RootsChat.Com

I know many of us have people in our FTs who worked on the British railways.  This free course, from Strathclyde University,  commences online today, and deals with the people who worked on the railways, rather than the history of the railways.  I've signed up and am looking forward to four interesting weeks, and finding out a lot more about what my ancestors did in their working lives on the railways.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/working-lives-on-the-railway

A friend of mine has a pair of  lamps - port and starboard - which he bought from a chandler in Penarth, South Wales in the late 1990s.  He knows that the name of the boat or ship they came from was Meteor and he thinks it might have been a tug but isn't sure. He's assuming the vessel was working out of one of the south Wales ports such as Newport, Penarth, Cardiff or Barry. Has anyone got any bright ideas where he would be likely to find details of vessels sailing out of these ports?

Regards
GS

Can anyone tell us the difference between a Miller and a Millwright?   Jan Groom and I are researching the history of a Welsh water mill, and we're trying to establish how old it might be, and who were the millers who lived and worked there.  The current buildings are thought to date from the late 18th/early 19th century, although we have found evidence that there has been a mill there, or nearby, since at least 1308.

In the 1841 census we have Jonathan Williams, born about 1781, Breconshire and he is shown as being a Millwright. We know he was there in 1815 as he gives the Mill as his address for the baptism of his son.   He died in 1851 and the 1861 census shows a William Moore there, and he is a Miller.  We have also found other people shown as Millers or Millwrights in the village at various times who have not lived at the mill itself - although there were two other mills fairly close by.

So, would anyone like to explain to us the difference between a Miller and a Millwright - and would a Millwright live at a mill and run it, or would he be likely to employ a Miller as well?  Also, later on it seemed that millers sometimes advertised themselves as 'miller & engine driver' so we'd be interested to know what kind of engine that would be, and how the two are connected.

We'd be interested to hear from people who know more than we do about milling!

I found this rather sad little piece in the Non-Conformist Register for the area of Wales in which I live.  Presumably it was written by whoever had had charge of the records; I really feel for the poor man.  I can't read it all so any help with filling in the gaps would be appreciated.  So far I've got:

I ......... 
being sickly indolent and forgetfull am ........
sorry yt I have neglected to ........
Register ye names of those yt were .....
added to ye Church and were Buried
yn their proper order -
and I desire my
successor to follow ye example of my (good?)
predecessor therein.