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Dear Eirion

Many thanks for your email and the details regarding the Treharne family :)

We first came across Thomas Treharne as the informant on Hopkin Harries'
death certificate where Thomas was listed as son-in-law. Since then my
sister and I spent a week on holiday in the area (a year ago now!) and
discovered quite a lot from our research.

Hopkin was my great great grandfather who came to the Cross Hands area
in the early 1800s from somewhere on the Gower. He married Margaret Hugh
and had 5 children : Margaret (1839 - 1901) William (1841 - 1889) Mary
(1844 - 1850) Daniel (1847 - 1850) and David (1851 - 1895).

Hopkin was to outlast all his children except his eldest daughter
Margaret: he died in Rose Villa, Cross Hands in 1900. Daughter Margaret,
who was by then the widow of David Vaughan, was living in Rose Villa
with her son in the 1901 census.

Margaret had an illegitimate daughter before her marriage to David
Vaughan, probably by Morgan Rees, and she was also called Margaret
Harries... It is this Margaret Harries, granddaughter to Hopkin Harries,
who marries Thomas Treharne 20th Feb 1892. I have this marriage
certificate if you would like a copy.

I have copied this email to my sister Sue Smith who has also done a lot
of the research on this family. We have traced the dates of Thomas
Treharne's 6 children, mostly via the wonderful set of gravestones in
Capel Seion and census returns. We also have a number of birth
certificates and photographs of the graves - I would be happy to send
you copies if you would like them.

I am descended from William Harries, who migrated via Ammanford to
Pentre in the late 1800's where he was a coal miner. Hopkin's youngest
son David Harries moved with William to Ammanford and then settled in
Bettws. David had 9 children, Thomas Harries (1876 - 1915) being the
eldest. Umm... this Thomas married Sarah Gear and so is not the same
Thomas Harries who married Sarah Jane Treharne in 1903. David's 3rd
child was John Harries (1879 - 1962), and he became the bard Irlwyn and
was later chairman of Carmarthenshire County Council (picture in County
Hall!). I believe John's son Gwynallt still lives in Bettws.

I have great trouble in believing Hopkin moved into the Cross Hands
district on his own without any other family locally. We have yet to
find a connection with other the Harries families in the area and I
wonder if you have any further information regarding Thomas Harries -
there are some 70 people called Thomas Harries living in Carmarthenshire
in the 1901 census...

Out of curiosity I have also collected some of the census returns for
Thomas' father William Treharne. Again, if you would like a copy ... :)

Thanks again for the detail of your email.

Best wishes

Brynmor Harries




cymroglan@@sympatico.ca wrote:

> Dear Brynmor   I read with interest your genealogy web site, which my
> son came across.  Thomas Treharne (b1846 d 1917) was my great
> grandfather and as you say the son of William (b1813 d 1892) & Mary
> (b1812 d 1879).  The Gwendraeth Arms, in the village of Cwmmawr, in
> the parish of Llanon is situated alongside the river Gwendraeth Fawr,
> adjacent to a bridge spanning the river.  As a result the pub has
> always been known locally as "the Bridge".
>
> Thomas' first wife was Ann Thomas (b1851 d1879).  There were three
> children William (b1875 d 1921) who was my grandfather, Mary Anne
> (b1876 d?) and Rees Thomas (b1877 sadly he only lived for three months)
>
> After his first wife died he married Catherine (b1862 d1885) Catherine
> like his third wife was a domestic at the pub and young?) There were
> two daughters Matilda and Sarah Jane to whom I shall refer to later.
>
> His third wife as you know was Margaret (although she ws known by the
> Welsh, Marged) (b1867 d1926) There was one daughter Alice (b1893
> d1981). I didn't know that Marged's maiden name was Harries.
>
> Around 1910 Thomas sold the pub to his son in law Ivor Rees who had
> married Mary Anne and had a house, Maesycelyn, built on the square in
> Cwmmawr where he retired with his wife Marged and daughters Matilda
> and Alice. The terms of the will were that that the house was there
> for his wife and two dughters so long as they remained single. Marged
> died on the 25th June 1926.  Matilda married and brought her husband
> back to live with Alice in Maesycelyn. Aunty Alice as I knew her ran a
> milliners buisness opposite Maesycelyn.  Matilda died in 1967 and her
> husband Harry ten years later. There were no children. Alice, who
> remained a spinster, moved into a residential home and on her death
> the house was sold with the remaining children or their decendants as
> benificiaries.
>
> To return to Sarah Jane, she married a Thomas Harries, and I wonder,
> if by sheer coincidence if this is the Thomas Harries (b Bettws 1876)
> mentioned in your family tree, the son of David Harries and Margaret
> Rees, one and the same? They are of the same generation. Thomas
> Harries was one of the executors of Thomas' will and is described in
> the probate documents as being a school master.  He later opened a
> shop selling pianos and musical instruments which evolved to selling
> radios and latterly televisions ran by his son Gareth. There were six
> children, I can only recall the names of five of them Wynn,Mary,
> Bessie, Nancy & Gareth. Their shop was situated a mile from Cross
> Hands square on the Carmarthen Road at Carreg Hollt.
>
> I hope that i"ve not gone into too many details and that I have given
> you some new information.  Kindest Regards Eirion Treharne
>

Record last changed 19th Jan 2006 23:20:17