This week, I discovered that my direct ancestors John Dean and Joan Fuller emigrated to America. They arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s, following Joan’s uncles, Edward and Samuel Fuller, who arrived as Founding Fathers on the Mayflower. More about this in future posts.
The Moon doing its Saturn impersonation.
A great week for my Eve’s War Heroines of SOE Series, #1 in America, Australia, Britain and Canada. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible.
Merthyr Mawr this week.
For the man who has everything, Madame Dowding‘s Carlton corsets.
For Christmas, I received a DNA test kit to assist me with my family history research. The result arrived today.
I’m 52% Welsh 26% European, which includes Belgium, England, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland 19% Scottish, which in this case also includes Ireland and Brittany 3% Scandinavian, mainly Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden
Some of my ancestors emigrated and settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and California.
The great thing about ancestry and DNA is that the DNA link enables you to identify ancestors who have escaped the written record, so I anticipate lots of new exciting discoveries
Breaking news: through DNA, I’ve discovered that my 9 x great grandfather, John ap Evan (John son of Evan) and his wife, Barbara Aubrey, established the Welsh Tract, pictured, in Pennsylvania. He arrived in America with his fellow Quakers in 1683.
A DNA map. My ancestors, 100 years after arriving in Pennsylvania. More about this in future posts.
This week, we published Operation Treasure and it’s always great when readers anticipate and enjoy your stories. A review from Amazon.
“Hanna Howe was a great treasure discovered in 2020, and she continues to deliver in 2021 with the Eve’s War series, in this #4 of an anticipated 12 volume set. A quick read novella, it continues the series intent to deliver stories of many female (and male) SOE agents operating in France during WWII, helping recruit, equip and train local resistance groups to sabotage Hitler’s war machine. While the characters are fictional, they and their actions are based upon real people and events. Howe is a gifted writer with many other books as well (most of which I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed) and I look forward with great anticipation to Eve’s War #5!”
Humphrey Llwyd’s ‘Cambriae Typus’ is the earliest printed map to show Wales as a separate nation. Published in 1573.
Found this while searching for my Gloucestershire ancestors. A sad note from 1733.
Theft from my ancestor, Thomas Thompson Dent. In 1842, Isabella Hutchinson, aged 22, stole oats from his field. Verdict: guilt, one month hard labour. Thomas was a wealthy man so I’m sure he could have spared those oats. However, Isabella was a serial offender. Three years earlier she was convicted for larceny and sentenced to three months in prison.
Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine February 2021
In this month’s bumper issue…
Our Ever Changing Language, Short Stories, Mediation, Poetry, Nature, Humour, Bestsellers, Photography, Puzzles, Genealogy, Recipes and so much more!
On 1 January 2021, to my great surprise, I discovered that I was directly related to William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders.
William, also known as William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087.
William the Conqueror
In 1060, secure as Duke of Normandy, William plotted the Norman conquest of England, which culminated on 14 October 1066 in the Battle of Hastings and the defeat of Harold Godwinson.
William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status led to many struggles as he sought to establish his authority. Marriage to Matilda of Flanders, c1051, allowed him to consolidate his power in Normandy.
William’s genealogy
On his deathbed, Edward the Confessor, the childless King of England, named Harold Godwinson as his successor. However, William disputed this succession and with a large fleet sailed for England where he engaged Harold in battle.
Bayeux Tapestry. Scene 57: the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Titulus: HIC HAROLD REX INTERFECTUS EST (Here King Harold is slain).
After the Battle of Hastings, further military victories ensured that William was crowned king on Christmas Day, 1066, in London. In 1067, he made arrangements for the governance of England then returned to Normandy.
Rebellions followed, all unsuccessful, and by 1075 William had established a secure hold on England, which allowed him to spend the majority of his reign in Europe.
In 1086, William ordered the compilation of the Doomsday Book, a survey listing all the land-holdings in England. This great administrative feat went unmatched until the compilation of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873.
Entries from the Doomsday Book
William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France. He was buried in Caen.
Matilda of Flanders was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror. She was the mother of nine children (some sources list ten) including two kings, William II and my direct ancestor Henry I.
