May 2008 Archives

The AGM of the Gwynedd Family History Society will be held in Caernarfon on Saturday 17 May. The formal AGM meeting for members will start with tea and coffee at 10.30 am and in the afternoon there will be a talk by the Rev Dr D Ben Rees on “The presence of Gwynedd Families in Liverpool and Bootle since 1800�. Potential new members are welcome to come along to this talk and also to find out what the Society has to offer.

Ben Rees has been a Welsh Presbyterian Minister in Liverpool since the end of the 1960s until his recent retirement and has authored a number of books and numerous articles on the history of the Welsh in Liverpool and is active in all aspects of Welsh life in Liverpool.

This year Liverpool is the European City of Culture and Gwynedd Archives are in the process of preparing an exhibition featuring the links between Gwynedd and Liverpool to be held at the Museum in Bangor during September. Dr Rees’s talk is therefore very timely and I’m particularly looking forward to the talk because of my own Liverpool background.

I was born in Liverpool but went to stay with my grandparents in Penmachno during the war and returned to bomb damaged Liverpool in 1945. Although we went back to Wales in 1947 I continued visit Liverpool regularly to stay with my aunt and uncle every school holiday until about 1954 when they also left Liverpool. I therefore have many childhood memories of Liverpool but strangely my subsequent visits to Liverpool were very rare until my daughter went to college in Liverpool in 1998.

This gave me the opportunity to get to know the city again and the memories came flooding back as I took her around to show where I used to live in Litherland, where I went to school, where my grandparents had lived, Gwladys Street School where my father had been a teacher etc.

One day I took her to see the Stanley Road Chapel in Bootle where I had been baptised. Unfortunately the chapel had been completely destroyed in a bombing raid in 1941 so when we returned in 1945 all the services and activities were held in the vestry. The members decided to rebuild and a new chapel, built in a similar style to the old, was opened in 1955 but unfortunately it was closed during the 1990s.

It is now used by the local authority and the building is in good condition but when my daughter and I visited I saw that there was nothing to indicate that this had once been a Welsh Chapel. I felt that there should be a plaque to show its former use and decided to do something about it. I approached Ben Rees, whom I’d known since college days, and money was raised, a plaque was prepared and I was delighted to be invited to the unveiling ceremony during the Bootle Welsh Festival in October 2003. I felt that I’d played a small part in preserving the heritage of this chapel where I was baptised and that had been so important to my parents and thousands of Welsh people over the years.

GFH Society Annual General Meeting Talk, Saturday 17 May 2008, 2.00 pm at Yr Aelwyd, Stryd yr Eglwys (Church Street), Caernarfon.
Guest Speaker: Rev Dr Ben Rees, Liverpool.
“The presence of Gwynedd Families in Liverpool and Bootle since 1800� The talk will be in English

Ask your Archivist

I’ve been sent more information about additional special sessions being organised by the Archives Service in Ynys Môn.

• Have you wondered how to start tracing your family history?
• Have you ever wondered about the history of your house?
• Do you want to know more about a subject or a place on Anglesey?
• Then come along and ask Anne Venables. You can get advice on how to go about doing your own research which includes how to use the Anglesey Archives in Llangefni. Once you’ve started you’ll find it hard to stop!

By appointment only: If you wish to attend any of the sessions listed in the following libraries you should telephone 01248 752083 to book your place.

Benllech Tuesday 13 May, 2-5pm
Cemaes Monday 19 May, 2-6pm
Rhosneigr Wednesday 4 June, 2-4.30 pm
Beaumaris Monday 9 June, 4- 7pm
Moelfre Monday, 16 June, 2-5pm
Llangefni Monday, 7 July 2-7pm