Overview
Nathaniel Eames was born at Pen y Bwlch, Penrhyndeudraeth, on 19 July 1789, and married his first wife, Catherine Griffith, at Llanfair near Harlech in 1820. Their six children were raised in Penrhyndeudraeth and Llanfrothen; the 1841 census shows the family farming at Glan y Wern, Llanfrothen. Catherine died in 1842, and a year later Nathaniel married Sarah Jones at Trawsfynydd. Two more children were born at Llanfrothen.
Many in Merionethshire joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the mid-1840s. Nathaniel was baptised in March 1847 by Elder Robert Evans — who had baptised branch president David Roberts the previous year — and his son David Rowland Eames was baptised by Elder Abel Evans, who had baptised David H. Peters at Rhyd y Sarn.
In March 1849 Nathaniel and Sarah sold their belongings in Llanfrothen and emigrated on the Hartley with the Peters and Owens families and others. Their two young children were four and nearly three, Sarah was pregnant with their third, and Nathaniel’s youngest son by Catherine — also named Nathaniel, aged thirteen — went with them. Nathaniel died on the Mississippi on 11 May 1849 and never saw the valleys the family had left Wales for. David Rowland Eames stayed behind as a missionary, and died at Logan, Utah, in 1885.
Nathaniel’s birth is recorded as both 17 and 19 July 1789, and the archive keeps both. The marriages, the 1841 census entry at Glan y Wern and the baptisms by Robert Evans and Abel Evans come from the family history and should be confirmed against the Llanfair, Trawsfynydd and Llanfrothen registers. The Hartley company total of 238 is one of two figures in circulation; the ship record sets out the conflict, and the vessel that carried the family up the Mississippi is disputed between the Mameluke and the St. Croix.
Family tree
The tree grows as records are verified — each confirmed child becomes a linked person page.