Going back to my childhood, I was very aware of my mother's family. I had lots of aunties and uncles and even though most of them were now living in England, I still saw them regularly. Even if they weren't visiting, my mother often had letters and parcels from her sisters. My mother's brother, Uncle Burt was a different kettle of fish. Even though he only lived a few yards from my grandmother, I very rarely saw him. He had a wife called Gladys and a daughter called Elaine. I can't ever remember meeting her. When we visited Burt, she was always out, or sitting in a dark shadow of the room. I heard news of her back around 2015 that Elaine was still alive.
My father's family were quite different. I knew my grandparents of course, and my father's brother, my Uncle Eufryn. Later in life, he changed his name to Ivor. I also knew one of my father's cousins....Barbara. Recently, I've become re-aquainted with her daughter Marylyn, now living in France.
I can recall my father talking about his uncle Jim. I believe he bred cocker spaniels. I also know that his Aunty Lillwen lived with my parents for a while. I knew nothing else about that side of the family. Sometimes, I'd be walking home from school and a complete stranger would say to me, "Hello Philip. You know me don't you? I'm your uncle." And the thing is.....it was my uncle.
My surname came through my father and my grandfather William Edwards.
William had been a collier, working at Number 9 colliery in Tylorstown.
This newspaper item shows his exam success when training to become a collier.
June 1907
I can only remember him as being retired. He was one of those men that found it hard to adapt to retirement. I remember my father saying that he left home and came home to wait to die. Most days, he'd sit quietly on a chair by the fireside, drinking tea and smoking his pipe. He used to smoke chewing tobacco, which meant that the air was filled with a thick blue smoke. If you wanted to get into the back kitchen, it felt as though you had to move some of the air to one side to get in.
He wasn't always easy to get on with. My father told me that he'd been quite violent towards him as a child. He was always reluctant to leave his chair. My grandmother had family, (Uncle Jack and Aunty Mary Jarman) who lived in a charming little farm at a place called Llawr y Glyn, near Caersws, Llanidloes. William and Margaret would be invited there for a short holiday every Summer but William was always reluctant to go, refusing to make ready but submitting to my grandmother's will in the end.
Llawr-y-Glyn
I recently discovered a piece of video that featured my grandfather. This is a still from that video.
You can see the whole video here. It also shows his brother Maldwyn and his wife Cassie, clutching a cabbage.
William and his wife, Margaret Ellen lived in a tiny cottage at Prospect Place, Tylorstown. Two bedrooms, a 'best' front room that was never used and a back kitchen where they spent their lives. At the bottom of the garden was an outside toilet. Hanging on the inside of the door you'd find a roll of Izal toilet paper and squares of paper ripped from the newspaper.
Food was cooked on an open fire. Sometimes, items would be cooked on a methylated spirit Primus stove which was kept in the outside coal shed.
The front room was never used but was always spotless, smelling strongly of wax polish. A church harmonium filled one wall of the room. I never found out how it got there or even why it was there. I often tried to play it, probably my first experience of musical instruments.
William could be quite irritating at times. One day, my father managed to acquire a television for William and Margaret. This was their first television. Black and white with a dreadful picture. I can remember, shortly after it had been set up, sitting with my grandparents watching an early episode of Dr Who. William was puzzled by the title and mulled it over in his head whilst puffing on his pipe.
"Dr. Who?"
"Who?"
"Dr. Who."
This went on and on, throughout the whole episode.
"Dr. Who?"
"Who?"
"Dr. Who."
They had certain items of food that we never appeared to have in my own home. Ribena, beetroot, brawn, cheese. I still associate these items with my Edwards grandparents.
He once told me a very sad story. One day he was taking a walk around Darran Park lake. It was during Winter. There was a layer of ice covering the lake. He saw something in the ice. He took a closer look and realised that it was the body of a drowned woman, trapped under the ice.
William Edwards 1861 - 1923
From research, I've discovered that my grandfather's father was also called William. He was married to a woman called Barbara. It is strange how certain names keep appearing on the family tree. I knew another Barbara. She was my father's cousin.
Cousin Barbara Front row, extreme left.
I know very little about this William Edwards.
I have found this newspaper clipping from August 15th 1908. William Snr would have been 47 at the time.
I also know that he could read and write. Back in those days, many people couldn't read or write. Many of my other great and great great grandparents signed forms with their mark. Here is his signature.
