My brick wall: my Welsh Great Grandfather just disappeared! Can anyone look at US records to see if he emigrated there?
Hi from New Zealand. For decades now I've been looking for Richard Jenkins who was my Great Grandfather. He seems to disappear from Wales after marrying my Great Grandmother Mary James in Goginan (near Aberystwyth) in 1893. They had my Grandmother Mary in 1894 and another daughter Elizabeth in 1898 however there is a chance he wasn't Elizabeth's father.
Mary declared that she was married, and head of the house on all her census forms, but Richard isn't ever living at the household on census night. Where could he be? My best guess is he went to America or Canada or similar.
He's my brick wall and it's driving me nuts. I can see he was a lead miner living in Goginan in the 1891 census before he married Mary James who lived nearby. So I found the link of how they met. And I found their marriage information. But I can't find him on any other census nor death records. It doesn't help that there was another Richard Jenkins in Aberystwyth at the time who was a stonemason but that isn't him.
Richard was born in 1870 at Llanfihangel Glen Yr Glynn, Cardiganshire, Wales and by the time he was two years old had moved about 70 miles to Llanbadarn Trefeglwys. His parents were Stephen Jenkins, (who worked as a Cooper), and Mary Griffiths. Richard's siblings were Margaret, John, Edward and David.
It's so weird to me that none of my Welsh family ever asked my Grandmother Mary Fazakerley (nee Jenkins) about her father when she was alive. None of my cousins or uncles or aunts know anything about him. He's like a ghost.
Can anybody help? I'm so stuck.