Family History

Today was allocated for doing all my paperwork. In the back of my filing cabinet was an old paper folder headed Family History. It contained just three pieces of paper.

About a year ago I started on the Family History root with the aid of a very patient friend who was starting me off in this subject. However, I was fine when working with her, but at home on my own I found it more difficult to access information without her guidance and eventually my interest waned. Chancing upon this folder today it contained information on my fathers family and so I read it all again.

My grandfather (Photograph above) whom I always thought was born in Ebbw Vale was actually born in Montgomeryshire, but the family moved to Ebbw Vale when he was a toddler. He was one of five children and the move to South Wales was work related for his father who was a brick maker. I know, through this tiny amount of research that was done last year, that my fathers family came from a long line of brick makers. I managed to trace them back five generations.

So why the move from Mongomery to Ebbw Vale? This I can only speculate on. I know from my father that due to a rapid growth in the brick industry numerous brick works sprung up in the 19th century. The move could have been for better pay, conditions, promotion ...... there may have even been other family members in the Ebbw Vale area at the time.

What I do know is that my grandfather followed in his fathers footsteps and went into brick making and both his own sons followed him, where my father remained in the industry until the closure of the Sirhowy Brick Works, Tredegar in the early sixties from where he went to work at the Ebbw Vale Steelworks (formally Richard Thomas & Baldwin).

Maybe I ought to give Family History another chance, but it is all that sifting through birth, marriage and death certificates that does for me ..... no patience! However, if I want to know how my paternal family came to be in Ebbw Vale I had better adjust my thinking!