I also know that :-
- He was born in 1861.
- His mother's name was Gwenllian.
- In 1871 he was living with his mother. He was 10. She was 31. There were two younger sisters and a younger brother living with him.
- At the time, his mother worked as a baker.
- At the age of 10, William was already working in the colliery.
- They lived in Maxwell Street, Ferndale.
At the time, Ferndale was just a collection of wooden huts. There was a railway line taking coal from the colliery but it didn't carry passengers. To get to Ferndale you had to walk from Porth or Aberdare. (About 5 miles).
John Edwards
John Edwards
It took some time to find out any information on William's father, but then I found this on another person's Ancestry family tree.
May 5th 1861. Gwenllian married John Edwards. At the time, their families lived in Aberdare. Notice, John signs his name. Gwenllian made a mark.
The 1861 census happened in April. John and Gwenllian didn't show together in 1871. By the time of the next census John had disappeared. Gwenllian was listed as a widow holding the occupation of baker. I asked advice from the Glamorgan Family History Society. I was advised that there was a John Edwards killed in the Ferndale Colliery Disaster in 1869.
Here is the family's entry from the 1871 census.
I knew nothing about this event. It certainly was never mentioned by my father or grandfather as I grew up.
It is so hard trying to put together a picture of John Edwards. Trying to track down vague shadows of the past is just so hard. However, sadly, as a result of him dying in such a major event I have managed to gather a few facts.
John was born in 1838. His father owned a small farm (30 acres). The family lived near a place called Llanfair Nant Gwyn in Pembrokeshire. This tiny place at a latter date would become linked with the composer John Hughes (Calon Lân)
Here is the family entry from the 1851 census.
John wasn't living with the rest of the family during the 1861 census. However, I have found a John Edwards listed living not to far away, listed as being a ploughboy. He would have been 23 years old in 1861.
John could read and write. This would have been most unusual at that time. One thing that I noted from his marriage certificate was that his brother, Caleb, couldn't read or write.
John died in the second colliery disaster at Ferndale in 1869.
This happened on June 10th 1869. 53 men and boys were killed. Apparently John died of suffocation. After an explosion, there is a lack of oxygen in the pit. Also, it fills with fumes caused by the explosion. Colliers called these fumes "After Damp". The court of enquiry found it hard to come to a conclusion as to the cause of the explosion however, the general conclusion was that there had been a roof fall which had released a considerable quantity of gas. It was felt that the safety lamps used at the time couldn't handle such a quantity of gas and that the flame from the lamp had jumped past the gauze inside the lamp thus causing an explosion.
We can but wonder what life was like for a widow left with four children to raise. I haven't been able to find much related to Gwenllian after the explosion, but this much I do know.
There had been another explosion at Ferndale in the year 1867. At the time, there had been an outpouring of sympathy for the families left without a bread winner. As a result, a charity fund had been established to support the families. This was such a large fund that there was more than enough to support the wives and children of those lost in 1869.
Also, the mine owner, Mr. David Davies possessed one attribute that was so sadly missing amongst the other mine owners at the time. Mr. Davies was a very kind man. He visited every family that had been affected by the explosion and made sure that they were all well cared for.
Gwenllian re-married. Her new husband was called William George. He was born in Llanidloes.
Together, they had two more children, Edward and Gwenllian.
Benjamin Edwards
I can trace this family line just one step further. Benjamin Edwards. He was my great great great grandfather. He was born in 1813 in Bridel, Pembrokeshire.
In 1851 he farmed 30 acres near a place called Llanfair Nant Gwyn in Pembrokeshire.
Notice, the census return mentions Caleb Edwards. This was John Edwards' brother who probably acted as John's Best Man at his wedding to Gwenllian.
I've found a couple of mentions of Benjamin Edwards. In August 1856, he signed a petition.
WE the undersigned Inhabitants of the Town and Ne'gbourhood of. NARBERTII, in the County of Pembroke, do hereby certify that we have known the Rev. LEVI THOMAS for many years, and that his con- duct both as a man and a Christian, has during that time ALWAYS been most exemplary and irreproachable, and are fully convinced that he was innocent of the charge made against him by Elizabeth Watkins, for an .Assault, on the 5th of July last, based as it was entirely upon the testimony of the complainant alone:-
Also, in October 1847 he made a court appearance apparently defending a neighbour who was in dispute with his landlord regarding some repairs that he'd made to a property.
