Katherine Jenkins Family History

Katherine Jenkins was born on June 29th, 1980 to Selwyn and Susan Jenkins in Neath, Wales.  She grew up in a council house and attended local schools.

After winning singing competitions in her youth, Jenkins studied at the Royal Academy of Music, modelled, and taught voice lessons. She came to wider public attention when she sang at Westminster Cathedral in honor of the Pope’s silver jubilee in 2003.

Her breakthrough came when Universal Classics heard her demo, invited her for an interview, and offered her a six-album deal,  All of these albums reached number one in the UK classical charts between 2004 and 2008, selling a total of more than four million copies.

Katherine is a mezzo-soprano whose range today extends from operatic arias and hymns to musical theater and popular songs.

 Jenkins in Carmarthenshire

The story began with John Jenkins, the illegitimate son of Mary and Henry Jenkins.  He had been born in Kidwelly, a small coastal town in Carmarthenshire.  He married twice, his second marriage to Elizabeth David in 1820 taking place three miles east of Kidwelly at St. Ishmael on the Towy river estuary.

Their two elder children married in 1841 and moved away – Sarah to Glamorgan and Morris all the way to California.  But their younger child, their daughter Martha born in 1828, remained at St. Ishmael.  She was Katherine’s great great grandmother.

Martha the Cockle Picker

Martha started out as a housemaid but then became a cockle picker.

Cockles thrived in the shallow waters of Welsh estuaries.  At low-tide the women could rake this prized source of protein from the estuary bed.  It was back-breaking work.  And Martha would not just have to pick the cockles, but sell them as well.  She would go round the houses knocking on doors, before heading for the local market to sell the balance.

Martha married a man named Evan Walter.  But Evan was killed in 1855 in an accident while he was working at the Llanelli waterworks.  So after just two years of marriage, Martha found herself bringing up her family alone. Martha was expecting her second child when Evan died.

Why did she call herself Martha Jenkins, and not Martha Walters after her husband?  It turned out that Evan was a bigamist for which he had been jailed.  There was a five year gap between his first marriage to a woman named Elinor and his second to Martha.  And six years before he had married Elinor it was discovered that he was with another family in the next village. He was the head of that household and had a wife Rachel and a son David.

Martha never remarried.  She lived at Gormount Bach in St. Ishmael and made herself a very successful cockle merchant.  She was running her own company by the time of the 1881 census.  She lived a long life, finally dying in 1921.

Later Jenkins 

David Jenkins.  Following three generations later – after John and William Jenkins – came David Jenkins, Katherine’s grandfather.  Born in 1893, he left St. Ishmael to work as a laborer and furnaceman at the tin works in Neath.

In 1920 he married Catherine Davies after whom Katherine was named.  Catherine was also a mezzo soprano and she sang in concerts during the Second World War.  She and David had two sons, Selwyn and Alan.

Selwyn Jenkins.  Selwyn, a factory worker, was married twice.  With his first wife Beatrice he had two daughters, both born in 1952.

Selwyn later married Susan Evans, a radiographer, in 1979 and they raised two daughters, Katherine and Laura.

Katherine Jenkins’ Family Tree

• John Jenkins from Kidwelly (1783-1853) m. Anne Henton (1792-1817) in 1813; rem. Elizabeth David (1787-1870’s) in St, Ishmael in 1820
• – Sarah Jenkins (1819-1884) m. Jacob Gabe in 1841, moved to Glamorgan near Neath
• – Morris Jenkins (1821-1881) m. Margaret Rees in 1841, emigrated to California
• – Martha Jenkins (1828-1921)

• Martha Jenkins, cockle merchant from St. Ishmael m. Evan Walter (1821-1855) in 1852
• – Elizabeth Jenkins (b. 1853), cockle seller
• – John Jenkins (b. 1855)

• David Jenkins, factory worker m. Catherine Davies (b. 1899) in Neath in 1920
• – Alma Jenkins (b. 1920)
• – Selwyn Jenkins (1925-1995)
• – Alan Jenkins

• Selwyn Jenkins, factory worker m. Beatrice Davies in 1950; rem. Susan Evans (b. 1949) in Neath in 1979
• – two daughters (b. 1952), with Beatrice
• – Katherine Jenkins (b. 1980), with Susan
• – Laura Jenkins (b. 1982) m. Gavin Johnson, with Susan