W.I.S.E. Wortdr. The Newsletter of W.I.S.E. Family History Society Volume 2, No. 3 Jul-Aug-Sep 2001 Finding the Unfindable by: Elizabeth E. Brown Joined Family History Society Finding one's roots across the Atlantic Ocean is im- How, then, did I find the correct village, which one must know, in possible if you don't know where to start, but some- order to research successfully in England and Wales? I followed the times surprising help is available. Call this a plug advice of an expert. The W.I.S.E. (Wales-Ireland-Scotland-England) for the family History Societies if you wish, but it's search group presented a symposium at the Denver Public Library fea- a true tale. turing George Felling, then Chairman of the Federation of Family His- I knew that Richard THOMAS and Mary tory Societies in the Untied Kingdom. He graciously agreed to counsel CHARLES came to American from Wales in 1795 attendees on their problems. "You know the county," he told me, "so I'd with most, but not all of their children. They settled start by joining the Family History Society in that county. Today it's in the Utica, N.Y. area. Their son, John Richard called Gwynedd." Simple advice, but oh — so good. THOMAS, my great-great-grandfather was then I joined the Gwynedd Family History Society. When the membership five years old. I knew little else. I realized that in secretary, Joyce Hinde, sent my card, she wrote that she did research for order to look for them in Wales, I had to find their Society members, charging only for expenses such as photocopying and parish, but I did not know where they had lived. A petrol. I thought the price was right; so I told her my problem. The next researcher I hired found a reading of the tombstone time she went to the Carnarvon Record Office, she found the marriage in Remsen, N.Y., for Richard THOMAS (1740-1813) record for Richard THOMAS and Mary CHARLES in 1766 in Bryncroes. that stated he came to the United States 25 July 1795 Yes — Bryncroes, not Brynorgas! No wonder I couldn't get started. and was a native of Brynorgas, Carnarvonshire, That was only the beginning of my good fortune. I followed another North Wales. I was elated. Now I knew where to of George Pelling's suggestions by writing to Mrs. Sheila Rowlands. She search for Welsh records! forwarded my letter to Gordon Roberts, a member of the society, who No, not yet. Diligent searching in gazetteers and r was in the process of compiling a list of emigrants form the three pre- atlases, with the assistance of very competent li- 1974 ,.countries of Gwynedd: Anglesley, Caernarfonshire and Meri- brarians in my local library, at the Denver Public ortieth. He was patiently going through three magazines published in Library and at the Family History Library in Salt the U.S, but published in Welsh, extracting genealogical information Lake City failed to find a place called Brynorgas. from obituaries and other notices. The list has now been published and The reason, I can tell you now, is that there is no is available for purchase on microfiche.2 This is a tremendous service for such place. My researcher had copied correctly us in America who can't read Welsh. from the burial list,1 but either the tombstone was At that time he had not yet come across the names of my ancestors, misread, or there was an error in typing the inscrip- but whenever he went to Bangor to do his research, he took the time and tion. I have since seen the headstone and can attest trouble to look for my people. Soon he was sending me material which that today it is impossible to read the numbers and he kindly translated. He never found an obtivary for Richard THOMAS words as they are badly eroded. or Mary CHARLES. Their names occur in his list because he did find an obituary for their son, my great-great grandfather, John Richard THOMAS (1790-1845), wich identified him as the son of Richard and IN THIS ISSUE: Mary, emigrated 1795. Roberts' list gives (1) the person's name, (2) place of death, (3) year of death, (4) year of birth, (5) condensed information Finding the Unfindable —Part I Front about the family (e.g., s. Rich. & Mary; H. Elinor Parry), (6) birthplace, (7) year of emigration and (8) a coded reference to the source of information. President's message 18 He has provided indexes not only by surname but also by birthplace. Member Profile— Betty Brown 19 John Lothropp: Deacon...Great Migration 20 Tourist Information Centre Helpful New Books—Denver Public Library 22 There's more. In 1990, when I knew I was going to visit