Dear Polly, Thanks for your help. I am helping a 3rd cousin who lives in Anglesey [never met him] and I will enquire as to whether his granfhather served in WW1. John's wife, Mary, is known to have worked on farms in Llanfabon, Glamorgan, before her marriage, and I think your suggestion of seasonal or farm work by her may well have solved the mystery. It was Mary [nee DEERE] who was my own relative, and she was a Glamorgan girl like myself. They were tough old birds in those days, but I don't like to think of her heavily pregnant and with a toddler in tow, toiling in the fields. I have sent off an enquiry to Wellington Primary School to see if they hae any record of th older children, who probably attended there. I will suggest to my cousin that he obtains a copy birth certificate for the child born in 1917, this could solve it once and for all. Might I add that I love Herefordshire, having visisted on a few occasions, stunning countryside. There was another member of the family who lived there for a time in the 1800s but I will enquire about him separately. Thanks again, WENDY