FIRST GENERATION

1. William GRIFFITH was born in Radnorshire, Wales. He died in Radnorshire, Wales. He has reference number 512. Nothing personal is known about the Grandfather of our immigrant ancestor.
However, from the Certificate of Removal for Thomas Griffith, it is stated that
the family were landholders so it is probably safe to assume that William
Griffith was a landholder in Wales, more than likely a small farmer. From the
tone of the "Journal" of John Griffith, his grandson, we believe the family to
have been an educated one. John makes reference in his "Journal" to the family
being large in number, so it is assumed that William Griffith had many more
children than the one we show here. In Radnorshire there is a Margaret Griffith
of parish Landewy, Radnorshire, who married Edward Jones of parish of St.
Harmon, Radnorshire, 5, 4th mo. 1680 and several of the witnesses recorded in
the Quaker record include Griffiths and a Rees. The marriage date would make it
possible for her to have been a sister of William Griffith (R:145). There is
also a Quaker record for Ross-Heref.-Radnor for the birth of a Susannah
Griffiths, daughter of William and Mary, dated 7, 4th mo. 1721, that would make
it possible that William Griffith, the father, would be a brother to John
Griffith (R:81). There is is a final marriage entry 19th of 2 mo. 1719 for
James Lloyd of parish Lansanfread, co. Radnor, widower and Ann Griffith of same
parish, spinster, eldest daughter of Thos. Griffith of parish of Landrindod,
Radnor. The name Thomas would indicate that he is probably a relative of our
Thomas (R:117), perhaps John's (R:81) older brother. Further circumstantial
evidence tying these entries to our Thomas (R:117) is the fact that Thomas
named a daughter Susanna and a daughter Ann, neither name being that of his
wife, mother, or mother-in-law. All of this is conjecture, however, and unless
someone is willing and able to dig much deeper into the Welsh records, we may
never know.

Research in Wales becomes particularly difficult for the untrained due to the
Welsh use of the old system of patrynomics which is a name derived by adding
the name of the father to form the new name in the next generation. In Wales,
Thomas son of John would read Thomas ap John which could become Thomas John or
Thomas Jones. Or Thomas might go one step further and add a grandfather's name,
such as Thomas ap John ap William and become Thomas John, Thomas Jones, or even
Thomas Williams. It would not be unusual to find in a single Welsh pedigree
chart a different surname chosen for each child. Surnames did not begin to be
used regularly by the Welsh until after the large migrations to America and
many of the early Pennsylvania records of Welsh immigrants reflect the
continued use of the patrynomic. To complicate matters more, many of the
patrynomics became contracted and were pronounced as they were heard such as
the name Bowen, which comes from a contraction of "ap owen," or Price which was
originally "ap Rhys." Our own John Griffith (R-135) refers in his "Journal" to
his sister Mary as "Mary Johns," which is probably how she was known in Wales,
coming from the Welsh "Mary verch John" translating to "John's daughter Mary"
shortened to "Mary Johns." However, she must have elected to use the surname
Griffith as her legal name, since she is listed as Mary Griffith in her
marriage record.

He was married in Radnorshire, Wales. William GRIFFITH had the following children:

+2 i. John GRIFFITH.