 22 year old marrying an 18 year old sounds better than a 26 year old marrying a 18 year old.