No 41: Why I became interested continued

In Blog No. 39 I told of a remarkable chance meeting in St. Tudclud's churchyard in Penmachno when I realised I'd found a great grandson of my great grandfather who had been sent to the USA and about whom I knew absolutely nothing.

I now continue the story. After Matthew showed me his family tree we went to Owen Jones's grave and I translated the Welsh inscriptions. Now, how was I going to tell him of our relationship? I was very apprehensive as to how he was going to react, but I told him the story that my mother had told me and how I believed that William Ogwen Jones was my grandmother's father. He listened carefully and said, "Wow, I guess we're related!" Vigorous handshakes followed and the exchange of addresses and he gave me copies of some family photographs and the family tree.

What a day! Completely out of the blue, the great mystery of grandmother's father had been solved and I'd been given a complete family tree showing all of his family descendents in San Francisco. I think that I was in another world and I just can't understand how I managed to drive home at the end of that afternoon. When I got home I told Margaret, my wife, "You'll never guess what happened to me today". And of course she never could have guessed!

Matthew had told me that his mother, Jeannette Jones Ogburn, was the family historian and on the Sunday evening I sent her a long e-mail. I was overjoyed to receive a long reply on Wednesday morning. She was pleased that we had made contact and she said that she had heard that William Ogwen "had gotten a girl into trouble and had been forced to leave Wales". Thankfully, my story wasn't therefore a complete shock to her.

Numerous e-mail messages then crossed the Atlantic and I learnt how Willliam Ogwen had settled in the San Francisco area and about his descendents. I then had the task of finding descendents of William Ogwen's brothers and sister who'd remained in Wales. In January 2003 I succeeded in making one breakthrough and made contact with the widow of a grandson of one of William Ogwen's sister's living in mid Wales. Amazingly, one of her sons had been living in California for 15 years without knowing that he had relatives living within 20 minutes car drive away! Needless to say he is now in touch with his cousins and is included in their family reunions.

I then received a wonderful folder from Jeannette containing photographs of Glasgwm Hall, members of the family and most importantly some of William Ogwen Jones who was previously my unknown great grandfather! I show photos of William Ogwen in his twenties and aged 55, a year before his death and wearing a toupee, and also a photo of Glasgwm Hall in the 1890s. There was also much information about the family in California and, of course, we've continued to maintain email contact.

It was that amazing meeting in the Penmachno churchyard that inspired me to take this family history business seriously. I then joined the Gwynedd Family History Society, of which my wife had been a member for many years, and started to visit the Archives for the first time and I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience of exploring my family history and, in doing so, also getting a much better understanding of the social history of the nineteenth century. It's also given me the opportunity to deliver talks about various aspects of my family history to various societies and I now have six talks in the saga.

The Gwynedd Family History Society meetings for the next four weeks are:

Bangor, 2 March (first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: David Nicholas, "The Policeman's lot was a happy one"

Caernarfon, 25 Chwefror (last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the The Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Gwynne Evan Owen, "Agweddau Cymreig y Mudiad Gwrth Caethwasiaeth"

Dolgellau, 11 February (second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Rhian William, "Pobl Mynd a Dwad"

Conwy, 8 February (second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn:
Gareth Haulfryn Williams, "Probate Records"

Llangefni, 18 February (third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Hywel Roberts, "Uncle Tom in WW1"

Pwllheli, 19 February (third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod:
Noson Aelodau