Wales, I wrote to the Pwllheli Tourist Infomraiton Centre, the nearest one to Book Reviews 23 Bryncroes, asking for the usual information about the area, bed and Program Schedule 23 breakfast places, etc., but I also asked if they could suggest how to go about (continued on page 19) VOLUME 2, NO. 3 W.I.S.E. TP610.4k1 PAGE 18 From the President ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The summer is half over or half left, depending upon how you look at What do you need to help you things. What have you been doing? I have been preparing to do many prepare to write your family his- things. That is what genealogy is all about, preparing. tory? There are many educational Preparation is so important in order to be a good researcher. Education opportunities available, so search is part of that preparation. I am preparing to write the family stories I have them out and get prepared. been researching for many years. This seems to be one of the areas that we are constantly doing, but we never seem to quite reach a stage when we sit Happy Hunting, down and begin to write it down. Before I can write it down I have to have my research organized so that I will be able to put the information into a form from will facilitate this process. I thought that I was ready to do this Are .dida Pavaea but I now know that I have a long way to go before I can actually write it down. I have had a genealogy computer program for years and I have not been satisfied with it. I find that it does not print out the information on the fami- lies in the format that I like. There is a program that is supposed to do this better, but do I want another one? No, I do not. Patricia Law Hatcher was one of the instructors at the UGA Institute Writing Course I took in January. She writes her family history using Word Perfect. You could use Word, also. So, I am now preparing to write my families using Word Perfect. This will allow me to write in the "language" I chose so that everything is not so stiff and uniform. However, this does not mean that I will not use the Na- tional Genealogical Society Quarterly numbering system (also called the Modified Register System). W.I.S.E. Family History Society Dedicated to research in Wales, Ireland, Scot- THE FOLLOWING WAS TAKEN FROM THE EASTMAN NEWSLE IhR land, England, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Interest in emigration and immigra- S&N Genealogy Supplies has announced a special promotional price on the newly- tion of these people as well as heraldry and updated London Registers CD-ROM disk. Quoting from S&N Genealogy Supplies' family studies. announcement Officers & Board Members This CD allows you to browse, search and print records for all ten volumes of the London Parish Records which S&N publish. President .Ann Lisa Pearson This includes the Marriage Licenses CD. Vice President/programs James K. Jeffrey Secretary .Paul Kilburn Treasurer -Tommie Geer Contains over 4,000 pages with approximately 200,000 full Membership Services ..open names with dates, fully searchable and comes complete with Acrobat 4 Reader. An extended search facility for Acrobat 4 Directors Elizabeth Brown owners allows complex queries and Soundex Searching using Terence Quirke, C.G. Edit Search, Indexes optimized for CD usage. The parishes covered are St. James, Duke's Place 1654-1837— Newsletter Staff four volumes, St. Dionis Backchurch 1538-1754, St Peter's Cornhill Editor .Gordon Gray 1538-1774-- 2 volumes, Knightsbridge, Holy Trinity 1658-1681. Country Editors: The regular price of this CD-ROM disk is 199.75, about $165 U.S. Wales nizabeth Brown dollars. However if you order now and mention this newsletter, Ireland...... ....Terence Quirke, C.G. the price will be 149.45 (approximately $83). You can order by credit Scotland..... ....Paul Kilburn Forby card on a secure Web site, which takes care of all the currency England.........George conversion requirements. Composers Janice Prater Ann Lisa Pearson For more information, log on to: <http://www.genealogy.demon.co.uk/> VOLUME 2, NO. 3 W.I.S.E. 4P6,cAf PAGE 19 Finding the Unfindable Hard copies have been deposited in the Family History (continued from the front page) Library in Salt Lake City and the Denver Public Library. Sales to the U.S.A. are on microfiche, available from the finding if there might be living descendants still in the area. Gwynedd Family History Society, G.F.H.S. , 36 Y Wem Y You can imagine my astonishment when I received a relpy, not Felinhelif--Gwy_nedd, LL564TX, Wales, UK.