Humphrey / Humphreys

 

 

NAME in full:  CATHERINE HUMPHREY or HUMPHREYS

The surname seems to have been HUMPHREYS in Wales where she came from, but HUMPHREY in the U.S. (at least as provided by her son, Lewis Humphrey Roberts)

 

NICKNAME:  “Kate” (1860 census, Boston)

 

SIGNATURE:

 

[2]

 

 

BIRTH date:  1806?       place: Mallwyd, Merioneth County, Wales?

 

BAPTISM date:  16 November 1806?  place:  Parish of Mallwyd (Church of Wales), Merioneth County, North Wales? 

 

“Catherine Dr [daughter] of D'd [David] HUMPHREYS Clerk and Margt” [Margaret] his wife was baptized in Mallwyd parish 16 November 1806—I believe this child was my ggg-grandmother, but am hoping for more confirmation. This baptism is at a plausible time and place, consistent with other documentation so far.

 

FATHER'S name in full:  David HUMPHREYS?  a clerk (for the church?) in Mallwyd, Wales?         

 

MOTHER'S name in full: Margaret --?                  

 

 

OCCUPATION(S):  Wife, housewife, mother

 

 

MARRIAGE date:   18 May 1827 place:  in the parish (Church of Wales) of Mallwyd, Merioneth, Wales, by Edward Evans, Curate; Hugh Evans and Robert Griffiths, witnesses. They were married by publishing of banns (not by a marriage license). They were both 20 years old and I believe she was pregnant with their son David at the time.

 

Record of marriage of David Roberts, Bachelor,
and Catharine Humphreys, Spinster [2]

 

 

SPOUSE'S name in full:  DAVID ROBERTS

 

 

 

 

To see photos from my visit to Mallwyd, go here.

 

 

 

DEATH date:   unknown             place:    unknown (Boston? California?)       cause: unknown

 

 

BURIAL date:     unknown          place:  unknown; she was not buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery with her husband and other family members.

 

 

 

RESIDENCES:

 

Town                                      County           State               Dates

 

Born and baptized in Mallwyd, Merioneth County, Wales? 1806?

 

Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales, May 1827 – confirmed presence/inhabitant in marriage record

 

Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales, October 1827 – confirmed presence/inhabitant at time of her son David’s birth/baptism

 

Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts, February 1831? – son Lewis said to have been born there; did the family stay in Boston until c. 1840-41?

 

Waterloo Street, Dolgelley, Merioneth, North Wales, c. 1841 (census) – 1844 (city business directories) – circumstantial evidence implies this was our Catherine (Humphreys) and David Roberts and their family, running a grocery/tea/sundries shop

 

 

To see photos from my visit to Dolgellau, go here.

 

 

Caernarfon, Wales to Boston, April-May 1846 – emigrating with husband and family on the barque “Hindoo”

 

9 Carroll Place, Boston, Massachusetts, 1847-1851 (city directories and 1850 census) 1851 cd: “Roberts (David) & Edmunds (G) trunk manufactory Haverhill near Causeway, h[ome] 9 Carroll pl,” [today Boston’s North End]

 

109 Endicott Street, Boston, Massaschusetts, 1852-1853 (city directories) [Boston’s North End]

 

5 Bartlett Place, Boston, Massaschusetts, 1854 (city directory; David Roberts Sr. was still listed as a “trunk manufacturer” working at 69 Haverhill and living at 5 Bartlett place); 1858 city directory same home address, work address 11 Richmond [Boston’s North End]

 

Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts (1860 census)

 

Boston, Massachusetts, Nov. 1863, her husband, David Roberts, Sr., was said to have been married at the time of his death; his birthdate and parents’ names were known and provided on the death certificate, implying Catherine was still living then to provide that information. I have found yet no further trace of her, or of her three youngest children.

 

Living in California circa August 1870? (claimed in divorce papers filed by son Lewis' first wife)

 

 

 

RELIGION:  Church of Wales in Wales; Protestant in the U.S. (Methodist or Methodist Episcopal)?

 

 

 

CHILDREN:

 

1.   Dr. DAVID ROBERTS, physician/apothecary, baptized 31 October 1827 in Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales; died 15 August 1863 in South Boston, Massachusetts.

 

2.   LEWIS HUMPHREY ROBERTS, machinist, soldier, born 26 February 1831 in Boston, Massachusetts? and died 24 December 1915 in Watertown, Jefferson Co., New York.

