G'day List I am asking for help again. I am in the middle of writing about my father's family which lived in Pontypool, Pontewynydd, and Abersychan during the last half of the 19th C and the early years of the 20th. Is there anyone who can tell me of a suitable text (available here in Australia, hopefully) which describes the social and industrial conditions in the Eastern Valleys at that time. I am particularly interested in the period 1870 - 1916 but anything which dealt with the period would be welcome. Regards Ray Lewis Surname Interests in Monmouthshire: Davies; Jones; Lewis

G'day List Thanks for those who shared their thoughts with me about the Eastern valeys. Unfortunately the publication "Coal Society: a History of the South Wales Mining Valleys, 1840-1980" doesn't seem to be available here, at least not in any of the major libraries but trawling the web has thrown up some interesting material from which I can draw. Thanks again Ray Lewis Hazelmere Western Australia Surname interests: Davies; Jones; Lewis

Hi Ray, You could do worse than try the Kelly's Directory for each town to give you a picture of the range of employment in the area at the time. This is available online. If you put Kelly's Directory into Google you'll get there. Of course, the GENUKI pages for the county also give you an overview as well as providing various links to take you elsewhere. Given the difficulty of tracking down books on specific places overseas, you might well do better ferreting about online. If I come up with anything more specific, I'll let you know. Of course, the coal board also has various websites detailing things like the names of those injured or killed in mining accidents. Some of these are specific to other mining areas in the UK, but many are national in scope. Again, "coal mining (name of town)" into Google yields quite a good start. Regards, Sian Mackey.