In 2022 I travelled to Wales to meet a cousin who I had only recently discovered. Being my Great Uncle’s Granddaughter, my cousin Kay is my second cousin.
I had never realised that I had an extended branch of my family, growing up and living in South Wales during the 20th Century, until about 2019 when I was contacted by an heir hunter in Newport, South Wales. He was seeking the descendants of my Grandfather and his nine siblings, one of whom, the last remaining child of my Great Aunt Margaret, had died, leaving a small part of his estate to be distributed.
The search would have been a challenge with so many offspring from the two generations that might still be alive to receive the distribution. The final share, I was warned by the heir hunter, would not be very significant.
The money did not matter to me. What was exciting was the discovery of cousins that I had never met. Especially the families of the three Wilcox siblings of my Grandfather – Frederic, George and Margaret. I also wondered if my Grandfather ever knew much about their lives after they left London before the First World War. Certainly, my Grandmother never spoke of them – but then I never asked her when I was growing up.
I first had contact with Kay in June 2021. After the deceased cousin’s estate had been finalised, and I had received my share, I had contacted the heir hunter and asked him to share my details with whom he had been acting on behalf of. Out of the blue I received a warm email from Kay and for two years we have been corresponding and last year we arranged to meet.
The title of this post relates to all our of our communication. Kay has related her family history by email, scans of photos and most importantly, helping me to make a digital recording of our meeting in Tredegar where another second cousin, David, was also present.
I had a digital recorder that I had acquired some years back when I took part in an oral history project regarding the history of Allotments in Glasgow. Oral history is usually conducted with question prompts to direct and focus the flow of the conversation. When I met Kay this was not necessary – we engaged with an amazing collection of documents and photos that helped us put our family history into context.
A year before this meeting, we had contacted one another by email. I had also sent her a copy of my research into the history of the Wilcox family. Although I now realise how poor the content was and how many more stories were available to be told. That has been the motivation to write this blog. New research and new information creates new stories, and so I have been revisiting those emails and that recording that was made in Tredegar in 2022.
How do you transcribe a recording? There are software programmes that can be purchased online. If I had updated existed programmes on my computer I would also probably have been able to do the transcription. I have resorted to old school methods and I am listening to the 75 minute recording in segments and making handwritten notes. This will help me to direct the future stories in the Welsh Connection section of this blog.
The very first item that Kay sent to me was this photo.
The Wilcox brothers with their Father. George, Will, Sid, Jack, Fred and Bert. (Scan of photo )
I shall never tire of posting this photo when writing about the Wilcox family. My Grandfather and his brothers with their Father, in a studio portrait (without the women – mother, sisters, Wife). The photo was in the possession of yet another second cousin living in Newton le Willows. He had made a note of the brothers whose names were written on the back of the picture. Whoever had written their names was familiar with them because they are described as – standing: George, Will, Sid, Jack. Front row: Fred, Bert.
This interests me because my Grandfather William was always known as Billy to my Grandmother. Jack of course is John Wilcox, the youngest of the brothers, and why wouldn’t Sydney be called Sid. Then there was Herbert. It feels strange to see these familiar shortened names when I have spent most of my time researching the full ‘Sunday’ name of each member of the family.
The main players in the Welsh Connection story are Frederic, born in 1881, George, born in 1887, and Margaret, born in 1884. The photo of the brothers I have dated around 1908, give or take a year. Fred and George were settled in South Wales by the time of the 1911 Census return having (allegedly) fled from London. There is a story about George working for a newspaper and being targeted by criminals who the paper was reporting on. That is a whole new avenue for research. Fred , George and Margaret’s Mother died in 1913 and their Father died in 1914. By 1916 Margaret, then aged 32, had moved to the same town as her brothers and married Lewis Williams. I have found no record of what Margaret did for an occupation as a young woman. The 1901 Census return shows the Wilcox family living in Somerset Road, Acton and at the age of 16, Margaret has no recorded occupation listed. George, at the age of 15 was described as Newspaper Office Boy. Fred has left home.
During our meeting in Tredegar, we started with an original document, the Confirmation card of Margaret.
Margaret Wilcox’s confirmation card 1904 (scan of document in the possession of my cousin)
Margaret was Confirmed in All Saints Church, South Acton on March 30, 1904 and three days later took Communion for the first time. She was 20 years old. This led to us discussing how religious she had been. There is no evidence of strong religious faith amongst the Wilcox siblings other than each child was baptised in the Church of England and each was married in Church. To be confirmed at the age of 20 suggests that Margaret had a strong commitment to her religious faith as she grew up. Many confirmation candidates might be in their early teens but Margaret has put herself forward for confirmation in early adulthood. It is an interesting record that Margaret kept and passed to her children for safekeeping. It is now in Kay’s possession and continues to be looked after. A document such as this tells us much more than just the event it records.
This is the first record where I can see that Margaret has now adopted the new name of Marguerite. Adopting new names seems to have a pattern for her and her two brothers in Wales.
Then Kay produced a photo from her album that although she had sent a scan to me previously, I had never seen as clearly as this. It was an extraordinary moment to see my two Great Aunts like this.
Marguerite and her sister Bessie with, we think, their brother John (Scan of photo in my cousin’s possession)
Marguerite on the left, Bessie on the right. We had a long discussion about who the man in the middle was. Kay thought it might be my Grandfather, William. I was not at all certain that he had the same likeness or personality. Comparing this picture with that above, we concluded that it might well have been John. The sister may have been drawn to their younger brother for some reason. Look at his suit ! He was also wearing a fancy signet ring on his right hand. I did wonder if the studio photographer had dressed him up for the occasion. I love the back drop of the stars and the moon.
In future episodes of the Tredegar Tapes I shall relate more about the life of Marguerite in Wales.