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In August 1936 I was given the name Jane Stevens Davies and in it the clues to my Welsh and Somerset roots, My first name came from my grandmother Selina Jane John -definately a Welsh name. My grandmother's father was a coalminer,David John and she was born in the Rhondda Fach, South Wales. My second name came from my grandfather, James Stevens of West Harptree, Somerset. As my brother and I grew up during World war II in grandmother's home, we came to hear how grandfather had found his way to Bristol and worked his passage across to Cardiff.He did all this in the hope of finding more lucrative work in the coalmines. What was the result? He found the hard life of a miner and died when he was only 64. But James married the gentle hardworking young Selina Jane and they had eleven children. I always marvelled at how they managed in their typical coalminer's home with eleven children. But I did realize that these children's births were spread out over nearly 20 years. When my aunt was born in 1907, their oldest son William John was working in the pit and their second son was living with his grandmother Selina John. She lost her husband David in the pit in1883 and her son WilliamT. John in the terrible explosion in Wattstown's National Pit on July11th 1905. My own mother remembered that day well even though she was only six years old. These sad family stories and some amusing anecdotes, my uncle told, always interested me. But I was hooked when I discovered the old family Bible given to Mary Ann Walford in 1841in Somerset and saw her own handwriting listing her four sons' births of whom my grandfather was the third. My surname came from my father John Francis Davies who was born in New Tredegar Monmouthshire in 1894.In his name was yet another clue to his mother whom I have found was Margaret Francis born in Llanelli in 1866. She married Henry Davies whom became a colliery banksman in Glamorgan and later an undermanager. That was how my parents came to meet each other. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, I have learned about my Welsh and Somerset Roots as I have traced my family tree backwards. It's like a wonderful giant puzzle of which I never tire; I have learned more social history about migration patterns and about their tough lives than I ever did doing a degree in history! It is fascinating and worth sharing with others.
The ancestry report uses 'Ahnentafel' numbering. This means that a person's parent's numbers will be twice as large as the person's number. So if someone's number is 15, her father will be number 30, and mother will be 31. Her child will be number 7.
Jane Stevens Buttery
3225 McCormick Rd.
Harrow, Ontario
N0R 1G0
Tel: (519)738-4708
Send e-mail to: [email protected]
This web site produced 27 Jul 2000 by Personal Ancestral File, a product of
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