Category: The Welsh Connection
-
Nye Bevan knew my Uncles
This week my post is about an intriguing historical photograph of a group of men taken in or around 1922. They are formally dressed in suits, some in dinner suits. Seated and standing for a photographer to record them. They look serious, thoughtful and with meaningful intent. The Query Club, Tredegar, about 1922. Nye Bevan…
-
A Question of Identity
Is it illegal to change your name, without going through the legal route of deed poll ? Not according to the National Archives. As long as a person does not change their name for illegal or fraudulent reasons, it is not illegal to change, for example, a surname. “It is still perfectly legal for anyone…
-
The Tredegar Tapes
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…
-
Francis (nee Wilcox)
This week I describe some of the details of the records that I know of and have found regarding the three Wilcox siblings who left London for Wales. Two of them left under circumstances that cannot be proved and there is only one anecdotal story relating to it. The third joined them after her parents…
-
Every Picture Tells A Story…………..
Or does it ? Most pictures from the past will raise questions that can be very difficult to answer. For instance, if I was to explain that the picture above of my Great Grandfather and his six sons has no women in it, yet there were a further six siblings, five girls and another boy,…
-
When Fred and George Came to Wales
When I was an adolescent taking an interest in family history I discussed the idea of searching family members at Somerset House with my Grandmother, Grace Wilcox. She warned me off from doing this saying that I might discover skeletons that I would not wish to know about. Such a wasted opportunity ! In recent…
-
Going underground
Three years ago I was contacted by an heir hunter from south Wales who was searching for the descendants of the Wilcox family. A distant relative who was unknown to me had left a small legacy and he had no descendants of his own. This led to a discovery about two brothers and one sister…