Well here I am back again... nearly 12 months later...

OK so coming back from Aus reinvigorated the family history thing - just need to do something about getting the posting into the blog a tad more regular!

I've made a few changes to my internet connectivity so I now have better out-of-work access with BT OpenZone wireless - hopefully this will make the updates a bit easier to achieve.

My plan is to re-post the notes from the Walter-Family.org website as an archive and to continue the story with the bits and pieces as they happen... well hopefully closer to when they happen (closer than 10 months at least!)

I've also set up a photo-blog at BuzzNet so I should be able link to the various photographs I've been collecting.

Return from Australia

I have recently returned from a trip home to Australia (as most of you will know...) and have been reinvigorated in my Family History quest...

I now have a number of people added into the Walter-side of the tree. The predominant listings are with the Godden part of the ancestry. There are a few on the direct Walter part but the majority of the data is based in Australia (Adelaide and, possibly, Geelong) - this may make additional discovery a bit difficult from this side of the planet.

The Godden section seemed to come from the Caulston (Devon - near Portsmouth), so I will now start building a body of evidence for this crowd.
I'll try and get into a more regular update with this blog, continuing the detail of the already discovered ancestors and adding the new ones as the appear.
bye for now

I'll be putting a link to this blog on my www.walter-family.org website, so this will become the main location for the research notes, as well as a repository for any stories or information anyone in the family may have. The main website will remain the repository for the actual family tree data.



Bringing some of the historical research efforts into this blog might be a good way to introduce the ancestors...



The initial port of call was making use of information already known to me. This of course was birth-date information for all of my local Walter mob - Mum, Dad, Steve, Helen, Sue 'n me. All of the other immediate information (wedding dates and such) were then added into the genealogy database.



Moving up the line and considering my current geographic location it made sense to follow along Mum's ancestral line. I already had some basic information (birth-dates of Bron, Cynth, Gareth and Chris). In conjunction with information sought from everyone concerned. I also started getting information from the Family Records Centre in Islington, London - primarily birth certificates and marriage for Leila and Graham.



Finding the birth certs was straight-forward as I knew the dates. Also, knowing Mum was the eldest, I just worked backwards from February 1931 and easily found the marriage cert.



The process of finding these certificates - or rather finding the index entries and reference numbers that allow for the application of a certified copy of the record - is a matter of looking through large volumes of indexes at the F.R.C.



Civil registration of Birth, Marriages and Deaths become a legal requirement in England & Wales in June 1837. Each year is split into quarters - March, June, September, December. These quarters may be then consist of one or more volumes for each year. For the indexes of births after about 1860 have been transcribed onto type written sheet sorted alphabetically by Surname and then first name. Searching for the record you want is a matter of selecting the appropriate quarter and searching for the name(s) concerned. The indexes are, however, a recording of when the event was registered - for example there was an allowance of 6 weeks to register a birth - the birth could therefore have taken place in one quarter but only appear in the following quarter...



I think I'll continued this tomorrow - bye for now...

My family history research into... family history....



The plan here is to document the bits and pieces I've been finding in my search.



Thus far, the families that are under direct investigation are:



Davis - through Abercarn in Wales

Rowland - via Davis and along the Abercarn route

Jones - up via the Rowland branch



Jukes - through Totton, Eling in Hampshire

Bradley - via Jukes and along the Totton route

Hayter - up via the Bradley branch

Medley - up via the Jukes branch

King - up via the Jukes branch

Mabet - up via the Jukes branch



I'll also add notes from research times past to keep this in order... at least that's the plan

St. David's Day - where better to spend it than in Wales!!) and I decided to wander over to Newbridge. Found what could have been the chapel but this building was signed as having been re-built in 1912, some 11 years after Dan and Amelia were married. The building had a couple of foundation stones and another that was engraved(?) with the words: "Laid by W. Rowland of Abercarn". Just a matter of finding out whether this place was rebuilt on the same location as Dan and Amelia's or whatever...

Continued to wander around Newbridge. As luck would have it I found a small bric-a-brac shop in one of the side streets. The sign outside indicated that they had old maps and photographs, so I thought it might be useful. One of the owners (Terry) is very into local history and we got to talking about where the English Baptist Chapel might have been. As it happens he had a copy of the 1861 map that I had seen in Newport and he was able to confirm for us that the rebuilt chapel (1912) was indeed on the spot of the previous chapel. Terry was also certain that he knows the name of William Rowland as being connected with the Post Office in Abercarn at the beginning of the 20th century - he is listed as a "bookseller / stationer" on Amelia's marriage certificate, so this may fit well. Also, the current Post Office is at the corner of High and Vine Streets in Abercarn. Vine Street is the former home of the Rowland's and initial home of the Davis clan (Dan, Amelia, Rowland and Graham)... might be a coincidence but you never know!!

Side Note: I tried telephoning the pastor of the Baptist chapel to find out if the church has any information of it's own history but wasn't able to get an answer - I'll keep trying.

After Newbridge it was on to Abercarn. The local library is only open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so I wanted make sure I got there today. Had to wait for it to open after the lunch break but it was worth the wait. Managed to find a couple of books by Rex Pugh, both published in the early 1930's:
1 - Glimpses of West Gwent - An Historical Survey of Abercarn and District
2 - A History of the Baptist Church Abercarn

Interestingly, I was allowed to join the Abercarn Library and borrow books - so I did!!

I had been curious as to why Amelia and Dan were married in an English Baptist Chapel, given they were both Welsh - hopefully these books will provide some background of this church in the Welsh environment