Hello John,
Thanks for joining our Forum, I will attempt to answer your questions.
Merthyr Tydfil was a large rural parish and a small village until
industry started here in the 1750s.
By the time Daniel Jenkins was born in 1814 Merthyr Tydfil
had already grown to be the largest town in wales and
thousands of workers, mainly from Wales (West Wales
mostly), but some from England and Scotland, came here
to work (the Irish came from 1815)
In 1814 there were four large ironworks here, the biggest
in the world then and the Napoleonic wars meant that iron
was in great demand for cannon etc.
The 1820s were an exceptionally profititable time here and
a lot of money was made, Coal and ironstone was mined
for the ironworks, this was the main employment. Skilled
Ironworkers from Merthyr Tydfil went all over Wales,
England and even France to set up their Ironworks. Cholera
came into Merthyr in the 1830s and there were periods of
hardship here in the 1840s causing some people to move
away.
In the period 1810 to 1825 all marrages had to be in the #
Parish Church of Saint Tydfil's, but less than 10% belonged
to this Church and there are 10 or so Chapels and Churches
where children could have been christened, but 30% of the
population were Welsh Baptists and they did not christen
or baptise infants.
Merthyr Tydfil Library has records of baptisms before 1837.
Alan