My Distant Relatives

I never knew my Grandfather on my Dad's side of the family. Both he and my Grandmother( his first wife) died before I was born. But I did know his second wife and she was always Nan to me. After his death Nan moved to the Forest of Dean to be with her sister and family who'd moved up there because of work. Us kids used to visit Nan and her family in the Summer holidays, running riot in the forest and having a whale of a time in the huge expanse of that beautiful countryside. One of my Aunts told me that she was about eleven years old when they moved, and she also told me where they had lived in our town.

I tried to trace them on the 1901 census but got no luck. I would keep going back to the census with new ideas for a trace only to be disappointed.

My Mother was a mystery as well. She was born in 1900 but she didn't show up on the 1901 census either. I knew the town she'd been brought up in, as she had told me that many years ago, but I still got a blank.

When the 1911 census was released I started again, and this time, BINGO.

My Grandparents were living in a different street then, and I found them. Grandad Arthur, Grandma Grace, my Dad and all his brothers and their sister were all there living together. At last, solid information.

From there I traced my Grandad back to where he was born, in Cardiff. The census of 1881 showed him at two years old living with his mother and father, his brothers and sisters. From the 1861 census I traced his Mother and Father, my great grandparents, back to where they were born. Then from the 1841 census I found my great, great grandparents. What a revelation! From knowing nothing about my grandparents, I had traced my family back to 1798, when my great,great Grandad was born.

My Mother showed up in the 1911 census as well. It showed her at 11 years of age living with her parents and her sister in Maesycwmmer in the Welsh valleys. I knew she had been married before she met Dad, but her first husband had died eleven months after they married, leaving her with a baby son. From the Births, Marriages and Deaths sections of the census I was able to trace both weddings and her sister's wedding.

Why my Mother doesn't show up on the 1901 census is still a mystery to me but I shall keep trying until I find her. Then I can go on to find her parents and the rest of my distant relatives.