Searching for Salome

Never having heard of the name myself I was amazed to see not one but two queries in my inbox asking for help tracing ancestors both called Salome.

Salome was the daughter of Herod and Herodias and in Hebrew the name translates as 'Peace'. In stark contrast, Christian tradition depicts her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness.

According to the gospels of Mark and Matthew, Salome performed a dance so wonderful that Herod promised her anything she wanted. Herodias, who hated John the Baptist, made Salome ask for John’s head and Herod reluctantly agreed.

The name has lost popularity in recent decades, with only 10 girls named Salome between 1916 and 2005, compared to 92 between 1837 and 1915. At the time of the 1911 census there were 49 women of that name in Wales alone.

Sheila Dixon's Salome

Sheila Dixon emailed from her home in Australia searching for details of her great great great grandmother Salome Morton, who was born around 1806 and died in 1858 in Briton Ferry, south Wales. Sheila is struggling because the birth occurred before 1837 and before the ever resourceful census returns become truly useful.

In addition she is unsure of Salome’s maiden name or religion, although she did know that Salome had married George William Morton (but that event also occurred before 1837).

I thought one way to progress with the search would be to obtain the full birth certificates of any of Salome’s children. However it turns out that she only had one daughter, Eliza born in 1848 not in Wales but Gibraltar.

A quick look at gibraltargenealogy.com sealed my disappointment, since their birth records begin on 3 October 1848 and Eliza is likely to have been born before that date. My theory goes out the window and I move onto Plan B!

Bronwyn Evans' Salome

Another email pinged in from Bronwyn Evans in Vancouver.

"My mother was from Wales and I am desperately seeking further information regarding my Welsh heritage."

Bronwyn’s grandmother was Salome Lewis. She was not alone in her unusual first name: the 1901 census return for 34 Tower Street in Pontypridd reveals that her siblings were Alfred, Dorcas, Enoch, Lavinia, Miriam, Leonora, Naomi, Noah, Priscilla and Simeon, while their mother was Cindynia Probert.

Since Salome was one of 11 children it would be normal to expect to find many people who are researching into this family and have helpfully posted the details online. But I could only find two and both of those had come unstuck it seemed, thanks to Lewis being such a popular surname.

Therefore in order to try and get Bronwyn back another generation I ordered the marriage certificate of Cindynia Probert to Alfred Lewis in 1880.

Cindynia Probert was aged 24 in 1880 and her father is named as Roger Probert, a farmer. A quick search of the 1881 census reveals Cindynia living with her husband and their newborn baby Leonora, aged just one week, at the same address, Boatside in Aberedw.

Baby Leonora took her name from her grandmother, Cindynia’s mother Lenora Powell who married Roger Probert in 1848 in Builth.

To make it a little easier to see the relationships here is a family tree for Bronwyn. If the names of your ancestors are on the tree then why not get in touch. I know Bronwyn would love to learn more about her ancestry.