Sunday, June 9, 2019

Visiting Wales And Cemetery Hunting

Do you like discovering your ancestry?
I do.
Years ago, my aunt recounted that my dad's family came from Ebew,vale, Wales.
When building the family tree of the Lloyds, it was helpful to know. 
A trip to Wales was high on my bucket list. 
That became a reality last summer on our trip to the U.K. 
It ended up being a very special and fun day. 
We'd spent the night in Bath, England. It was an easy trip to Cardiff, Wales. 
Our first stop was the Senedd Building which is the seat of government. 


The undulating wood roof was amazing. 


We snacked on Welsh Cakes and coffee. 


It was a little like a scone but also like a pancake. 

Our next stop was Cardiff Castle. 


The site for four forts was established in 50 AD. 
Remains of the Roman wall can still be seen. The Norman keep was built upon that site. 
Those stairs are killer.

The whimsical interior was the design of William Burges. The Third Marquis of Bute employed him to undertake a remodel of the interiors. The castle is decorated in Gothic Revival style.










There was whimsy, fantasy and symbolism at every turn.

We left Cardiff and headed to Ebew Vale. It was a rural area consisting mostly of farmers until coal arrived in the late 1700s. Coal, iron and finally steel were manufactured.
My dad's grandfather was a machinist. He immigrated to the U.S. during the Industrial Revolution.
They settled in Ohio where there were connections and work.
Lloyd is a very common Welsh name. Our trip to Ebew Vale was without a real plan.
It was a Saturday which impeded our ability to get any official records. Our first stop was to a church to see if there was a cemetery where we could look at gravestones.


There wasn't a cemetery at the church but we were able to ask for help and we were pointed in the correct direction.
It started to rain.


All of the Lloyds piled out of the van.
We made a family game out of searching for Lloyd headstones.





Even our tour guide joined in the fun. She has had 30 years as a tour guide and this was her first cemetery excursion.


Each participant called out when they found a headstone with the name Lloyd engraved upon it. 




One of my nieces found the most Lloyd headstones. I think she found four.








I have a brother named John and another named David.


We have no idea if any of these Lloyds are related to us.
They could be distant cousins. It really doesn't matter either way. 


This corner of the world is stunning and I'm so blessed that we got to see it.
It was an amazing day.
Katie 

2 comments :

  1. Katie, I love this post more than I can say! It reminds me of my England trip, digging up family history and next time, it will be Wales, as I learned my second great grandmum was from Wales. I adore that you could do this with family and find so many Lloyds. I'm sure some of them are yours and all you need now is to go through the mesmerizing slog of figuring out who is and isn't! I also loved the sightseeing portion of your trip and I look forward to doing the same one day!

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  2. Lovely post, Katie! I'm so glad you had a nice time with your family seeing Wales and then going ancestor-finding in the graveyard. :) It's a fun idea! I've been working on my ancestry a bit this past month, trying to catch up to where my relatives are. Gravestones and headstones are neat to read; I like photographing them, too.

    Happy to feature your post next week at Share Your Style #213,
    Hugs,
    Barb :)

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