The line these certificates opened up almost from nothing. Before they surfaced, all we had was Bessie's maiden name. A good deal here is still provisional, and marked as such.
Generation one
William Perkins
Named as Bessie's father on her 1907 marriage record. Died at 3 Fothergill Terrace, Merthyr Tydfil, aged forty-two, of pneumonia. His occupation stands out: a white-collar job among neighbours who were almost all colliers. The link between this William Perkins and the Ystradyfodwg Perkins births remains unproved.
Elizabeth Perkins, his widowAlmost certainly "Gu"
The 1911 census settles most of the doubt: it records Elizabeth Perkins, 62, widow, born Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, living in the household at 73 Miskin Street as Bessie's mother, three months after Emlyn's birth. That is exactly the household a Welsh-speaking widowed grandmother, known to the children as Gu, from mamgu, who read her Bible every day, would have belonged to. Her own obituary, found separately, independently confirms her as the mother of "Mrs. B. Jenkins," names three surviving sons, and gives her age at death as 89, which would place her death around 1937 or 1938, a useful narrower window for finding the exact date. The single remaining gap is a document that uses the name Gu itself; everything else now points the same way.
Evidence1911 censusObituary, undated
EvidenceObituary, undated
Generation two
John Perkins
A birth date read from a badly faded certificate, provisionally. Elizabeth's obituary names a surviving son John Perkins, "a well-known Treherbert elocutionist," almost certainly the same man.
Elizabeth "Bessie" Perkins
Married Daniel Jenkins in 1907. Her life is told more fully on the Jenkins line page. Named in her mother's obituary simply as "Mrs. B. Jenkins," her married name, alongside the note that she was the only daughter.
David Perkins
Named as a surviving son in his mother's obituary, living in Merthyr. This also resolves an old puzzle: the informant at William's 1891 death was recorded only as "D. Perkins, son," and is now almost certainly this David, rather than an unknown brother.
Livingstone Perkins
Named alongside his brother John as a well-known Treherbert elocutionist in their mother's obituary. Nothing else about him has been researched yet.
EvidenceObituary, undated
Stanley PerkinsUncertain
Registered in the same sub-district as Bessie three years after her, once thought almost certainly her younger brother. Elizabeth's obituary complicates that: it names only three surviving sons at her death, David, John, and Livingstone, with no mention of Stanley. He may have died before her, may belong to a different Perkins family entirely, or the obituary may simply be incomplete.
Evidence1886 birth