The Hwntw

This was a very popular public house in Bwlchgwyn, my great grandfather, Robert Belton, was the licensee for a while and I remember a few stories of life in the 50s that involve mention of The Hwntw. I never had a good picture then, out of the blue, I was sent this great picture. I couldn’t add anything to my old website at the time, but I always kept the picture until I could display it on this new site. So here it is, The Hwntw, and more or less as I remember it, too. (If you choose to  copy this into a FB group or other place, please be courteous and link back to my site). When this picture was taken the landlord was George Davies. There was a lovely pull-on place along the front of the building which facilitated all sorts of visitors from groups of cyclists to the occasional charabank on a day excursion.  Thank you, PB!

DNA Test Results

I’m predictably British Isles, but I love having about 5% Iberian in the mix. I really must follow up those stories of Spain via Cornwall to North Wales from the Belton family, one day…

Bwlchgwyn, looking from Ruthin Road across the Gors (correct original spelling) to the Penllyn (that’s what we called the mountain)

Oh Dear! The recent update by Ancestry (and by My Heritage) has altered my ethnicity. I’m now not-so-Iberian after all – but I am an extra 3% British Isles, and that leaves just 2% that’s not British Isles – and it’s 2% Norwegian. And that doesn’t surprise me. Someone with a Scandinavian surname copied and pasted a huge chunk of my old website about ten years ago. That’s fine, at least I knew someone was interested! From where does this Scandinavian DNA emanate? From my mother’s side of the family, the Braidwood, or one of the wives of the Braidwoods is my best guess, based on conversations with some of my internet contacts. If you know of a Norwegian link, I would love to know!

But is any of that true? My Heritage have matched my results with their reference datasets and come to a different result. According to them I’m 2% Finnish. Anyone in Finland reading this?

Liverpool Workhouse Registers

A few days ago I went with David and his cousin and her mother to Liverpool Central Library, mostly to look for David’s Joynt records; each one of us had some research questions to try and answer whilst we were there. The filmed Workhouse Registers for 1859-60 were easy to find and we had good reason to think that the elusive ancestor might have spent a night or two, at least, in the workhouse, but he wasn’t to be found amongst any of the records. Other people were found, though, including a Joynt that we hadn’t seen before. Not finding someone in a record set does close one line of enquiry, that is a result of sorts. We continue the search.

Pier Head, Liverpool.