No 71: Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

I started this blog on 31 December 2007 and it seems incredible that four years have gone by since then. When the editor of the Caernarfon Herald approached me to consider writing a weekly blog of about 500 words I thought I couldn't possibly do it. I then agreed to try it on a fortnightly basis and thought that I might be able to keep it up for about six months. But once I got into it I found that there were plenty of topics to write about although I did have a break of about 6 months between March and September 2010.

Since restarting in September 2010 I've been giving more attention to stories from my own family history and I hope that these have been of interest. In Blog No 44 in September 2010 I told of how one of Margaret's cousins, Jack from Long Beach, Los Angeles, came over and that we'd had a big reunion of Margaret's family. Jack and his wife, Carolyn, his son Jeff and his wife, Sherrie, together with their two teenage sons came over and during the visit Sherrie told us an interesting story about her mother's childhood and about a girl who was acting as child-minder looking after her mother and sister.

I should have stated here that the photo of Marilyn Monroe is the copyright of Sherrie Williams and I should also have pointed out that the video on the Getty Images website is anly available to purchase and can't be viewed without purchase.

Earlier this year we received some interesting follow-up photos from Jack and I show a family photo taken on a beach in California in 1941. Sherrie's mother is one of the young girls and the other is her sister. The child minder is behind them. She was the 15 year old Norma Jeanne Mortensen who was raised as Norma Jeanne Baker. She subsequently adopted the stage name Marilyn Monroe and became one of the most famous people in the world during the 1950s. If you want to see a video of Marilyn Monroe in her first ever home cine film taken on this beach in California in 1941 then go to the following link to see her performing cartwheels on the beach: www.gettyimages.com Select "video" and put "Marilyn Monroe at 15" in the search and it should come up.

An important family event for us during 2011 was our Silver Wedding in May. We had nearly 90 family and friends for a celebratory Sunday Lunch at the Padarn Lake Hotel in Llanberis. Following the starter the main course was a self-service carvery and I realised that this could take some time so I therefore prepared a timed PowerPoint presentation to run during this period. This consisted of the original wedding photos plus photos of some important family events over the past 25 years and people were able to recognise themselves in the photos. This involved scanning all the wedding photos which was a huge task, but I was pleased that this event had forced me to do this. I've already scanned most of the old family photos of my ancestors as I believe that it's important keep them safely and in easily recognisable folders and I also have back-up.

I've already scanned photos of some aspects of my parent's lives but there is still a long way to go and I've also started to scan some of my own photos with captions and in well-defined folders. But this is a mammoth task and one must be reasonably selective as we have so many more photos than did our ancestors. One must therefore select a reasonable number that will represent specific periods or events in our lives. It will take a long time but is something we should all do otherwise our grandchildren will be left wondering when the photos were taken and who the people in the photos were as we have been puzzling over photos of our ancestors without a single name on them.

Talking of grandchildren, the other important family event was the birth of my third grandchild in July. This was a joyous event and he was called Calan which is very appropriate at this time of year! I show a photo of my daughter and the three grandchildren taken soon a few weeks after Calan was born.

Over some 18 months I've been trying to find someone else who had the photo of "The Jolly Boys of Wales" taken in the POW Camp in 1918 (see Blog No.49). I was delighted when I received a message from Brian Hollins in April saying that he recognised his grandfather in the photo (see Blog No.54). This was one of the highlights of my year and I show the photo again just in case someone new may recognise it!

Unfortunately I haven't done a great deal of family history research during 2011 other than for the visit to the Liverpool Records Office at the end of August which I've written about in recent blogs. This was important in giving some important details of both my own and my father's life and it's also given me interesting background information about my childhood. This has helped me with writing my life story for the benefit of my daughter and grandchildren but as you see I'm still in the 1940s so I've got a long way to go!

I hope to do more family history research during 2012 and I wish everyone Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Happy New Year.

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwynedd.fhs.org.uk Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Caernarfon, 29 January (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Keith O'Brien: "Hanes Camp Milwrol Traws"

Bangor, 10 January (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Hywel Roberts "Uncle Tom in WW1"

Conwy, 9 January (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn: Peter Broadbrent: "Family History: A Bookbinder's View"

Pwllheli, 20 January (In Welsh, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Dr Richard Roberts: "Rhydychaen, Paris a Phwllheli: Golwg ar waith John Gwenogfryn Evans"

Dolgellau, 12 January (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Angharad Williams: "Gwaith Comisiwn Brenhinol o Hanebion Cymru"

Llangefni, 19 January (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Workshop in the NEW Llangefni Archives

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk
The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd.

Saturday 14th January 2012 at 2.00 pm Millennium Room, Old Colwyn Methodist Church, Wynn Avenue, OLD COLWYN, LL29 9RD
Bryan Jones: "My American Family Jones"