Births
Every effort has been made in this index to faithfully reproduce the original birth entries. The Argentinians had the habit from about 1890 to enter names using the equivalent Spanish interpretation of Welsh/Anglo Saxon names – hence David may appear as Diego, William as Guillermo etc. The author has resisted attempts to translate these entries back into English.
All of these books are at the Rawson Civil Registry. Entries are written in longhand, although not all entries in the books are indexed. Not all entries were clearly written either, and there were some problems interpreting handwriting. The entries are in Spanish, and interpreted by the author who is a native English-speaker which may have also contributed to interpretation problems.
“?” appear when the author was unsure of actual spelling or meaning.
Sometimes the surname of illegitimate children is not clear. INF = the name of the informant to the Registry of the birth.
“[231]” is recorded and refers to the property (or chacra) number for that person. The square brackets […] denotes where the person is from. Names of properties are also sometimes recorded, and appear as such, “Bryn Gwyn”.
There are numerous birth records which are missing. They were apparently destroyed in the early 1890’s. However records of individuals may be tracked through the census which is quite comprehensive.
There are also second registers with similar information recorded – this is because a copy of each book was made for the central authority in Buenos Aires. Indications are that the Archives Office in Buenos Aires does not have a copy of the missing birth records.
Birth notices appeared in the local newspaper of the Chubut Valley “Y Draford”, copies of which are held in the local museum in Gaiman, and also in the Welsh National University Library – it may be consulted for extra information on births, although “Y Draford” was not published continuously.
| Column 1 | Surname given to the child (always the fathers’ name) |
| Column 2 | Child’s first names |
| Column 3 | Date of birth of the child |
| Column 4 | Father’s name (usually only first names) |
| Column 5 | Father’s age |
| Column 6 | Father’s property number (chacra) |
| Column 7 | Name of fathers’ father – This information was not always recorded, and not all records have been included on this index |
| Column 8 | Name of fathers’ mother – This information was not always recorded, and not all records have been included on this index |
| Column 9 | Mother’s first names |
| Column 10 | Mother’s surname, where recorded |
| Column 11 | Mother’s age |
| Column 12 | Mother’s property number (chacra) |
| Column 13 | Name of mother’s father – This information was not always recorded, and not all records have been included on this index |
| Column 14 | Name of mother’s mother – This information was not always recorded, and not all records have been included on this index |
| Column 15 | References of registration books used: These books are as follows:
ES = Esquel 1891-1899 FB = family bible of Roberts’ family (Australia) G = Gaiman 1893-1909, Gaiman 1900, Gaiman 1891-1899, Gaiman 1900 GA = Gaiman 1875-1893 PM = Puerto Madryn RJB = index kept by Richard J. Berwyn who recorded the first names of the colonists before civil registrations became compulsory R = Rawson 1900 RA = Rawson 1891-1895, Rawson (October) 1891-1899 T = Trelew 1900 TR = Trelew 1899 |
Baptisms
The information was obtained from the local museum in Gaiman in Chubut. There are no centralised civil registration for baptisms – records are kept individually by each church. Although there may be other records for baptisms for the various churches around the valley, only these have been recorded on this index. Many records have been lost or destroyed through floods.
| Column 1 | Surname of the baby baptised |
| Column 2 | First names of the child |
| Column 3 | Date recorded for the baptism |
| Column 4 | The church list used:
VR = Vrondeg Church – William C Rhys was the Minister AN = English Anglican Church |
| Column 5 | Father’s first names |
| Column 6 | Mothers’ names – this was not always recorded |