This
is another of those nightmare surnames for genealogists! As with the
John/Jones families and the Jenkin/Jenkins families, there are many
Evan and Evans families connected to our family tree by marriage. Once
again, for most of the individuals named Evan or Evans who married into
our main family lines, I know only the names of their parents - in some
cases not even that - so it is entirely possible, in fact probable,
given the concentration in a fairly compact geographical area, that
there are more relationships between them than are so far indicated in
the database. In the absence of further evidence, however, we must
assume that most of them are unrelated and that there are, therefore, a
very large number of separate Evan/Evans families.
Unlike some of the other common surnames we have dealt with, however,
the Evan/Evans families are not equally spread across the two main
geographic areas of our ancestors and across the two major family lines
(Davies and Powell). The vast majority are found only in the Rhondda parishes and intermarried only with the Davies and associated lines.
Before
concentrating on those, however, let us dwell briefly on one Evan/Evans
connection with our ancestral lines in Margam and the surrounding
parishes. The surnames Evan and Evans, like so many other Welsh family
names, derive of course, via Welsh patronymics, from the corresponding Christian name - in this case Evan - and we see a good example of the name Evan arriving as
a family name, then finally disappearing again over several
generations, in the ancestors of the Maddock family. A couple by the
name of Maddock Evan and Felicity Rees had three children baptised in the parish of
Llangynwyd in the 1680's; whereas two of them, Nesta and Rees, were
baptised with their father's family name Evan as their surname, the
first-born son was baptised Evan Maddock,
continuing the patronymic naming tradition. When this son, Evan Maddock
married and had children, between 1715 and 1734, all those children,
except the first-born son were named with the surname Maddock, but the
eldest son was baptised Madock Evan. Finally, when this young Madock Evan married Gwenllian Hopkin, the couple baptised four children in the 1770's,
all of them with the surname Maddock, which remained thereafter as the
surname of their descendants, some of whom intermarried with our
ancestors - see Maddock Family Connections.
Of
the many Evan/Evans family connections to the Rhondda Davies ancestral
line, the two principle ones were the marriages in 1804 of Catherine Evan to William Davies of Cwmsaerbren, and in 1803 of William's sister Anne Davies to Robert Evans.
Although it was Wiliam and Anne's father, our great great great
grandfather, William Davies alias Hopklin, who had bought Cwmsaerbren
and moved there with his family shortly before he died in 1799, it was
William junior who took over the freehold and became known as William
Davies of Cwmsaerbren. He and Catherine raised a family of ten
children, who carried the Davies name of course, but had 50% Evan
family blood, and they, and their descendants were to fill many
important positions in the local infrastructure of nineteenth century
Rhondda. Apart from their traditional role in farming, the family also
spawned publicans, hotelliers, Justices of the Peace, Registrars, and a
leading doctor who was to become Medical Officer of Health. See also the Rhondda Davieses.
If William Davies of
Cwmsaerbren was one of the most prominent farmers in the parish of
Ystradyfodwg, his counterpart in neighbouring Llanwonno was Robert Evans,
who had taken over the running of the family farm, Blaenllechau, at the
time of his marriage, but by the time he and Anne had raised seven
children there, he had bought Mynachdy, a 200-acre farm at the centre
of the parish, which in his hands and those of his son Thomas, was to
more than double in size over the following few decades. Local
historian D.J.Rees says, in his book Ynysybwl - In the Footsteps of Glanffrwd
"Robert Evans owned Mynachdy and was considered the chief farmer in the
parish". Robert and Anne's children and their descendants remained for
the most part in farming. Perhaps because they had not had the benefit
of the proceeds of the sale of the family farm and its rich coal seam,
as had been the case for their cousins in the next parish, although
Mynachdy was finally sold by one of their descendants, to one of the
local "coal barons" David Williams. There are still Evans family
descendants in the parish, some of them still farming. I should mention
for the benefit of anyone researching Evan/Evans family origins in
Llanwonno, that when Robert Evans and Anne Davies left the old Evans
family farm, Blaenllechau, and moved to Mynachdy, a certain Evan Thomas
took over Blaenllechau. This was not the end of the Evans family
ownership of Bleanllechau, because Evan Thomas was, in fact Robert
Evans' brother - in another example of late patronymics, Evan had taken
his father's family name as Christian name and his Christian name as
surname. Evan Thomas married Amy Llewellyn
and all their children, and subsequent generations, were baptised with
the family name Thomas, although they were all descendants of this same
Evans family.
To add further to
this confusion, The parents of Robert Evans and Evan Thomas were Thomas
Evans and Catherine, whose maiden name was - you've guessed it - Evan!
And, although we have not yet established the origins of the Catherine
Evan who married William Davies of Cwmsaerbren, beyond the fact that
her parents were named Morgan Evan and Elizabeth James and that they
were farmers in Llanwonno, it seems to me very likely that her family
and that of Robert Evans are closely related. Hopefully further
research will help us make a few more connections and reduce the number
of different Evan/Evans farming families in this - at that time - very
sparsely populated parish.
