Family Reunion

One of the amazing things about tracing your family tree is finding long lost relatives.  I spent last Sunday in the company of three wonderful ladies who I was meeting for the first time but who are all related to me.  Two second cousins and a third cousin (all once removed).  We are all related through William Parry who was born in North Wales in 1816.  He was a slate quarrier.  He took his family to America in 1851, to work in the slate quarries in Pennsylvania but he returned to North Wales with some of the family about 25 years later.

We were perplexed to understand why anyone would give up Pennsylvania for the slate quarries of North Wales, but I wouldn't be here if he hadn't!  My third cousin is from the branch of the family that wisely stayed in America.  She now lives in Texas and she brought me a slab of pecan praline in the shape of Texas!

Texan Pecan Praline

We had a wonderful day swapping family stories and exploring cemeteries, looking for Parry graves.  The weather was not at its best, high winds and rain, and it seemed to enhance the bleakness of the Welsh mountains.  Not ideal for fighting your way round overgrown graveyards.

LLanllechid

We were finally rewarded with finding the grave of my great-great grandfather.

All in Welsh

 Thankfully one of my cousins is a Welsh speaker and was able to translate for us.

Glad I took my woollies!

We then went to the village where the family had lived and some of our grandfathers had been born.

Yr Fron

Aerial view of Yr Fron

It was a wonderful experience.   We all came home with a slab of Welsh slate as a souvenir!  But most important of all, we have new friends who share a passion for family research.