My Family History

I’ve been trying to solve a puzzle for about 50 years. I may have finally got at least closer to an answer. I must have still been a boy when my Dad first explained to me that our surname was ‘Powell-Davies’ because his father had been adopted and raised as ‘Tom Davies’ by the Davies family. However, he had then added ‘Powell’ to his surname when he found out that the name of his actual birth mother was ‘Mary Powell’. And ‘Powell’ turns out to be the surname he was first listed under in the 1891 census record for Pontypridd: The 1891 census showing my grandfather as an 'adopted son' But who was Mary? – and who was my grandfather’s actual father? Nobody really knew. When I first started trying to find out, there was no such thing as an internet search! Instead, I went to the records office to track down a copy of my grandfather’s birth certificate – but that threw up as many questions as answers: My grandfather's birth certificate It confirmed that his mother was, indeed, ‘...

Today’s trip to Newport and Griffithstown (outside Pontypool) was more of an afterthought, intended only to have a quick look at the places where my grandfather, Thomas Powell Davies, became a curate and then a vicar (an unexpected 'career path' for someone with such uncertain and humble origins ). Once again, the day turned out to turn up far more ancestry insights than we had ever expected. The picture of 'TPD' that used to hang in my parents' home We started by parking outside St. Woolo's in Newport where clerical records show he became curate soon after his ordination in 1918. Flowers had recently been lain outside the cathedral on  the anniversary of the death of over twenty Chartists, shot dead by troops in the town in November 1839. Outside St. Woolo's We walked the short distance to the house in York Place where the 1921 census shows the Powell-Davies family lived, including my own father, then aged just 10. 56 York Place, Newport  We then drove to f...

From the land of my fathers - Thomas and Isabella For my final posts (at least for now!) from my trawl through my "Ancestry" family tree, I want to try and tie together the various family history threads together where they meet - with my grandparents. In this post, I look at my father's parents: Thomas Powell becomes Tom Davies, then Thomas Powell Davies: In an  earlier post  I showed how the historical records confirmed the family story of my father's father having been brought up by the Davies family as Tom Davies, then discovering that his real mother’s name was Mary Powell, so combining the two to make “Powell-Davies”.  My grandfather's birth certificate - no father's name given The 1881 Pontypridd census includes the 11 month old 'nursing child', listed then as "Thomas D Powell" born (on the St. Donat's estate) in Llantwit Major, but now being raised at 'Graigalfa' Road, Glyntaff, with Thomas Davies, 'general labourer an...