Could someone please advise me where I can start my search for the Lawler family in Wales. Patrick James Lawler and his wife Esther Teresa (formerly Walsh) were Irish. They were in Monmouthshire at the time of their son Hugh Jerome's birth, about 1854. (According to family folklore, his father was engaged on "building a bridge". ) I have recently found that an older brother, John Joseph, was born in Glamorganshire about 1851. According to later references Patrick Lawler was a 'platelayer', so I have assumed that he was working for the railway at this time. (This family later moved to England (about 1856) before migrating to South Africa, and eventually settling in New Zealand; and from there, all but one of the sons made their way to Australia.) I am totally new to Welsh genealogy, and do not know how to go about searching for some contemporary records, so would appreciate some help. Clare in Australia

Clare, I'm not sure if you have any experience of English genealogy, but if not I would normally say that a good place to start is FreeBMD a transcription of the General Record Office indexes to Births Marriages and Deaths, which Start in July 1837. http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ The transcription is not complete, but up to 1900 or so is almost complete. In this case however, I have searched for births of John Joseph LAWLER and Hugh Jerome LAWLER and found neither. This family in 1861 is in Stepney, Middlesex (London), with Jessie as Head, and engineer's wife, and Hugh born Monmouthshire. The other two children were born in Shadwell, Middlesex. Jessie Lawler 37 Hugh Lawler 7 Stephen Lawler 4 Janell Lawler 1 I cannot find birth registrations for the later children in Middlesex either. Your best bet may therefore be to go through census records - available from Ancestry or Findmaypast. If you don't have access yourself, they are often available at Libraries or your local LDS family history centre. Good luck, Dai Bevan On 30/06/2011 10:58, Clare Dubay wrote: > Could someone please advise me where I can start my search for the Lawler > family in Wales. > Patrick James Lawler and his wife Esther Teresa (formerly Walsh) > were Irish. They were in Monmouthshire at the time of their son Hugh > Jerome's birth, about 1854. (According to family folklore, his father was > engaged on "building a bridge". ) > I have recently found that an older brother, John Joseph, was born in > Glamorganshire about 1851. > According to later references Patrick Lawler was a 'platelayer', so I have > assumed that he was working for the railway at this time. > (This family later moved to England (about 1856) before migrating to South > Africa, and eventually settling in New Zealand; and from there, all but one > of the sons made their way to Australia.) > I am totally new to Welsh genealogy, and do not know how to go about > searching for some contemporary records, so would appreciate some help. > Clare in Australia

The 1861 image shows the youngest child as a son, James, not "Janell" as shown in the transcription. Pamela Marsden