David and Jane Owens
There are quite a few discrepancies in dates of birth for the family, but I think some of this can be explained by the fact that the church records might have been using the Gregorian calendar or because of when the New Year was supposed to begin – January for the Julian calendar, March for the Gregorian, and some areas of Wales stuck to the March New Year for some time, even with the Julian calendar. I don’t understand all this, so I imagine it may have caused more than normal confusion when the family was giving their ages for the censuses, etc.
I was fortunate to find a list of Catharine Owens and her siblings on the back of what I thought at first was a scrap piece of paper. With those names, I was able to find their family in a census in Licking, Ohio, and thus find their parents names. I then found the ships list for when they immigrated to the US. I have since found them at home in the 1841 Wales Census.
The 1841 Census for Wales, 6 June 1841, Nantlleidiog, Llanfawr, Merionethshire, Wales, Pen y Cefn or Penllyn lists David Owens, Jean Owens, Jean Owens, Thomas Owens, David Owens, Robert Owens, Edward Jones, and Cathrine Davies. Owen Owens is missing from the family, but the census was for where a person spent that night, and perhaps relatives occasionally took one or two of the children for overnights. He may have been at a relatives home, perhaps with Robert Owens? There is an Owen Owens on the next page of the census with a Robert Owens. Catharine was born about a year after this census.
The Ship Samuel Hicks sailed from Liverpool England, and arrived in New York, New York 15 Jul 1842. It was carrying David Owens, Jane Owens, Cath Owens, Thos Owens, David Owens, Jane Owens, Robt Owens, Owen Owens, and Cath Owens, Who is the Cath Owens age 21? A sister or cousin of David? Is she Cathrin Davies from the 1841 census? She may have been listed as Owens since she was traveling with them. Why did she come with them? Where did she go? I haven’t found her again.
According to my mother “Catharine Owens was born in Bala, Wales, April 30, 1842. She came with her parents to Newark when she was 6 weeks old.” According to the arrival in NY, and her date of birth according to my mother she would have been about 2 and a half months old when they arrived in NY.
The Newark Township Licking, Ohio, 25th July 1850 Federal Census shows David Owens, Jane Owens, Thomas Owens, David Owens, Jane Owens, Robert Owens, Owen Owens, Catharine Owens, Margrett Owens, and David Owens. Is David Owens, 76 a father or uncle of David Owens? When did he come to US?
As you can tell every answer usually generates at least two more questions.