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I'm looking for the above record of a birth of Catherine Jones, said to have been born around 1882 in Llanfynydd, which could be any number of places in Wales. She married my great-great grandfather John James Cowin, and they had a family in the Wirral Peninsula (Birkenhead, Hoylake and West Kirby).

Catherine gave birth to my Great grandfather Walter Cowin in 1910, she also had children John James Jr, Elsie, William Robert, and Katherine. She was married to John James Cowin.

John James Cowin and Catherine married in 1903. On the 1911 census, in Hoylake, her birth place is listed as Llanfynydd, Webs (a misreading of Wales). The census record shown in findmypast's transcription is:

Census reference  RG14PN21950 RG78PN1307 RD451 SD4 ED9 SN73 
RG78 code number 
Piece number  21950
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    The link to your family tree isn't working for me. In any case I think it would be useful if you could list all the facts you know about Catherine's birth - that is, what do each of the censuses, marriage, death records, etc say about her age/date of birth/place of birth. Unfortunately I don't think you could have chosen a more difficult surname to research in Wales than Jones! ;)
    – Harry V. ♦
    Oct 27, 2017 at 14:15
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    @HarryVervet added more info, currently looking for a piece somewhere that I've misplaced too; I'll edit as soon as I find it.
    – Charlie
    Oct 27, 2017 at 15:15
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    The 1911 census you linked to has a calculated birth year of 1882. What other sources do you have for her birth, and which ones indicated she was born around 1878?
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Oct 27, 2017 at 17:01
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    @JanMurphy I'm looking about for a source I had a hold of. I'll get back to you on it.
    – Charlie
    Oct 27, 2017 at 18:24
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    Do you have Catherine's father's name from her marriage certificate?
    – sempaiscuba
    Oct 28, 2017 at 18:19

1 Answer 1

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The first thing to check is the marriage certificate for Catherine and John James Cowin (From FreeBMD: Q3 (Sept) 1903; Chester; Vol 8a; Page 843).

The marriage record should give you the name of Catherine's father, it may give you her age (sometimes it will just show "full"), and it will show her address at the time of the marriage. (Make a note of the names of the witnesses too. They might be relatives!)

Next, it's probably worth checking the address you find on the marriage certificate in the 1901 census, just in case she was living there then. If she was, that will give you an age and a birthplace - hopefully confirming the info you have from the 1911 census. It may even give you more family members.

Llanfynydd was in the registration district of Llandilofawr from 1837 to 1935.

FreeBMD shows just five Catherine Jones registered in Llandilofawr between 1880 and 1884. In the worst-case scenario, you could just get all the certificates and check the names of the fathers. However, this is not a cheap option - even with the new GRO PDF certificate service.

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  • There's also a Llanfynydd in Flintshire, which is nearer to Chester. It could be that one too.
    – Charlie
    Oct 28, 2017 at 23:03
  • I definitely won't be able to buy all of those certificates. Not a valid option unfortunately. Saying that, I do have a strong indication from census records that she was born in 1882
    – Charlie
    Oct 28, 2017 at 23:10
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    @Charlie That is also true, although I did find a Kate Jones working as a servant in Chester in the 1901 census, with a birthplace listed as Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire. First things first, though. Check the details on the marriage certificate. :)
    – sempaiscuba
    Oct 28, 2017 at 23:11
  • How should I go about doing that? Should I order a physical copy from the GRO? I live in Chester so can visit the Chester record office if they will have it
    – Charlie
    Oct 28, 2017 at 23:14
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    The current GRO PDF Pilot is for birth and death certificates only, not for marriage certificates. Take a look at the questions genealogy.stackexchange.com/q/12865/1006 and genealogy.stackexchange.com/q/4245/1006 for ideas on finding out where the marriages took place before you order the certificates.
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Oct 29, 2017 at 6:42

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