I was born in the county of Monmouthshire, as were both my parents.

As I researched into our ancestry, I found a pattern of migration which seems to encapsulate the social and industrial history of recent centuries, which I share with many other sons and daughters of industrial south Wales.

The story so far:

1783: George and Jemima WILDE leave Ironbridge in Shropshire to find work in the newly emerging iron and coal industry at Penydarren in Glamorgan.

1805 - 1810: Thomas LIGHT leaves the coalmining village of Mangotsfield near Bristol to work in the coal field at Pontllanfraith, near Blackwood; John and Ann OWEN come from the Machynlleth area to Merthyr; and William and Phoebe WATSON leave (?) for Tredegar.

1835: The POULSOM family abandon the declining woollen cloth industry of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire to find work in Pontypool, Monmouthshire.

By 1840: William CAREY of Tipperary in Ireland escapes the worsening conditions which led to the Irish famine, to work in the coal mines at Tredegar, Monmouthshire.

1870: Sarah WOODS, a descendant of destitute cloth workers, raised in the workhouses of Bath and Frome, marries Henry Godwin of Batheaston in Blaina.

1891: Florence, born to Sarah Woods in Frome Workhouse in 1860, follows her mother to Pontnewynydd with husband Walter KING, originally a farm worker near Bath in Somerset, and their five surviving children.

1897: Henry WATKINS, a miner raised in the Forest of Dean, brings his family to Blackwood, Monmouthshire.  In 1898 he is reunited with his first daughter, baptised Annie VAUGHAN, a descendant of Ruardean farmers and blacksmiths.

For more information, click on the links shown above. For an index to other names mentioned in these pages, click here.

There are also reproductions of antique maps of Monmouthshire dating from 1793 and 1840 with enlargements, a Removal Order from 1816, a tithe map of Ruardean for 1848, a transcript of a Pauper Examination at Bath Quarter Sessions from 1851, an inquest report from 1914, and photographs/prints of many churches (click here for index).

NEW: a collection of photographs of great-grandparents here.

Some related web sites:

Totnes Study Centre - the archive for family and local history in Totnes, Devon, England

The Totnes Review - a new magazine for Totnes: the second edition is on sale in the town now.

Save Dartington College - an exceedingly important campaign.

If you have any comments, particularly if you think we have ancestors in common, do contact me for more detailed genealogical information at (PLEASE NOTE: NEW ADDRESS)

 walt.king  phonecoop.coop

inserting @ in the space between g and p

(If you have tried to contact me recently, I'm sorry that the email address has been out of date)

And this is me (on the left). I look forward to hearing from you.

Walter King