The Williams families who emigrated from Wales to Wilkes-Barre, US

J G Smith

Coal was discovered in Wilkes Barre some time in the nineteenth century. This proved a magnet for the coal miners of North Wales. Many of them saw an American dream and emigrated to the the States.

This blog is an attempt to contact some of their present day descendents. Sketched below are some of the details of the lives of these early Welsh immigrants who were related to the Smith Family and whose ancestors are discussed elsewhere on this web site. (see below for a link)

Back in about 1900, two brothers, Daniel Williams (b.1870) and Robert Williams (b. 1876), who were coal miners in Rhosllanerchrugog (abbreviated to “Rhos” hereafter), North Wales, decided to try their fortune in the coal mines of Philadelphia.

In 1903 they boarded the White Star liner “Oceanic” at Liverpool, bound for New York.

The Oceanic was the largest passenger ship afloat in 1901

The Passenger list.

Both men took their families.

We can find information about Robert in the 1910 US census when he was living in Wilkes-Barre:

Robert and his wife, Mary. brought their children to Wilkes Barre. It must have been a strange experience. The parents are both recorded as speaking English but their usual speech was Welsh as evidenced by the fact that the children spoke only Welsh. Robert was working as a labourer in the coal mines of Wilkes Barre.

They were still there for the 1920 census:

Now the family had increased. We find:

Robert (b. 1901), Annie (b.1903). and born in the US we find :- Herbert (b. 1906 ), Arthur (b.1908), William (b.1910), John (b.1913), Mary (b. 1916). Note that the younger children who were born in the US srill spoke Welsh

Our final information comes from the 1940 census:

Not all the children are still present and daughter Edith (b.1921) has appeared.

It is harder to find much later information on the family. However, it is believed that the son, Robert, (b.1901) married Louise May Turner in 1928:

We can find Robert and Louise in 1930:

They have one son, Robert C. Williams (b. 1930).

Now we will turn to Robert’s (b.1876) elder brother, Daniel (b.1870) who emigrated with him.

We can find him in the Wilkes Barre census of 1930:

He was also working in the coal mines. His family were:

wife Anne (b. 1876) and two children, Anne (b. 1897 in Wales), William (b.1904 in the US)

We can find more about them in the census of 1940:

The Williams brothers were not the only members of the family to emigrate. Daniel and Robert had a sister, Mary Elizabeth, who married Enoch Smith (see the website given below for details).

Two of her sons, Enoch and William Smith, also emigrated although we have less detail on their stay in the USA. Enoch took his family with him and stayed for 9 years but eventually returned to Rhos. William married his house keeper, Hannah Susan Davies, in the USA (she was born in North Wales so presumably emigrated with him).