Introduction to the archive

Richard Jones Berwyn (1837-1917), one of the leaders of the pioneering party of Welsh that went to Patagonia in 1865, was asked by the Colony's council to maintain a register of all births, marriages and deaths. He maintained this list, covering the period from the date of sailing of the Mimosa from Liverpool on 28^th May until July 1875.

Berwyn's original register has not survived, it having been lost in the great flood in the Chubut Valley in 1899. However, the details in it remain accessible on account of the fact that a copy had been sent to the Welsh magazine Faner ac Amserau.

To mark the 45^th anniverary of the arrival of the Mimosa at Golfo Nuevo, the text of the register was republished in 1910 in the weekly paper Y Drafod of the Welsh Patagonian community. Many years later, the text appeared again in Matthew H. Jones' book Trelew, un desafío Patagónico, Tomo 3, Editorial El Regional, Rawson, 1997, pages 82 to 88. This is the text on which the table of births below is based.

The text, as I have received it, is in the nature of a continuous list. What I have done here is to recast it in the form of a traditional birth register. The details closely follow the original data, including a few variants in the spelling of names.

This is a new and original presentation of these births for which I take full responsibility, following as closely as possible the data in the original register.

The register of births appears to have listed only the fathers, not the mothers of the children. To make this presentation more useful to those investigating the history of the people of the Welsh colonising movement in Patagonia, I have added the names of the mothers, and where known their maiden names, all of which which I have ascertained from other sources. Any additions not in the original register are highlighted by being in italic type.

There are links at the foot of the page to Berwyn's registers of marriages, deaths and inquests.