Monthly Archives: July 2026

Genealogical Round-up

by thehistoryinterpreter

You would think that there would have been little time for family history with all this gadding about hither and yon in recent weeks. After all, I’ve been away every month for the last five months and there are at least three more trips planned for this year. Time away from family history? Not a bit of it. There have been a lot of historical goings on lately. I’ve been giving talks as usual. It was a little while ago now but what a privilege to be part of the Society of Genealogists’ Mental Health day. I managed to find some fascinating case studies of those who spent time in an asylum. I was able to listen to some of the other excellent presentations but I must single out Dai Davies’ Remembering our Ancestors who died by Suicide . Do try to catch this if you can. They are presenting it again for the Pharos Anniversary Webinar week and I will be up again then on the topic of marginalised ancestors. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been chatting to Andrew Martin as part of his Family Histories Podcast, talking about by straw plaiting ancestress and an elusive 3x great grandmother. You can listen in; I am part of series 11 along with some other great guests.

I host Zooms for more than one organisation and if I’m honest, not all the presentations hold my interest but there have been some fascinating ones amongst those I’ve heard recently. I particularly enjoyed ‘At Home in History – reflections on writing the history of domestic life’ from Jane Hamlett and Pam Vass’ ‘Kernow to the Crystal Palace. The Remarkable Ramblings of a Cornish Fishwife:  Mary Kelynack and the Great Exhibition’. There are also some more potentially excellent talks to listen to in the diary .

Currently, I am coming to the end of leading my Pharos course on researching female ancestors, whilst at the same time, feeding back on students’ family histories that they have written as part of my writing your family history course; we’ve had stories of Irish brickmakers, handloom weavers and much more. I’ve been putting the final touches to my own biography (it has only taken fourteen years) and am enjoying supporting my new cohort of autobiography writers in the Society of Genealogists’ write your Life Story Club.

I am very excited that both Mistress Agnes and I will be contributing to this year’s All About That Place event. Then I’ve been submitting my proposals for Rootstech 2027, personning a local history exhibition and uploading some more stories of fatherless girls for A Few Forgotten Women. It is my turn to write the sample story for the next Forgotten Women Friday communal research day. I chose someone with a family name and managed to weave an account out of very few documentary appearances. Watch this space for the call for volunteers for that one. And there’s more, as one of my friends would say. I’ve been helping to get a co-authored book ready for publication and continuing preparations for the Devon Family History Society 50th anniversary conference, which is now a scarily short three months away.

Add to this the job we must not mention and I’m living my best history/family history life. Not roses but I do still have time to smell the flowers.

A Final Day in Wales- Newton House

by thehistoryinterpreter

It always feels odd uploading holiday posts once I am safely back home but here is our final day in Wales. Today is our last day and we head north to Newton House, to tick the ‘National Trust property in Carmarthenshire’ box. We found this property a bit ‘alternative’. It is used more as a community space than as a way to share an historical narrative. Today the mothers and toddlers are meeting here and there’s a Disney film showing in the basement with a bed for viewers to lounge on. There is plenty of modern art work on display. This is in keeping with the ethos of the last owner Richard Rhys, who inherited the estate in the 1960s and turned it into a ‘castle for the arts’, holding festivals to showcase, music, art and craft. It also became a base for the National Theatre. The property was acquired by the Trust with no accompanying legacy for preservation or re-furnishing and it seem not a great deal is known about its history.

The current house was built in 1660 by Edward Rice on the site of a former Tudor hunting lodge and the Rice/Rhys family held it until it was given to the Trust. George Rice-Trevor, the 4th Baron Dynevor, was involved in trying to supress the Rebecca Riots, when rioters burned crops on the estate. These disturbances were similar to the south of England’s Swing Riots and took place between 1839  and 1843 as protesters objected high levels of taxation and the tolls that were levied on turnpike roads. Things that catch my eye include a mummified cat, allegedly hidden under the floor boards for luck, samples of old wallpaper and plaster, an elaborate papier mache ceiling and the mini biographies of former servants. There are also a couple of intriguing paintings. In one, the sitter ages by thirty years depending on which angle it is viewed from and another, of three children, seems to include ‘ghost children’. It seems this is not an overpainting. Officially, the guides have been told to say it is a trick of the light.

The landscape was designed by Lady Cecil Rice née Talbot in the mid eighteenth century and the park is a grade 1 site of special scientific interest and national nature reserve because of the lichens and fungi found here. The extensive Dinefwr estate is famous for White Park Cattle. We don’t see any but there are some deer in the misty distance.

Persistent drizzle dissuades us from exploring or walking a mile each way to view the twelfth century Dinefwr Castle, which was in the hands of the Rhys family for eight centuries. The original castle, which was captured by Lord Rhys in about 1165, was built in the nineth century, who then had the current castle built. So it is back to the van for a final lazy afternoon before an uneventful trip home.