 

3.   MARGARET ROBERTS, born 1835-1838 (in Boston? or Wales?)

 

4.   JOHN ROBERTS, born 1838-1841 (in Boston? or Wales?)

 

5.   ROBERT ROBERTS born 1845 in (Dolgellau?) Wales

 

 

Descendants' Chart

 

Information on the history and genealogy of Humphrey/s: http://humphreygenealogy.com

 

 

 

REFERENCES AND SOURCES:

 

1. Baptism record of Catherine Humphreys, daughter of David Humphreys, Clerk, and Margaret his wife, 16 November 1806, original Mallwyd parish record book (Church of Wales, Counties of Merioneth and Montgomery), National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales.

2. Roberts-Humphreys marriage, no. 117, 18 May 1827, in “Register of Mallwyd Marriages (Counties of Merioneth and Montgomery) 1813-1837” (Church of Wales), microfilm A417, Gwynedd Archives, Dolgellau, Wales.

3. Baptism record of David Roberts, son of David and Catherine Roberts, 31 October 1827, page 30, no. 240 in “Church of Wales, Parish of Mallwyd, Counties of Merioneth & Montgomery, Register of Mallwyd Baptisms, 1813-1894” (microfilm), Gwynedd Archives, Dolgellau, Wales.

4. David Roberts household, 1841 Welsh census, Merionethshire, population schedule, Parish and part of the township of Dolgelley (in the Hundred of Talybont and Mowddwy), Enumeration District 2, Folio 33, Page 22 (lines 8 through 12, and neighbor Catherine Roberts, line 7), last dwelling on Waterloo Street, British Public Record Office publication HO 107/1432/4, as part of the U.K Census Collection, online database, Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., http://www.ancestry.com.

5. “The North Wales Directories 1818-1936,” Clwyd Family History Society, CD-ROM, Wrexham, Wales, 2004. (Dolgelley business directory, 1844, page 24; ibid., 1850, page 28).

6. Photos of Dolgellau and Mallwyd, Wales taken by M. Stone 15-16 April 2007.

7. David Roberts and family, “List of Passengers taken on board the Barque Hindoo of Carnarvon,” arriving in Boston 15 May 1846, reproduced from NARA microfilm M277, Roll 20, at Ancestry.com “Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943,” Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006, http://www.ancestry.com.

8. Boston, Massachusetts city directories, 1834-1858, viewed at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, as follows:

Stimpson’s Boston City Directory, 1834, p. 300;

The Boston [Massachusetts] Directory 1848-1849; Adam’s New Directory of the City of Boston containing a general directory of the citizens, and a special directory of the trades, professions, &c with a variety of miscellaneous matter, and an almanac, from July 1847, to July 1848, p. 227;

The Boston [Massachusetts] Directory... 1849, p. 243

Ibid., 1851, p. 212

Ibid., 1852, page 218

Ibid., 1853, page 239

Ibid., 1854, page 261

Ibid., 1858, page 312

9. David Roberts household, 1850 U.S. census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, City of Boston (1st Ward), page 93 (lines 1 through 5), dwelling no. 1073, family no. 1583, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 334.

10. David Roberts household, 1860 U.S. census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, City of Boston (Ward 3), page 142 (lines 5 through 9), dwelling no. 531, family no. 1232, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 521.

11. Divorce Case no. 1159, Margaret Roberts v. Lewis Roberts, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, granted 7 October 1870 (listed in the 1837-1875 volume of Plaintiffs' Index for Equity cases as Vol. 33, page 131) viewed by M. Stone at the Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 2007.

12.  Record Proof of Marriages, Births, and Deaths, Claim of Ellen A. Roberts, wid. for Lewis Roberts, Late 7th Regt. Wis. L. Arty., dated April 11, 1916, states Lewis’ mother’s and father’s names and places of birth.  Part of General Pension Records, Lewis Roberts, Claimant (Application No. 613.475 filed June 16, 1887; Certificate No. 407.358), and Ellen A. Roberts, Widow (Application No. 1057.975 filed Dec. 29, 1915; Certificate No. 814.368).  National Archives.

 

13. Correspondence/notes from Barbara Payne Citron, 1994 to present.

 

 

 

WISH LIST:

 

Find out death info for her. Whatever happened to her and her three youngest children?

 

Would love to discover a photograph of her or her husband, family, etc.

 

Would love to confirm and find out more about her Welsh ancestry and home. How did she and David Roberts meet? Why did they emigrate (twice?)