A visit into the past: Day 2 - Carmarthen and Llansaint

November 09, 2023

For our second day of our 'ancestry tour' we headed south-west from Llansawel to the county town of Carmarthen / Caerfyrddin to investigate some other branches of the family tree. However, some finds in the box file on Llansawel in the town's reference library meant that we could also add some updates to yesterday's discoveries.

A better "then and now" picture than yesterday's!

Llansawel update

The box file in the library contained a record compiled in 1973 of all of the monumental inscriptions in the St. Sawyl's churchyard - before they were mostly removed to its perimeter. The record noted that the 'sandstone headstone' of Charles and Sarah Williams had been labelled as No. 22 - and so it's original position in the churchyard could be ascertained from the accompanying plan.

There were also some other records of 'Morgan' and 'Williams' gravestones that might be of interest, so we returned to the churchyard in the gathering gloom at the end of the day to locate them. Now we knew the kind of stones that we were looking for, we could spot them under the ivy that was hiding them yesterday. However, the inscriptions still need further checking to see if they link to my own family tree.

The box file held a copy of the 'History of Llansawel' written by a local man, Fred Price, in 1898. It includes a reference to a "favourite song" of three of the villagers, including a "Charles Williams, tailor" - which has to be my third great grandfather!

What's more the song, in Welsh, includes a mention of the farm outside the village where we are now staying - Abercrymlyn - which is quite a coincidence!

Abercrymlyn

The book also comments on the high number of pubs that then existed in Llansawel, one for every 127 parishioners!

The box file also included a hand drawn map of the village completed in an exercise book at some point in the last century. At this point, the working pubs included the Swan Inn, as well as the Angel and Black Lion.

However, a picture on the wall we found on the wall of the Black Lion (when we had a look inside after revisiting the churchyard) gave more clues as to where the other pubs were. The old photograph showed that the George Inn had moved from where it perhaps once stood, behind George Terrace, to the building on the main street one up from the Post Office and shop.

The George Inn is therefore now a grey painted house, the Post Office yellow (but with the same distinctive wall edging). The census records suggest the Red Lion was a couple of buildings further up the street again from the George Inn - perhaps where the later plan above marks a "Co-op". If so, the building no longer stands as that space is now occupied by newer housing.

Carmarthen

Our real intention for visiting Carmarthen was not to uncover more about Llansawel but to carry out an ancestry trail on a different ancestor, second great grandfather, Jonah Thomas (1804 - 1872). He was a solicitor's clerk who had lived at various places in the town - and died and was buried there alongside his wife, Sarah, too, my second great grandmother.

The couple were married in the town's main church of St.Peter's in 1829. That stands across the road from the library:

When they were married, Sarah was living in Friar's Park - it turns out that this is now the car park where we left our car! Soon after, they were living on Quay Street:

We wandered around the town in the squally showers, looking for the places listed in the census records and parish registers as their various addresses. These including those mentioned in a debtors' petition served against Jonah in 1849, such as 'The Falcon Tavern, Lammas Street' and 'Temple Gardens'.

In 1851, the debt issue presumably resolved, the census shows the family were living in Blue Street (sadly house numbers have changed and their address may now lie under the modern bus station ...), and that record includes their son Thomas, my great grandfather. More on him later in the week perhaps...

Blue Street

The abode on Sarah's burial record in 1869 (she dies of dysentery!) was 'Spring Gardens'. Despite all the new buildings and roads in this corner of the town, we found that row of houses still standing by the ramp to the Friar's Park car park.

Jonah's death certificate also lists 'Spring Gardens' as his final abode but also gives his actual place of death - the Guildhall Square in the middle of the town - today just getting ready for Christmas.

We know both Sarah and Jonah were buried in the churchyard of the Welsh-speaking parish church of St. David's, recently converted into a climbing centre. The record of surviving gravestones in the churchyard doesn't include their names, however, so we didn't spend too long wandering around the ones that are still in place.

Llansaint

We finished today's trip heading further south to the coast around Ferryside and Kidwelly, places where I spent family summer holidays with my parents as a young child. But this was also where William Rees, another second great grandfather, was born.

Kidwelly

Between these two places lies the parish of Saint Ishmael. It contains two old churches with churchyards that we both visited. However, we couldn't be sure that any of the 'Rees' gravestones that we saw were directly linked to William and his family.

The first church, dramatically sited over the Towy estuary, was St Ishmael church itself.

The second was All Saints, standing in the centre of the hamlet of Llansaint, on the headland above.

The census records and tithe map show that William's family, including my third great grandparents Walter and Hannah Rees, lived in Llansaint, on a farm called "Appledore". We found a farm still there in the same vicinity and a village house that was still called "Appledore" as well!