Price–Lewis Family of Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire
How to read the grades. The grade against each person is the grade of that person’s place in this line of descent — not the grade of the record that documents them. A will or baptism may be fully confirmed as a record while the person it names remains speculative as an ancestor. Where the two differ, both are stated.
The capping rule. Confidence in a person’s place cannot exceed confidence in the weakest link between them and the researcher. One unresolved fork below a generation caps it at [C]; two caps it at [D]. Record grades are not capped.
How to read the connectors. Each link is graded separately from the people it joins. Three links are confirmed: both links into Edwin Price, established by his birth certificate, and Elizabeth Lewis to her parents, established by her 1813 baptism entry and corroborated by three censuses. Every link on the Price side above Thomas Price remains unproven, and on the Lewis side nothing above John Lewis and Margaret Williams is better than probable.
Resolved at Revision 31: Elizabeth’s 1813 baptism. Her birth falls in late 1813, and the December 1813 entry is an ordinary infant baptism. Three consecutive censuses agree, and all three give Cwmyoy as her birthplace: 1851 c.1814 (Cwmyoy Upper), 1861 c.1815, 1871 c.1813 (Cwmyoy Lower). Two outliers run in opposite directions and are set aside: the 1881 census return (c.1820), and the Pandy gravestone age of 74 (c.1809–1810). A gravestone age is carved from family recollection after the death rather than recorded at the birth, and the age on the death registration derives from the same informant occasion — so the two are not independent of each other. Against them stand three separate enumerations agreeing on both year and parish. The identification stands at [A], and her parentage from John Lewis and Margaret Williams follows.
Still flagged: John Lewis to Thomas and Anne Lewis. The dossier states Thomas Lewis and Anne Lewis as Elizabeth’s paternal grandparents without recording the evidence for it. Their 1765 marriage is [A] as a record; the relationship to John is shown here at [B] pending a stated basis.
| Line | Position | Individual | Key dates | Grade & kill condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Gen I | Phillip Price of Henllan | Will 1698 | DCapped at [D]: two unresolved forks lie between him and the researcher. Record grade [A] - the 1698 will is the oldest confirmed family document, naming sons Walter and James and recording a debt owed by Morgan Lewis of Clodock. A confirmed DOCUMENT, not a confirmed ANCESTOR. |
| Price | Gen II | James Price | c.1670 - c.1740 | DCapped; two unresolved forks below. Record grade [A] that Phillip of Henllan had a son named James; identification of that James with this line is inferred. |
| Price | Gen III | Phillip Price | c.1695 - c.1760 | DCapped; two unresolved forks below. Record grade [A]: named in the 1766 Ewyas Lacy lease with sons John and William. |
| Price | Gen IV (a) | William Price, son of Phillip | c.1725 - ? | DCapped; himself one side of Fork 1, with Fork 2 below. Named in the 1766 lease (Gwent Archives MAN/A/151/0033). Marriage and children unconfirmed; lease copy outstanding. |
| Price | Gen IV (b) | William Price, bap. Rowlestone | 14 April 1745 - c.1803 | DCapped; himself one side of Fork 1, with Fork 2 below. Record grade [A]: baptism confirmed; will BR/1803/76 names a son Thomas and references Tycoch. Clodock witness 1761-1782, signing in full every time. |
| Price | Gen V (a) | Thomas Price of Rowlestone | Married Eleanor Valentine 4 August 1800 | CCapped at possible by the open fork below. The STRONGER of the two candidates, on the strength of the 24 January 1807 Rowlestone baptism - but stronger is not proven. Record grade [A]: the 1800 marriage is confirmed. His own parentage is not established. |
| Price | Gen V (b) | Thomas of Tycoch, son of William B | Bap. 25 May 1777; buried 11 Aug 1833 aged 56 | CThe weaker candidate on present evidence, retained for comparison and NOT eliminated. Record grade [A]: baptism as son of William Price confirmed from the bishop’s transcript. |
| Lewis | Grandparents | Thomas Lewis and Anne Lewis | Married Cwmyoy 4 July 1765 | BHe of Cwmyoy, she of Llanvetherine. The marriage is [A] as a record. Their relationship to John Lewis is asserted in the dossier but its evidential basis is not recorded there - see the flag above. |
| Lewis | Grandparents | Thomas Williams and Jane Williams | Married by licence Cwmyoy 30 July 1767 | BMarriage [A] as a record: he signed in full, witnesses James and Daniel Williams. Identified as Margaret’s parents on signature evidence from daughter Diana’s 1811 marriage. Margaret’s own baptism has not been found; two unnamed-daughter candidates of 1778 and 1779 remain open, with 1787 a third possibility. |
| Lewis | Parents | John Lewis and Margaret Williams | Married Cwmyoy 20 May 1806 | AJohn, farmer of Henllan, buried 1 April 1829 aged 47, indicating birth c.1781-1782. Margaret possibly the Margaret Lewis of Darren buried Cwmyoy 11 December 1839, age not recorded. Confirmed as Elizabeth’s parents by her 9 December 1813 Cwmyoy baptism, corroborated by the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses. |
| Both | Gen VI | Thomas Price and Elizabeth Lewis | Married Cwmyoy 4 December 1830 | ABoth confirmed as the researcher’s ancestors by Edwin’s GRO birth certificate, which names them as his parents. Thomas b. c.1805, d. 10 December 1887 aged 82. Elizabeth b. late 1813, d. 13 August 1884. Their own parentages are separate questions, graded separately above. |
| Both | Gen VII | Edwin Price | b. Aug 1851, Graigddu, Cwmyoy; d. 7 Jun 1941, Philadelphia | AGreat-grandfather of the researcher. Birth confirmed by GRO certificate naming Thomas Price and Elizabeth Lewis. Emigrated to the United States. |
Fork 1, Generation IV — the Two-Williams problem. Track A is the William named as a son of Phillip Price in the 1766 Ewyas Lacy lease. Track B is the William baptised at Rowlestone on 14 April 1745, son of James Price, whose will names a son Thomas and references Tycoch. These are two different men. Track B’s marriage has not been found in any register read to date.
Fork 2, Generation V — the Two-Thomas problem. Thomas Price of Rowlestone married Eleanor Valentine in 1800 and is the stronger candidate for father of Generation VI, on the strength of the 1807 Rowlestone baptism. Thomas of Tycoch is a separate man, baptised in 1777 as a son of William Price. Neither is established. Both remain open.
The Lewis line’s own gap. Margaret Williams’s baptism has never been found. Two unnamed-daughter entries at Cwmyoy, of 24 November 1778 and 19 May 1779, are logged as candidates, with 1787 a third possibility from an unverified online tree. Until one is established, the Williams generation above her rests on signature evidence alone.
gregpricegenealogy.com · Price–Lewis research, ongoing since 1991