Well, I suppose I'd better do Part 2!

Here’s Part 2 of my story on how and why I decided to look into my Family Tree, to read part 1 click here.

In 1991, my husband Huw happened to mention to a workmate (Dai), that we were both interested in researching our families’ histories but didn’t know where to start.

Dai’s wife Pat was a member of the local Mormon Church and he offered to ask her for advice. It is a very important part of the Mormon faith to know who your ancestors were as they have a doctrine of Baptism for the dead. This requires members of their faith to engage in family history research.

The Mormon Church has a huge Family History Department which administers the church’s large family history records and operates the world’s largest library dedicated to genealogical research. Some of the most popular websites used for Family History research such as Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com have connections to the Mormon Church.

As a result of Pat’s inquiry on our behalf, two Family History advisors from the local Mormon Church came to our home to advise us of the best way to start our research. This was back in 1991 before the Internet was in almost every home and the World Wide Web was in constant use.

The advisors recommended that we visit the Records Offices and Parish churches in the areas where our families came from. At the Records Offices we would be able to check for old Census Records.

The Parish Records were available at the Parish Churches in the areas and at the Records offices. The advisors from the Mormon Church also told us to question the older relatives in the family and to note down any facts and stories these relatives could tell us.

They also said to collect any birth, marriage and death certificates we could get our hands on and to follow on from the basic information gathered from these sources.

I followed some of the advice given and questioned my parents about their parents and grandparents. With my parents’ help and knowledge, I compiled a small family tree going back to 7 out of 8 of my great grandparents and 1 great great grandfather!

I had begun my search!

Unfortunately, due to family commitments, lack of finances and 2 young children to bring up, my family tree remained at this stage for the next 17 years, until 2008.

In 2003, we had the internet installed at home and I joined Ancestry.co.uk as a free member which gave me limited access to the information on their site.

In 2008, I found out that you could access Ancestry for free at Llanelli library and this is when my research took off!