My family went to Wales in the summer of 1956. That is, my mother, two brothers, and I did. Dad stayed home to work and pay for the trip. Here we are in May of 1956, just before we left for the summer. (The boys took their cowboy outfits with them.)
We stayed in my grandmother's house most of the summer, visiting an aunt for a week or so somewhere along the way.My grandmother's house is the same one in the article about the recent trip to Wales. It's changed over the years. The front door has been enclosed, an extension added to the back, and many changes made inside the house.
This photo is of my Welsh Mamgu (mam - gee [hard g]), Lilian Afanwy Richards Gimblett, taken in 1950.
I've been working on Gimblett genealogy for a while, but it was difficult to work on it long-distance. In 1997, my husband and I, with our son and daughter-in-law, made a trip to Wales. We stayed in Malpas, at the same house from my childhood. Mom and I have made several trips since then and my husband and I made one more a few years ago.
The internet also made research easier - especially the Free BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death) indexes. Yay, free records! The General Record Office began computerizing their records and I have ordered marriage, death, and birth records online. It takes a while to get them, but they sure are nice when they come.
I love Wales. The air is different there. I feel good all the time I'm in the country. It's a beautiful place.
With a name like Gimblett, you'd think it would be easy to trace. That's sorta so. Every time I run across the name in records, I know it's going to be linked to my family - although, I don't always know just yet how. So, I'm collecting records and hope one day to get them properly linked. In the meantime I have a file on World Connect - Gimblett in Wales. If you have a Gimblett/Gimblet/Gimlett, etc in your family somewhere, let me hear from you - my e-mail address is at the bottom of the page.
My Welsh Gimblett family: grandparents Bill (William Henry Gimblett) and Lilian, in 1939
At Christmas, in 1942, my grandfather Bill was in a hospital being treated for tuberculosis. He sent this postcard to his children at home.
When my grandfather was a child, he came to the United States with his parents, Jane and Thomas Gimblett, and sisters Lilly Jane and Beatrice. While here his brother Josh was born. On the trips to Wales, I looked and looked for Uncle Josh's birth record and never found it. While visiting Cousin Jean in Canada a few years ago, she remarked, "of course not, he was born in Pennsylvania"! What a surprise that was. I finally found the right documents giving the information that he had been born in Edwardsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in December of 1889. Mom and I were there this past spring to see where they had lived - - but that's a whole 'nother story.
