The surname Miles is English but of Norman French origins, and like Moses is not a traditional/common Welsh surname. The Miles and Moses family’s were joined through marriage on August 22nd 1830 at St. Gwynno’s Church Llanwynno.
The farthest we can go back is to a Morgan Miles of Aberdare b.1776, who married a Jennet Williams of the Parish of Llanwynno, in the Parish of Llanwynno on April 3rd 1802. Their Christian names would be passed on to two of their Moses grandchildren; Jennet would later turn into Janet during a Cwm Rhondda census, whilst the name Morgan would eventually cross the Atlantic. The Miles family lived at Pwllhywel on the eastern slopes of Cwm Rhondda, about three miles away from the Moses’ at Ynus-y-bool. Pwllhywel (or Hywel’s Pool) was a charming, quiet little farm and stood near the little Henwysg Stream, some way from it’s banc under the lee of Blaenhenwysg Hill. It was surrounded by apple and plum trees and the farmhouse itself was white-washed with a roof of grey Welsh stone. “It faced directly south, the hill of Coedcae’r Hafod breaking the edge of the westerly winds and prevented the house from peeping over it’s shoulder at Cwm Rhondda towards Cymmer”. We know that Morgan and Jennet had at least three children – Catherine/Catws b.1810, Morgan II b.1816 and Charles b.1818 or 21. Catherine would later name her third son Charles Moses after her brother. Morgan Miles Snr. eventually moved a few miles west to the Llantwit Fardre /Llantrisant area, and became a collier; he died in J/F/March 1843, whist his wife Jennet passed away in J/A/Sept.1850. Their children however would remain in Llanwynno Parish – Catherine/Catws married our Evan III Moses and became a farmers wife up at Hendre Rhys. In the 1851 census her brother Morgan II was living near Pwllhywel, at Gellifynaches Farm, and was married to Mary Jenkins. The other brother Charles had a son in 1859/60, who became Morgan Miles III – his future wife’s name was also Jennet. Their son David Charles Miles b. 1878, would later turn up in the 1891 census as a 13 year old lodger with the family of Mary Edwards (nee Moses) in New Road Ynysybwl. This brought the wheel around full circle, and briefly “reunited” the Moses and Miles family’s again, some 60 years after Catws and Evan’s wedding.