Bronwen Williams in the 1921 Census

My mother’s parents are Bronwen May Williams and Reginald Davies from Monmouthshire.  Both were born in April 1908, Bronwen in Aberbargoed and Reginald in Pengam. I have quite a few details about them collected over time so I thought they would be good subjects to focus on as my first foray into this census.

Bronwen May Williams was the first and only child of Mary Ann Jones and David John Williams born at 17 Cwrtcoch Street, Aberbargoed.  Mary Ann and David had married at Bedwelty Parish Church in 1906  but after Bronwen’s birth there is no sign of David John.  According to Mary Ann’s youngest daughter Edwina Hall he just ‘disappeared off the face of the earth’.  By the time of the 1911 census Mary Ann was working as a live-in maid in a hotel in Blackwood and Bronwen was living with her maternal grandmother in Rhymney.  In 1917 Mary Ann married Edwin Chares Hall with whom she had already had two children.

I was interested to see where Bronwen was in the 1921 census.  I searched for her under both the surnames Williams and Hall but no suitable matches.  So I then searched for Phoebe Miles Hall born to Mary Ann and Edwin in 1919 and I found the correct family but it appeared Bronwen was not there.  Here is part of the transcript:-

Mary Ann	Hall	Wife	Female	1887	34
William Brown	Hall		Male	1908	13
Olyer Mayon	Hall		Female	1913	8

Edwin and Mary Ann and their children, Albert Vivian, Olwen Megan and Phoebe  were listed in Commercial Street, Aberbargoed with some interesting spellings of first names.  But who was William Brown Hall?  Was he a child from a previous marriage of Edwin? It was possible.  But looking closer he was born in 1908 in Aberbargoed.  Time to spend the extra money and look at the original transcript where all became clear. 

The surname Hall was in brackets followed by Williams (a definite s here) and then Brown.  This must be Bronwen Williams, my ‘Nana’ and in the original the sex is clearly female.  At the back of my mind I recall Edwina referring to her big sister Bronwen as Bron which may account for the strange spelling.

So it appears that Bronwen was part of her mother’s family – on her marriage certificate her name is recorded as Bronwen May Williams HALL and her father as Edwin Charles Hall (deceased). As a bonus I also found my great grandmother, ‘Mam Hall’, in this census.