Nineteenth-century depiction of Matilda in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris (Wikipedia).
In 1031, Matilda was born into the House of Flanders as the second daughter of Baldwin V of Flanders and Adela of France. Strategically placed, Flanders served as an important centre for European trade and political expansion.
As granddaughter of Robert II of France, Matilda boasted a greater lineage than William. Like many royal marriages of the period, their union breached the rules of consanguinity. She was about 20 when the marriage took place in 1051, while William was some four years older.
The marriage appears to have been successful in that William is not recorded to have fathered any bastards. Matilda was about 35 and had already borne most of her children when William embarked on his conquest of England, sailing on his flagship, Mora, a gift from his wife.
The Bayeux Tapestry’s depiction of the Norman invasion fleet, with the Mora in front, marked by the papal banner on the masthead.
Matilda governed the Duchy of Normandy in her husband’s absence. Occasionally, she travelled to England, but spent most of her life in Normandy where she oversaw her children’s education. Indeed, Matilda’s children were unusually well educated for contemporary royalty with the boys tutored by Lanfranc, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070, while the girls learned Latin in Sainte-Trinité Abbey, Caen, an abbey founded by William and Matilda as part of the papal dispensation that allowed their marriage.
It looks like I’m directly related to Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449–1525) loyal supporter of Henry Tudor, Henry VII. Some sources claim that Sir Rhys personally delivered the death blow to King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, using his poleaxe. More about this in future posts.
My latest translation, the German version of Eve’s War: Operation Locksmith, available soon. Sandra has translated seven of my books and is always a pleasure to work with.
The oldest surviving diving suit in the world, from Finland, early 18th century.
During the Second World War, R.V. Jones was the Assistant Director of IntellIigence (Science) and a man Churchill knew he could trust.
When the Nazis introduced a radar system called Wotan, R.V. Jones figured out how it worked by assuming that it used a single beam. He based his deduction on the fact that the Germanic god Wotan only had one eye.
More family tree news. Possibly my greatest family history discovery to date. I traced my tree back to the Welsh nobles and their genealogies link my family to one of the greatest figures in Welsh history, my 23 x great grandfather, Rhys ap Gruffydd (1132 – 1197), The Lord Rhys, ruler of South Wales.
Strange phenomenon. I named my character Eve Beringar in my Eve’s War series because I liked the name. Now, I discover that Eleanor Beringar of Provence, Henry III’s wife, is my 23 x great grandmother. She was renowned for her beauty, learning, writing and as a leader of fashion.
The Hodsolls were lords of the manor in Ash, Kent during the medieval period. Later, they owned considerable amounts of land and property in Kent, Sussex and London.
My 12 x great grandfather, John Hodsoll, was born in Cowfold, Sussex in 1534. His first wife, Anne, died at a young age and he married his second wife, Faith Thomas, in Cowfold in 1557.
A gentleman farmer, John enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. With Faith, he produced at least eight children, seven of them girls, along with my direct ancestor, William Hodsoll.
John enjoyed a long life, dying in 1618 in Cowfold, aged 84. He left a detailed Will, which offers an insight into his life.
Extract from John Hodsoll’s Will, 1617.
John left approximately £2,000 in his Will, mainly to his ‘beloved wife, Faith’, and their children. That sum equates to 110 years of a skilled craftsman’s wages. He also left his vast estates to his family.
A servant, Caesar, and the poor people of the parish were also beneficiaries of John’s Will. Caesar received £5, the equivalent of 100 days wages for a skilled craftsman, while the poor received ‘the summe of three pounds sterling apeece’.
The affectionate tone of John’s Will suggests that he truly loved Faith. Along with money and land, she received ‘all such mares kyne and calves with all such hay corne fodder and provision of victualls for houshould as shalbe belonginge unto me at the tyme of my decease, plate and houshold stuffe, and her weddinge ringe and one paire of Braceletts of goulde w’ch I lately gave her and one ringe of myne with a deathes heade lately belonginge to my first wife.’
John lived most of his life durning the Elizabethan era and would have witnessed the devastating plague of 1563, which claimed the lives of 80,000 people, William Shakespeare’s plays, the exploits of Francis Drake, the Anglo-Spanish war, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the death of Elizabeth I.
