Hello Eirwen Here's what is said about the period on GENUKI (bottom links of this message). My coments in brackets 1853/4 Cholera epidemic spreads to Wales (After the epidemic there would be a need to fill places left vacant). Although the town of Bridgend appears to have escaped the epidemic. 1854 The railway reaches Haverfordwest. (Because of railway job opportunites would have opened up along its route). 1855 Rhondda steam coal first transported by rail from Treherbert to Cardiff marking start of rise of Rhondda as a major coal mining valley (local man Walter Coffin, Bridgend initiated the Dinas Lower Colliery in 1812) 1856 Evan James of Pontypridd wrote 'Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau' which became the national anthem of Wales.(His son was lodging at betws when he composed the music) ------------------------------------ Modern facilities that included! COUNTY LUNATIC ASYLUM POOR LAW UNION Workhouse which was built about 1836-7. Porthcawl Harbour (opened about 1830) Even before the Iron industries came to the area there was an outsourcing cottage industry producing farm impliments such as shovels et. mainly for the west country, employing local blacksmiths to make the tools. The Talbots of Margam were the main driving force behind the industry but they couldn't break the monopoly of the north to become a Crawshey or Wilkinson. Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven had his supply of port wine shipped from Bristol to the precursor to Porthcawl harbour at Newton in 1794. Could your ansestors have gone to France harvest the crop as you say, traveling to France from Porthcawl in much the same way as the Johnny onion men who originated from the area around the town of Roscoff known as Bro Rosko, in Brittany used to do. Just some thoughts Gareth Good Morning Listers Can any-one really bright suggest any reason why an ancestor of mine was born in Bordeaux, France circa 1856? She was MARY ANN WEBB, sister to my Grandmother, EMMA CECIL WEBB. Her parents WILLIAM and ELIZABETH WEBB came from Worcester and Gloucestershire respectively and had some of their children in Ruardean, Gloc and some in Llanharry, Glamorgan. William Webb would have been an Ag Lab in 1856 and I can’t imagine why he and his wife would have gone to France unless it was to pick grapes. It seems a very adventurous thing to do especially if Elizabeth was pregnant at the time. Mary Ann seemed to have been their first child. If any-one can shed light on the conditions of the time and a possible reason for this I would love to hear about it. Best Wishes Eirwen

Thanks for that Gareth. I think I am coming to the conclusion that they probably did travel to Bordeaux to harvest the grapes. However, I don't think they were living in Wales at that time as Mary Ann was their first child and subsequent children were born in Gloucestershire. They didn't go to Wales until about 1870. I suppose it would be a good idea for me to look at Gloucestershire on GENUKI. I hadn't thought about doing that - brilliant! Thanks for your help Eirwen -----Original Message----- From: Gareth Morgan Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 1:37 PM To: Glam Subject: Re: [GLA] WEBB BORN IN FRANCE Hello Eirwen Here's what is said about the period on GENUKI (bottom links of this message). My coments in brackets 1853/4 Cholera epidemic spreads to Wales (After the epidemic there would be a need to fill places left vacant). Although the town of Bridgend appears to have escaped the epidemic. 1854 The railway reaches Haverfordwest. (Because of railway job opportunites would have opened up along its route). 1855 Rhondda steam coal first transported by rail from Treherbert to Cardiff marking start of rise of Rhondda as a major coal mining valley (local man Walter Coffin, Bridgend initiated the Dinas Lower Colliery in 1812) 1856 Evan James of Pontypridd wrote 'Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau' which became the national anthem of Wales.(His son was lodging at betws when he composed the music) ------------------------------------ Modern facilities that included! COUNTY LUNATIC ASYLUM POOR LAW UNION Workhouse which was built about 1836-7. Porthcawl Harbour (opened about 1830) Even before the Iron industries came to the area there was an outsourcing cottage industry producing farm impliments such as shovels et. mainly for the west country, employing local blacksmiths to make the tools. The Talbots of Margam were the main driving force behind the industry but they couldn't break the monopoly of the north to become a Crawshey or Wilkinson. Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven had his supply of port wine shipped from Bristol to the precursor to Porthcawl harbour at Newton in 1794. Could your ansestors have gone to France harvest the crop as you say, traveling to France from Porthcawl in much the same way as the Johnny onion men who originated from the area around the town of Roscoff known as Bro Rosko, in Brittany used to do. Just some thoughts Gareth Good Morning Listers Can any-one really bright suggest any reason why an ancestor of mine was born in Bordeaux, France circa 1856? She was MARY ANN WEBB, sister to my Grandmother, EMMA CECIL WEBB. Her parents WILLIAM and ELIZABETH WEBB came from Worcester and Gloucestershire respectively and had some of their children in Ruardean, Gloc and some in Llanharry, Glamorgan. William Webb would have been an Ag Lab in 1856 and I can’t imagine why he and his wife would have gone to France unless it was to pick grapes. It seems a very adventurous thing to do especially if Elizabeth was pregnant at the time. Mary Ann seemed to have been their first child. If any-one can shed light on the conditions of the time and a possible reason for this I would love to hear about it. Best Wishes Eirwen -- To send to the list send to glamorgan@rootsweb.com GLAMORGAN Family History Mailing List archives etc. are at http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/WLS/GLAMORGAN.html - A large amount of information, and a wide variety of useful links, may be found at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/ - The South/West Wales Lookup Exchange and Gareth's Help Pages http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~walesle/wal/AW.html and http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GLAMORGAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message