On Sun, 23 Sep 2012 10:22:15 +0100, Mike Gould <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for your reply. How interesting to see the various connections > between Chewton Mendip/Compton Martin/Clutton/Trevethin. We're going to > take a look around the Trevethin area next week. I'm not expecting to > find my ancestor's gravestone, as someone on the Monmouthshire list > kindly > checked the MI index and he's not there, but it will be interesting to > get a feel for the area. Hi Mike and Listers, Hope you enjoy your trip to Monmouthshire, Mike. We were often travelling through Pontypool in the first half of 2011 and kept intending to have a closer look at the Eastern Valleys, where our Somerset and Gloucestershire ancestors moved for work. We have also been hoping to revisit Big Pit:National Coal museum. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/ Around a quarter of a century ago, when I taught in Wales, my pupils persuaded me to take them to Big Pit and it was an experience that I've never forgotten. Somerset and Gloucestershire ancestors in both my family and in Ian's died in Monmouthshire coal mines. My 2x great-grandfather, John HANCOCK, was accidentally killed in a coal pit in Blaina by a fall of stone. He died on 15th. December 1869 and was buried on 20th. December at St. Peter's Church, Blaina. John was only in his mid 20s and Susan, his wife, was heavily pregnant with their first child, who was subsequently born in early January 1870 in Gloucestershire. Josephine