Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - happylady

Pages: [1] 2 3
1
Gloucestershire Lookup Requests / Re: bristol mother and baby home
« on: Tuesday 29 August 23 15:24 BST (UK)  »
Hi.  The former Snowdon Road mother and baby home is now residential, the house having been converted to flats.  You probably know that it is in the Fishponds area of the city.  Perhaps you have already done a Google search on the address?  What is it about the home that you are interested in?  Is it how we lived day to day, or the staff, or the 'girls' themselves, or what things were like in the sixties.  Do let me know and I will answer as best I can.  (Had a bit of trouble getting back onto the site - as you may see, I haven't been on it for a couple of years, so do hope you get this reply.)

2
Gloucestershire Lookup Requests / Re: bristol mother and baby home
« on: Saturday 20 March 21 11:02 GMT (UK)  »
Sorry I can't help you.  I don't recall anyone of that name during my time at Snowdon Road Home, Fishponds.  That's not to say that she wasn't there - just that I can't remember anyone called Margaret.  Do you know exactly exactly when she was there?  Do you know the name of her baby?  If so, you could go to the General Register Office site and get a copy birth certificate.  You wouldn't even need the exact birth date - just the quarter and year when the baby was born. There is a facility for looking that info up, so long as you have a rough idea and the date of the mother.  If the surname you quoted was your nan's maiden name, you may be lucky to find her, as it's quite an usual name. You could then order a copy of the birth certificate.  Hope this helps.

3
Gloucestershire Lookup Requests / Re: bristol mother and baby home
« on: Friday 19 March 21 17:22 GMT (UK)  »
Hi, there.  I think there were three mother and baby homes in Bristol at the time.  The one I know about was at 11-13 Snowdon Road, in Fishponds.  I was there middle of May to about the first week of July, 1964.  There was another home in the Ashley Hill area of Bristol, next to a bakery and a church, I think.  Would be happy to see if I remember your nan, if she was at Snowdon Road at the same time as me.  Just let me know.  Is there anything else I can tell you about?

4
Sorry, Yattonharry.  Forgot to mention that although I was born in Tonyrefail and with family in Tonypandy (Trealaw) and other towns/villages, I moved away at the age of four and am now an expat living in Nailsea, not a million miles from Yatton!  I spent every school holiday with my family in Tonyrefail, though, and will always regard Wales as 'home' and I've just completed Sunday's census form with the 'Wales' box ticked for nationality!

Dianne

5
Very many thanks for your reply.  I do have quite a lot of info about Emrys.  It's really his grandfather, Moses, who is my brick wall.  I spotted 'Amos Hill' and, knowing that that's where my grandfather, Emrys, was born (I think it was in number 8,) I wondered if there was anyone with knowledge of the family.  I have info on Emrys inc. his birth certificate, marriage cert, also info on his mother, Mary Thomas (unmarried when she had Emrys in 1878).  Mary was daughter of Moses and Margaret Thomas and it was they who more or less raised Emrys.  Mary did eventually marry, but on census returns Emrys is sometimes shown as Moses' son, rather than grandson. I did track down Emrys' father (thanks to a full birth certificate, showing his father's name by mistake and neatly crossed through - also Emrys was given his father's surname as a second Christian name - quite common practice in those days, I understand.)  The 1911 census, as you say, shows Emrys in Penrhiwfer, but the Margaret referred to is actually his mother's sister, so his Aunt.  I do remember her well.  (I was born in 41 Penrhiwfer Road, Tonyrefail, in 1947 - where Emrys was in 1939.)  Back to Moses.  I feel he was 'taken in' as a small boy by a Richards family who once lived in the Gwainadda and Graigddu, but can not confirm, nor can I get any further info on that Moses.  He is with the family as a boarder, then as a stepson, in the 1861 and 1871 censuses.  There was another Moses Thomas born in 1854, living with grandmother, Sarah, in Llantrisant but, again, I'm unable to trace more info.  My brick wall has been around for at least ten years and I can only assume that Moses never was registered.  He told the registrar when he married Margaret that his father was also a Moses, and a colliery overman.  I suspect a flight of fancy!   Again, I much appreciate your interest and thank you for your kind reply. 
Dianne.

6
Really a long shot, Yatton Harry - now March, 2021!  Here goes.

I spotted your interest in the Thomas family.  Also the farms Gwainadda and Graigddu.  My Thomas family lived there (I think!) in the 1840s and 1850s.  My grandfather, Emrys, was subsequently born in Amos Hill in 1898.  Mother Mary, b 1877.  Father - well, that's another story, although I think we know the answer!  Great great grandfather Moses Thomas born 1854, possibly Tonypandy or Ystrad.  That's where my own brick wall starts/stops.  Any info you have on a Thomas family in those areas would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

7
Gloucestershire Lookup Requests / Re: bristol mother and baby home
« on: Thursday 20 September 18 13:38 BST (UK)  »
Yes, I do remember a girl called Dilys (not sure of the spelling.)  My baby had been born on 9th May, so Dilys came to the home a bit later than I did.  All I can remember is that she had dark hair and seemed quite reserved.  She wasn't very open about her 'story' and I think she was not from the Bristol area.  None of the girls actually gave birth to their babies in the home - we all went there either before and after the births, or - like me - from the hospital when the baby was about 10 days to two weeks old.  I do know that not all of the girls were local.  One of them had come from Devon, another from the London area, for example.  We stayed at the home usually for six weeks after the birth, when the babies would be collected by the adoptive parents (we didn't seem them) and we then had to leave immediately.  Please let me know if you would like more info about the 'home.'

8
Gloucestershire Lookup Requests / Re: bristol mother and baby home
« on: Sunday 05 August 18 17:22 BST (UK)  »
Am replying to Andrew's post of 2013, as I've only just seen it.  Sorry!  The house was 11-13 Snowdon Road, Fishponds.  If you can find images, it looks like two large semis joined together.  I, too, spent time there when I had to give my baby up in 1964.  Good luck, Andrew.  Am happy to answer further questions, if necessary. (I think the property was sold about a year ago - don't know if it was re-developed/changed into flats or offices, perhaps.)

9
Anglesey Lookup Requests / Re: OWEN family
« on: Friday 06 January 17 13:51 GMT (UK)  »
Thanks so much for your suggestion, Tall Al.  Sorry it has taken so very long for me to 'come back' to Rootschat.  I don't think this is 'my' family.  I do know that my John Owen was born in 1870 and that his father, Richard, died before the 1924 death that you found.  Similarly, the marriage you found can not be right, because of the age of the John Owen.  However, I'm so grateful to you for your suggestions.

Pages: [1] 2 3