Jonathan - Perhaps Griffith M. Davies was not at home the day the census enumerator came to ask questions, and his wife answered the questions the best she could, saying "Maurice-son" as she may have said in Norway. Or maybe Griffith was hiding out. Interesting problem for you to work out. If he was a gardener on a military base near his home, maybe you can get the pay records to see what name he used at work. Lynne in Tucson -----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Pike Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 3:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dyfed] Griffith Morgan Davies Many thanks to all who replied to request for help - what a great response. Sadly, it looks like Griffith Morgan Davies's son, Griffith Maurice Davies may have divorced after only a year of marriage, and my hopes of there being any living descendants are low. The one resource in which it is tricky to find Griffith Morgan Davies is the 1930 census. When asked his surname, he gave a rather bizarre Welsh inspired patronymic surname with Anglo-Saxon influences. I could not find him on a full name search so eventually carried out a first name search only with birth year and place. This revealed a Griffith M Morrison of the correct age who was a US Army veteran of the both the Spanish American War and WW1. To cap it all, he also had a Norwegian born wife named Anna, 25 years his junior. Griffith was the son of Maurice Griffith Davies of Maesydderwen, Llandissilio, and it appears that for this census, he chose to use a surname derived from his father's first name. So, at least in some form the Welsh patronymic naming tradition was alive in 1930s California. Jonathan Pike