Shakespeare, Drake and Elizabeth I
Faith was the daughter of the Reverend Tristram Thomas, Rector of Alford in Surrey. Her name and upbringing suggest that religion played a key role in her life, in this instance Protestantism. In regard to religion, she lived during a turbulent time, but doubtless benefited from Elizabeth’s support for the Protestant Church.
John and Faith lived during the glory days of the English Renaissance, when literature, art, music and architecture flourished. A remarkable time to be alive.
My historical novels are great fun to write, but it’s always lovely to return to Sam, a bit like returning home after a holiday. Here’s Stormy Weather, book eighteen in my Sam Smith Mystery Series, available for pre-order from today.
Pregnant in a pandemic. My life is never dull. While Alan and I set about the pleasant task of selecting a name for our baby, Faye interviewed candidates for the role of maternity leave assistant.
Our plans were going well until a friend was murdered. The evidence pointed to a hitman, a professional killing. A further murder underlined the fact that the stakes were high, that someone had a secret to hide.
Who was behind the murders? And what was the secret they were desperate to hide?
Stormy Weather, an investigation that threatened my life, and my baby’s, a case that revealed that greedy men are prepared to kill anyone and anything, including our planet.
Stormy Sunday
Amazing to record that over a quarter of a million of my books have now been downloaded. I honestly thought that if that figure reached a hundred it would be remarkable. Many thanks to everyone who has made this possible.
Swansea Market, 1880.
🎼🎼🎼 Oh the Deadwood Stage
is a-rollin’ on over the plains 🎼🎼🎼
Deadwood, South Dakota, USA, 1876
On 19 December 1778, Marie Antoinette gave birth to her daughter, Marie Thérèse, in front of 200 people. Her maid said, ‘The persons who poured into the chamber were so numerous that the rush nearly killed the Queen.’ These persons included two chimney sweeps who climbed on the furniture to get a better view.
Locals use German military equipment as they man the barricades during the liberation of Paris, August 1944.
The 1930s, fashion Canadian style. Cone-shaped face masks to protect your face in a snowstorm.
Now aged 99 and resident in New Zealand, Phyllis Latour is the only surviving female SOE agent from the Second World War. She served in France under the code name ‘Genevieve’. You can read my appreciation of this remarkable woman here
My 2 x great grandfather, William Howe, was born on 3 March 1855 in South Corneli. His parents were William Howe of St Brides and Mary Hopkin of Corneli. He was baptised on 6 April 1855, Good Friday.
In 1861 William was living with his parents and siblings, Hopkin and Mary Ann. Lodgers, David and Ann John, also lived in the house. The census shows that William was attending school and his main language was Welsh.
Newspaper reports of the time show that William’s father, also William, owned a bank account, which suggests that the family were careful with their money and had a few spare pennies to stash away for a rainy day.
By 1871 William had left school and found work as a servant, farm labouring for Thomas Powell in Newton Nottage. He was one of three farm labourers and two domestic servants working for the Powell’s. One of the domestic servants was Mary Jones. Mary introduced William to her sister Ann, and the couple started courting.
On 13 November 1876 William won five shillings for plowing half an acre of land with a pair of horses within four hours. Five shillings was the equivalent of a day’s wages for a skilled tradesman.
On 5 December 1878 William married Ann. Ann was born in Corneli on 22 April 1854, the youngest child of David Jones of Merthyr Mawr and Ann David of Margam. William was still working as a farm labourer at the time of his marriage. Interesting that when William recorded the family birthdays in the Howe family Bible he did not know the exact date of Ann’s birthday. A typical man?!
William and Ann were married at Hermon Methodist Chapel in Bridgend, a grand chapel for a grand occasion. They signed their names, thus proving that they were literate, and the marriage was witnessed by William’s brother, Hopkin, and Ann’s friend, Mary Phillips.
