From the office: Some Welsh surprises

It’s hardly surprising that last Monday was, some say, the most depressing day of the year – it’s cold and dark and most of us feel like we should be hibernating! I decided I need a new project to stave off the winter blues, so I’ve started feeling my way along the Welsh branches of my family tree.

This week, I've spent my evenings sat in front of the fire with my laptop, wading through all the Owens, Williamses, Thomases and Evanses on the census – no easy task.

I also trawled the growing collection of Welsh parish registers on Findmypast with a bit of assistance from familysearch.org. The online sources of the National Library of Wales have been very useful too.

Eventually I managed to trace one strand of my family back to a small town in Mid Wales called Llanidloes, where generations of them had been flannel weavers.

To be honest, I was slightly disappointed. There is no shortage of textile workers on my tree and I suppose I’d been hoping for something a little bit more exotic. However, this was no ordinary community of weavers.

It always amazes me what you can find on the internet. With the help of Powys Archives and various other online snippets, I managed to piece together the history of Llanidloes and found that it had a surprisingly radical past.

Not only did John Welsey preach from the pulpit stone in the open floor of the medieval Old Market Hall, but the town was the focus of industrial unrest during the 19th century Chartist revolt in 1839 when the local textile industry collapsed. As weavers at the time, my ancestors were almost certainly involved.

Not a bad start, and I’m looking forward to uncovering more. January is turning out better than I expected!

Have you got any winter-busting research stories?