David Owen and the 1851 Census

Samuel’s elder brother, David Owen was, as already noted, born in 1826 in Llanrwst. The next time we meet him is in 1851, when he is a boarder living at 106 Bala High Street, Merionethshire with the Jones family and employed by the head of the house, Griffith Jones, as an apprentice or journeyman printer.

The Jones family, like the Owens, were originally from Llanrwst, and so presumably knew each other already. Furthermore, David had a keen interest in the younger sister of Griffith, Jane Jones (1828-1900). They were to marry two years later in Bala.

David and Jane were Hetty Jane Owen’s grandparents. We will leave them there for now, close to the shores of Lake Bala in 1853, and pursue the trail of the Jones family. Welsh genealogy, it must be said in passing, is not for the faint-hearted. The same common surnames simply recur again and again to the point where it becomes almost impossible to disentangle who exactly is related to who and how.

Bala High Street, 1851. David Owen’s entry follows on the next page. 

There is no number 106 Bala High Street today, but very close by is the type of house that David Owen was probably living in.