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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Cynfran on Sunday 15 July 18 20:49 BST (UK)
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I would appreciate any possible help, or guidance, in trying to find information on the career of my wife's cousin, Albert Roberts. All I have is that he was a Curate at Pontlottyn, Glamorganshire in 1957. He died in 1966. From family recollections, he would appear to have been a member of a Holy Order, being remembered wearing a monk's habit. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section.
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Is this him, born in 1882?
Deaths Dec 1966
ROBERTS ALBERT C 84 NEWPORT 8C 196
Bev
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https://www.crockford.org.uk/ directory of clergy....hope that helps
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bevj -
No, not him I'm afraid, but I have just discovered, helped by now learning his mother's maiden name, that Albert was born in 1919, registered in the Conway district, North Wales.
Jed59 -
Did search on Crockford, but unfortunately didn't it come up with him.
Thank you both for your responses.
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Which religious denomination?
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Hi Maiden Stone. Good point! I imagine it would have been The Anglican Church in Wales
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Not knowing anything about the place I had to look it up.
List on GEN UKI includes St. Tyfaelog, Pontlottyn, no foundation or closure dates given. When I selected Anglican from denominations list, St. Tyfaelog was filtered out, leaving 4 Church of Wales churches within radius of a mile. So what was the church of St. Tyfaelog?
Does Crockford's include Church of Wales clergy?
Might he have been a deacon at the time and not actually ordained?
Are you sure it was a monk's habit he wore and not the usual priest's cassock?
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The only real evidence for him is a photograph dated 1957 and describing him as Curate at Pontlottyn. and it was based on this that I, probably wrongly, assumed that as a Curate he would have been ordained.
My wife has a memory of him wearing what she took, perhaps as seen through the eyes of a child, to be a 'monk's outfit', but which could have been, as you suggest, a priest's robe.
No, thank you, Crockford's doesn't appear to list Church in Wales clergy, but you prompted me to look for any CiW information. Their home page has their contact details and also for Llandaff Diocese which, under further 'interrogation' my wife believes is where he was ordained.
St Tyfaelog is a Church of the Church in Wales and appears to be the only such Church in Pontlottyn. A couple of others are shown as being in the Pontlottyn Parish, but they are not in the town / village itself.
Anyway, thank you for all your pointers and I'll post the results (hopefully) from the CiW.
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Crockford's does include the Church in Wales, and Albert does appear in it. I think the problem was that the online version doesn't go back far enough.
I have the 1959-60 edition, but it only has a very little more than Cynfran has told us: it says he studied at St Michael's Theological College, Llandaff, and was ordained deacon in 1957 and priest in 1958. He was still curate in Pontlottyn, and it gives his address there (4 Referm Street).
Ideally we need to find his entry in an edition from the mid-1960s, to see if he went somewhere else. Failing that - Cynfran, can you tell us where he died, please? It might be possible to glean a few clues from death or probate records.
Another possibility might be looking at the Church Times archives, though there's no guarantee that he'd be mentioned. These are at the UK Press Online site (https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/open/index), and you can buy a 5-day pass from the Church Times site. Alternatively you can get a 30-day pass at UK Press Online which gives access to the other titles there as well.
Incidentally, it appears that many of the records of the Diocese of Llandaff are now at the National Library of Wales - https://archives.library.wales/index.php/diocese-of-llandaff-records
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Thank you Arthurk. I was telling my wife of your great work and it prompted her to remember a little more information!
Albert apparently died at Easter time in 1966, recollected as being at the same time as our own loss. I find that the puts it at around 8 - 11th April.
My wife is sure that at some point he did enter a Monastic Order, believing him having to relinquish 'all worldly goods', which were already pitifully few. Her Grandmother, Albert's Mother and their local priest were apparently the only mourners at his funeral, which seemingly was a rather 'sparse' ceremony. But no idea where it took place!
I'll look into the Church Times archive suggested and also the national Library of Wales link.
Thank you once again for all the amazing help.
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The only death registration that appears to fit with the date and age is in the Lower Agbrigg district in Yorkshire, Jun qtr 1966. This made me wonder whether he might have been connected with the Community of the Resurrection (an Anglican monastic order), whose mother church is in Mirfield. Mirfield isn't actually in that district, but it's close.
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Thanks again Arthurk for another lead to follow up.
This started for me as something of a 'tidying up loose ends exercise but, as is often the case, has turned into quite an interesting hunt!
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Thank you all for your kind efforts in 'finding' Albert.
We now know and thank you Arthurk for your great assistance that led to this, that he did indeed end his days as a member of the Mirfield community, which he had joined in 1964. Also, that he had, as suspected, died in that area during Easter week of 1966, aged just 47.
The result means a lot, especially to my wife and, for that, thank you again.
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Glad you got a result, and I'm happy to have helped.
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Not sure how this will fit in! I have a photo of an Albert Roberts we are looking for. He was born around 1918-1924 and died around 1963 - 66. He was believed to have links to Wales. I'd really like to share the photo we have to see if this is the same Albert. Our Albert died of a heart attack also.
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This is the Albert we are looking for. Is the face the same as yours?
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Albert
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Hi Kellygr7. Thanks for the response but, unfortunately, this isn't a picture of 'our' Albert.