William and Ann, c1905
By 1881 William had returned to Corneli. Along with his wife Ann, he lived with his father-in-law, David Jones, and their baby daughter, Mary Ann, born in 1879. A niece, Elizabeth Burnell, Mary Jones’ daughter, was also living in the house. Elizabeth Burnell was living with the Howe family because Mary Jones was suffering from a chronic mental illness that stayed with her for the rest of her life. The family were now in North Corneli and William was working as a railway packer.
Corneli, c1885 and c1890
Around this time William would walk three miles to Newton – and three miles back – three times a week to receive lessons in English and other subjects. Each lesson cost one penny.
William became Headman in South Corneli and through his learning he helped the villagers with their reading and writing. Another duty of the village Headman was to lead the band of mourners as they carried a coffin from home to burial ground, many miles sometimes, over fields and mountains. He was living at a time of changing attitudes, and he seized the opportunity to improve himself and give help and support to the less educated in his village, a Howe trait that can be traced back many generations.
By 1891 four more children had appeared in the Howe household: Christiana in 1881, Evan in 1885, Elizabeth in 1887 and William David in 1890. Sadly, William David died on 20 May 1891. The family were now living in South Corneli, two doors down from Ty Draw. The house had three rooms and William was working as a stone quarryman in the limestone quarry. His parents, William and Mary, lived next door.
William’s handwriting, recording the family’s birthdays in the Howe Bible
In February 1895 William had a life threatening accident in the quarry, which was recorded in the South Wales newspapers.
In 1901 William was still working in the quarry and his family were living on Porthcawl Road, South Corneli. Now, they had a four-roomed house. They also had four more children: William, born in 1892, Margaret, born in 1894, Priscilla, born in 1897 and Edith, born in 1899. Along with Elizabeth and Mary Ann, all were living at the house. William was now bilingual; he could speak Welsh and English. And although his mother, Mary, had died in 1897, his father, William, still lived next door.
The workforce at Corneli Quarry, c1920 when William was foreman
Along with a host of other people William Howe was fined five shillings on 16th February 1906 for not sending his children to school. He was a platelayer on the railways at this time and the fine is interesting because it seems to go against his character of a well-respected member of the community and chapel. Also, William was a firm believer in education so he must have had a good reason for not sending his children to school. Unless any further evidence comes to light, we can only guess at his reasons.
By 1911 William and Ann had been married for 32 years. All the family, except Christiana, were living in a five-roomed house in South Corneli. William was an excellent gardener and grew fruit and vegetables to support his family and augment his wages.
Tragedy struck the family when on 6 November 1913, Priscilla, William and Ann’s daughter, died during an operation. She was sixteen years old. Evidently, Priscilla had a sweet voice because she sang at the Corneli Literary Society concert in December 1909.
William’s wife, Ann Jones, died on 29 February 1916 of Bright’s disease. She was sixty-one. Ann was buried at St Mary Magdalene, Mawdlam, plot A118. The census described Ann as a ‘housewife’, but one suspects that there was much more to her than that. She gave birth to nine children and no doubt supported her husband in the running of their home and allotment. In all probability, she shared William’s Methodist beliefs, although the fact that she was buried at Mawdlam and not at Capel-y-Pil adds an element of mystery.
By the 1920s William had become one of the elders at Capel-y-Pil Methodist Chapel. Therefore he was in the company of some of the leading land owners in the area. His house in South Corneli was called Lilac Cottage and William was now a foreman at the quarry. In his youth, his ambition had been to become a Methodist Minister. However, family finances dictated that only his older brother, Hopkin, could train for the ministry.
Elders of Capel-y-Pil, c1930. William is seated, third from left.
On 14 May 1933 William died at ‘Woodview’, North Corneli. His son, Evan, was at his side. The Howe family continued to live at Lilac Cottage in South Corneli while William was buried with his wife, Ann, at St Mary Magdalene, Mawdlam.
Lilac Cottage, home to my 3 x great grandparents, William and Mary, and my 2 x great grandparents, William and Ann.
In the twentieth century, William David Howe, his wife Gwendolyne and their children lived in Lilac Cottage, followed by my great grand aunt, Mary Ann and great grand uncle, Evan. Mary Ann lost a leg as a child and Evan was blind in later life. Both were great ‘characters’.
