This has been an interesting thread!
More than 20 years ago, I wrote letters to my father's 5 sisters, 4 of whome were older than he, about their recollections of family stories and so on. They all grew up in a small coal-mining/railroad town, Pittsburg, Kansas, which was largely settled bu Welsh immigrants, my paternal grandfather & HIS parents included.
I had been to Wales several times by then, but had not a clue toward which area to focus my research. The coal-miners predominately came from the South, but I knew my WILLIAMSes had sailed from Liverpool—NOT Bristol or London. So, were they from small coalfields in Flint/Denbigh?
The eldest of the aunts was the only one to reply with any information. She was also the bossiest and was absolutely ADAMANT that her father and grandparents had come from County Kerry, Wales. Well, I knew THAT had to be wrong, but didn't know what was right. COUNTY Kerry is Ireland, and I am sure she'd heard the words connected together when spoken by Irish Americans.
In 1983, I happened to be searching 1881 census films in London looking for the WILLIAMS family that would have contained my 4-yr old grandfather. By then, I must have learned that they'd removed to Egremont, Cumberland where my ggrandfather was an iron miner. I did ultimately find the family I sought, Edward 30, Mary 30, Arthur 4.
But the payoff was Edward's birthplace: Kerry (Ceri), Montgomery, WALES. So Aunt Lilly DID have the KERRY right.
I then went to the wallmap to locate Kerry, and discovered it to be a couple miles from Newtown. Chills went down my spine, as I'd been in Newtown several days prior, stranded, when the bus I was travelling on to Cardiff left without me. I had several hours to wait in the Newtown train station, and recalled thinking that the town was just ordinary enough to be where my folk would have originated.
SianiPowys
