Hello,
I joined the forum yesterday and think it is absolutely fantastic already.
I'm 19 and will be attending University to do a degree in Modern and Contemporary History in September. I'm currently on a gap year, working to save a bit of money, so thought this would be the perfect time to do a bit of family research. I have been collecting family documents and stories for years but have never really sorted through them all until the past few weeks. I have been making copies of everything i have and extracting all of the info to put my family tree together. I didn't realise how completely addictive it is!
The surnames i am interested in at the moment are:
Reeve (Northamptonshire + Southend, Essex), Thorne (Sheerness), Pomeroy (Devon), Matthews (Sheerness, Sheppey), Morris (South Wales, Monmouthshire, Aberfan), Davies (Bedwellty, Monmouthshire), Williams (Bedwellty, Monmouthshire), Young (Scotland, probably Angus area), Burnie (Scotland, probably Angus area) and Brushett (Essex).
I also know from my late grand mother that we lost relatives in the Aberfan Disaster. I have a list of the victims but at present don't know where to start in finding which are my relatives. I believe we lost two. My mother remembers her saying she lost cousins, but that would have meant them being adults, and two related adults. Looking at the disaster it would seem more likely that they were of my mothers generation, so children of the aberfan disaster, so they may be my mothers second cousins. At present all i have to go on is surnames. The surnames of my family in Aberfan are Morris and Davies, but surnames of the 'nephews' who attended my great grand father's funeral include Lewis, Lennard and Summers. Another name could be Griffiths, as there were a few Griffiths listed as attending the funeral, although their relationship was not specified so they could just be family friends. Looking at the list of victims matches seem to be Davies, Lewis and Summers.
Another family i am slightly interested in finding is that of my Uncle's father. My grand mother had a son with Norman Wright in 1952 but they divorced and the child (my uncle) never knew Norman and was adopted by my Mother's Father. They were married in april 48 in durham but the divorce was finalised in Merthyr Tydfil. My grand mother herself was adopted in 1928 so thats another thing i would like to look into, but i wouldn't know where to start at the moment!
On my father's side of the family i have a lot of connections with the military and police. My grand father served in Nairobi as inspector of police, and did national service. His father was in the army from age 14 and continued on/off until he was released for work of national importance during the war.
Anyway i will post queries in the correct places, just thought i'd give a bit of an overview!
Thanks,
Jen
I joined the forum yesterday and think it is absolutely fantastic already.
I'm 19 and will be attending University to do a degree in Modern and Contemporary History in September. I'm currently on a gap year, working to save a bit of money, so thought this would be the perfect time to do a bit of family research. I have been collecting family documents and stories for years but have never really sorted through them all until the past few weeks. I have been making copies of everything i have and extracting all of the info to put my family tree together. I didn't realise how completely addictive it is!
The surnames i am interested in at the moment are:
Reeve (Northamptonshire + Southend, Essex), Thorne (Sheerness), Pomeroy (Devon), Matthews (Sheerness, Sheppey), Morris (South Wales, Monmouthshire, Aberfan), Davies (Bedwellty, Monmouthshire), Williams (Bedwellty, Monmouthshire), Young (Scotland, probably Angus area), Burnie (Scotland, probably Angus area) and Brushett (Essex).
I also know from my late grand mother that we lost relatives in the Aberfan Disaster. I have a list of the victims but at present don't know where to start in finding which are my relatives. I believe we lost two. My mother remembers her saying she lost cousins, but that would have meant them being adults, and two related adults. Looking at the disaster it would seem more likely that they were of my mothers generation, so children of the aberfan disaster, so they may be my mothers second cousins. At present all i have to go on is surnames. The surnames of my family in Aberfan are Morris and Davies, but surnames of the 'nephews' who attended my great grand father's funeral include Lewis, Lennard and Summers. Another name could be Griffiths, as there were a few Griffiths listed as attending the funeral, although their relationship was not specified so they could just be family friends. Looking at the list of victims matches seem to be Davies, Lewis and Summers.
Another family i am slightly interested in finding is that of my Uncle's father. My grand mother had a son with Norman Wright in 1952 but they divorced and the child (my uncle) never knew Norman and was adopted by my Mother's Father. They were married in april 48 in durham but the divorce was finalised in Merthyr Tydfil. My grand mother herself was adopted in 1928 so thats another thing i would like to look into, but i wouldn't know where to start at the moment!
On my father's side of the family i have a lot of connections with the military and police. My grand father served in Nairobi as inspector of police, and did national service. His father was in the army from age 14 and continued on/off until he was released for work of national importance during the war.
Anyway i will post queries in the correct places, just thought i'd give a bit of an overview!
Thanks,
Jen