Exciting news. Sam’s Song is #1 in Australia. Sam is also top five in America, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, India and Spain while Operation Zigzag is top five in Spain and France, and Betrayal is #1 in America 🙂
My 3 x and 2 x great grandfathers, both William, worked at this quarry so would have been aware of this shocking incident. Maybe they witnessed it.
The apartment of Gustave Eiffel in the tower he designed, 1909.
A Christmas card sent to Sergeant Major Fear in 1918. From The People’s Collection Wales.
Frost on the sand dunes this week.
Mary Francis, a friend and neighbour of my 3 x great grandmother, Mary Hopkin.
At 12.15 a.m., on Thursday 17 September 1890, Mary Francis, also known as Bopa, died; she was 110 years old.
Mary Francis hailed from Llansamlet, near Swansea. According to her obituary in the Glamorgan Gazette she was born on the 15th August 1780, the youngest of seven daughters.
Around 1810, Mary arrived in Corneli where she worked as a servant to Owen Howells at Pen-y-Mynydd Farm. Her first husband was a collier named Griffiths. In search of work, the couple returned to Llansamlet, only for Mr Griffiths to expire when he fell into a canal. A widow, Mary went into service at Aberavon.
Mary’s fortunes changed when she returned to Corneli to work on Ty Tanglwst Farm. There, she met one of the farm-hands, David Francis. The couple married on 21 May 1814 and they settled at Ty Capel, adjacent to the chapel, where Mary lived for the rest of her life.
Mary Francis had six children, four of whom were still alive at the time of her death. Her mother, reputedly, lived until she was 111 years old and she is buried at Llansamlet. Mary’s husband, David, died on the 2 November 1839, aged fifty-nine, and so Mary lived as a widow for a further fifty-one years.
The Gazette remembered Mary as an industrious, respectable woman whose faculties remained clear until her closing years. Apparently, she could distinguish people at a considerable distance and her hearing and mind were well preserved.
Physically, she was short and of small proportions and, like many of her generation, she could neither read nor write. Throughout her working life Mary was employed on various farms in the neighbourhood and was also in demand as a midwife and feather cleaner.
When she was seventy years old Mary broke her leg in an accident and from that point on she was compelled to seek parish relief. Of a religious disposition, Mary regularly attended Capel-y-Pil; she had a fine voice and she loved the hymns. When she could no longer attend the chapel the Rev. E. Williams, himself eighty, would visit her at home.
In her younger days Mary would frequently walk with my 3 x great grandmother, Mary Hopkin, fifteen miles to Neath market to sell their homemade dresses.
Unfortunately, in the last two years of her life Mary was confined to her bed, except for a few hours when she would sit by the fireside. During those final years people would call on her and leave donations.
When Mary Francis died her body was covered with a white sheet strewn with sweet scented thyme and rosemary. She was buried at Mawdlam Church and an estimated 1,000 people attended her funeral.
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Life for my 3 x great grandparents, William Howe and Mary Hopkin was hard, typical of working class Victorians. They lost four of their five children, in infancy, young adulthood and middle age. They also lost three of their grandchildren.
William’s working life reflected the changing landscape. Instead of a lifetime spent labouring on the land, he left farming in his twenties to become a collier in the recently established coal mines. He returned to the land only to work in the local limestone quarry during the second half of his life. Meanwhile, Mary was a dressmaker walking fifteen miles to the market to sell her dresses. Social life for the family revolved around the Methodist chapel.
Mary had strong material instincts. She brought up her niece, Ann Price, and looked after an orphan, Ann Beynon. Later, she brought up her grandson, Edward Reynolds. Her house was a home for waifs and strays.
On 12 July 1897, aged 79, Mary died of ‘senile decay’. Her son, William, was at her side. The inscription on her gravestone, written in Welsh, reads, ‘To walk in honour to the land of peace. May the good lord return her soul to me.’
Those words on Mary’s gravestone were obviously written by William. He died of bladder and prostrate disease, and exhaustion, on 31 December 1903. Edward Reynolds’ wife, Rachel Thomas, was at his side thus maintaining a link with the Reynolds family that existed for sixty years.
Hannah Howe 