I have lived in Llanelli for all of my life. All 50 years of it and consider myself a Sospanite through and through!
However, once I started looking into my family’s history I realised that most of my family’s connections with Llanelli are quite recent!
I’ve been interested in my family’s history since I was a teenager, thanks mainly to the story my father used to tell me when I was a child.
He would talk about a relative of his who had researched the family back in the 1930’s and had created a Family Tree going back to the time of the Normans!
He had discovered that my paternal Grandfather’s family, the Richards, were supposedly descendants of a Norman. This elusive tree was supposed to be somewhere in my Mamgu’s house in Felinfoel.
I used to ask my Mamgu on a regular basis if she had come across the tree, but the answer was always “No, but if I find it, I’ll put it aside for you”.
Sadly, it was never found.
On my father’s side of the family, I was vaguely aware of the fact that my Mamgu’s family were from Pembrokeshire and that my Dadcu’s family were from Felinfoel.
My father was interested in the history of the family in a general way and was a great source of information.
Often after speaking to someone whilst we were out in town, he would say afterwards, “that was so and so, and his family are from ……. and he’s a cousin”.
If only I’d made a note of all the little bits of information he offered over the years when I was a child and a teenager!
On my mother’s side, I knew that my Gran was from just outside Dafen, a little hamlet that doesn’t exist anymore called St. David’s and that my Granddad was……….English!
From Buckinghamshire!
There was no mistaking that my Granddad wasn’t a local lad, with his broad London sounding (to us, anyways) accent which he never lost. Even though he’d moved to Llanelli in the early 1920’s and lived in the St. David’s, Bryn and Llangennech area until he died in 1984 at the grand old age of 80.
So there you have it: 1 Grandparent from Buckinghamshire, 1 from Pembrokeshire and 2 Grandparents from the Llanelli area, or were they?
If only it was that simple!
If you would like some help and advice in finding your family tree, then please email Yvonne at familyties@llanellitown.com.
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