The February meeting was held on Thursday 23rd at the Cathedral Chapter House and despite freezing conditions attracted over 70 members and friends. Mair Thomas, president, was happy to report that the charity lunch hosted by Betty and Ron Hammond on 18th February had raised �166 for the charity. She also reported that tickets for the annual choir concert, to be held in June, would soon be available. Mair was also pleased to present a bouquet to the society�s treasurer and concert secretary Eddie and his wife Marie Alcock on the occasion of their Golden Wedding. The evening was then given over to society member Elfed Owen who recounted his experiences in tracing his family tree, a project on which he has been engaged for the past six years.
Elfed was born in the Bala / Llanuwchllyn area of North Wales and moved to the Chelmsford area in the 1960s when he joined the Marconi Company. Elfed�s highly interesting and informative presentation was compiled on to a DVD. This covered his detective work, including maps and diagrams and early photos of his ancestors and photos of the houses or sites of houses where his ancestors lived. Film clips of relevant local events augmented the DVD. Elfed explained the difficulties incurred with interpretation by officials of the Welsh language, when several versions of spelling could be experienced. Another problem to overcome was the patronymic naming system, which the Welsh retained well into the 18th century. There were no surnames as such. The children of a marriage took their Father's forename as their surname. As a result surnames were not fixed and changed from generation to generation. This goes some way to explaining the present surnames of Welsh people that were extracted from forenames such as Jones (John) Edwards, Thomas, Roberts, and Richards etc. Elfed was able to trace cousins in America and through their combined researches was able to piece together further links in the family and find a further cousin in Patagonia which he had the pleasure of meeting at a National Eisteddfod. Elfed also gave us some background history to the Welsh settlement in Patagonia. Elfed explained that once you venture into genealogy it could become very addictive. We thank Elfed for his �addiction� and for combining all the information onto a very informative and entertaining DVD. There followed refreshments and a glass of wine courtesy of Eddie and Marie Alcock. Thanks also to Vera Thomas, Agnes Evans and Irene Foster who supplied tea, cake and Welsh cakes and the raffle prizes. |
