My Family History

This is the last of four posts setting out what I have pieced together about my ancestry during my summer research, working back from my paternal grandparents. While the previous three posts  traced back my grandmother Isabella's family roots to Carmarthenshire, this post updates what more I have gleaned about my adopted grandfather, Thomas. The mystery of Thomas' exact ancestry is one that I have written about before - indeed, it's probably the reason why I started looking into my family ancestry in the first place. I set out some initial ideas a couple of years ago in a post that looked into the family lore that his actual father had been one of the sons of the owner of the St.Donat's estate near Llantwit Major - where his birth certificate states he was born. It also wondered about the possible identity of the mother identified on the birth certificate as "Mary Powell formerly Davies". The riddle to be solved - my grandfather's birth certificate In ano

This is the third of four posts setting out what I have pieced together about my paternal ancestry, working back from my grandparents, Thomas and Isabella. My second post  traced back the family tree  from my great grandmother, Sarah Jane Rees,  back through the Rees family to the parishes of Llanelly and Llangyndeyrn.  In this post, I will follow the ancestry trail back through Sarah Jane's mother, Margaret, to another part of Carmarthenshire - the village of Llansawel. From there, I will also show how the family tree links with Welsh emigrants who headed to Pennsylvania and Utah - and became pioneer Mormons. Margaret Williams - my 2nd great grandmother BIRTH 1818 • Llansawel, Carmarthenshire, Wales DEATH AFT. 1861 • Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales CERTAINTY: HIGH - matches with census and other records Margaret Rees's birthplace is recorded in the 1861 census as Llansawel, a village about 20 miles north-east of Carmarthen. However, without any record of my second great grandpare

This is the second of four posts setting out what I have pieced together about my paternal ancestry, working back from my grandparents, Thomas and Isabella. The first post showed how I have been able to trace back the family tree from  Isabella's father, Thomas Thomas, to Carmarthen - but could not go too far beyond that.  This post shows that I think I can reliably trace my tree back  from Isabella's mother, Sarah Jane Rees,  much further into the past - perhaps back to the 1730s.  William Rees and Anne Lewis - my 5th great grandparents from Llangynderyn Sarah Jane Rees - my great grandmother BIRTH ABT 1854 • Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales DEATH APR 1924 • Pontypridd, Glamorganshire, Wales CERTAINTY: 100% - confirmed by census and other records As Isabella's birth certificate indicates, her mother Sarah Jane Thomas was "formerly Rees" - so this was her maiden name before the  couple married in Pontypridd in 1872. The 1861 census usefully records Sarah Jane before