Florence Bellamy Palmer, my great grandmother.

My great grandmother, Florence Bellamy, born on November 20, 1883, in Roath, Cardiff, South Wales, to William and Elizabeth Bellamy. Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Vesterinen.

Here is the register of birth, so that I could order her birth certificate.

Here is the first census on which Florence appears, living at #396 Zinc Street in the parish of Roath, Cardiff, South Wales. Her father, William, works in coal but I can't make out his profession. She has 3 brothers; Joseph, William and Edward, and 2 sisters; Deborah and Elizabeth.

In 1901, Florence is 17 and a servant at #10 Preswyfla Street in Cardiff, South Wales.

Her employer is George B Newton and his wife Kate. The census has the family split on two pages, which is something you have to watch for when searching for your family!

The 1911 Welsh census which shows Florence married to Herbert Palmer, with three children; Herbert, May and Norman. (May is my grandma) Here she is age 25, but it should read age 27. Maybe she didn't wish to appear as two years older than her husband, who was born August 11, 1885 and was age 25.

Yesterday, June 16, 2016, I had the delightful thrill of discovering my first family member in the newspapers! The Naicam Progress newspapers are online at this link.

Some of the years have been digitized. I knew Florence had died on June 20, 1931 which was 85 years ago, so I looked at the newspaper closest to her date of death and her obituary was on the first page! I was quite thrilled to find her.

By Loretta (Williams) Houben

I've found William Williams on the 1911 Welsh Census!!!!

I just had to add this to my blog tonight!

I was browsing Findmypast records.

They sent me a Hint for Ellen Roberts, so I checked it out.

While staring at the 1911 Welsh census, trying to figure out if the word "nai" meant "nephew" in English, and what did "pentelue" mean in English, I decided to check them out in a Welsh English dictionary online. My heart nearly stopped beating as it dawned on me that this was indeed, my great uncle William, THE William; and his aunt, Ellen Roberts, the same aunt which the RWF wrote to in the newspaper to inform her of her nephew's death!

The VERY SAME PEOPLE!

(penteulu means head of household)

What helped to clinch it was the fact that Ellen Roberts was living at Dolgarregddu Street in Ffestiniog; the same place the ROBERTS lived at in the 1871 census, and the same place which Ellen lived at when the RWF sent her the letter about William.

The address isn't shown on the handwritten form, but shows on the transcribed form.

The original forms before and after Ellen's form are all listed as living at Dolgarregddu Street.

I was so excited when I realized this that I nearly fell off my chair.

I stared at William's age (18) and realized that he wasn't born in 1898 after all; he was born in 1893.

And he wasn't 19 when he died in 1917; he was 24.

For some reason I was so happy he was 5 years older!

Then I thought; why did I assume he was 19?

It was because my Grandma always said he was 19 when he died, but he wasn't!

And so this 1901 Welsh census I had found a few years ago is correct!

It shows Robert David (age 11) and little Willie (age 8) living as boarders on a farm in Talsarnau, the same area which John Griffith (my grandpa) was also living age 13 as a cattle hand.

(see below)

I also just realized that this 1901 census was filled out by the same person, and the above info on Robert and Willie is on page 4, while the info on John below is on page 14!

This is thrilling so I just had to add it here tonight.

What a day for research!

By Loretta (Williams) Houben