SOUTH WALES ANCESTRY SEARCH
Swansea West Glamorganshire Family History Center
A
recent travel trip to the charming southern coast of Wales lead to
a search to solve some family history, looking for ancestor emigrants
to America
from Glamorganshire with a few pieces of information and a date for a
marriage in 1840 at a Welsh parish church (see Llangyfelach
Church & Norman
Tower). The journey led to a search for records in the county
hall archives of West Glamorganshire in the Swansea Civic Center. The
civic center is a modern concrete structure along the main shoreline
boulevard of Swansea, Oystermouth Road next to the revitalized harbor
district and overlooking the wide sandy beach strand of the Swansea Bay.
Like most county halls, in the lower floor, clerks at windows, handle
the daily governmental business of family matter, taxes and filings,
but signs lead the way past parents trying to wrangle and bored children,
down a corridor to the Family History Center which Glamorganshire has
arranged specifically to aid in the research of family ancestry.
The
West Glamorgan Archives collections cover Chapel Records, Parish and
Council Records. Estate, Family and Manors. Business Records. Business & Maritime
Records, Pictures, Maps and Antiquarian Records. It was here where on
the shelves of church parish register ledgers where I managed to find
the eureka moment of the original hqnd-written record of the marriage
of distant ancestral relatives, with curious details of the time, like
one could sign their name and other needed to make a mark, and an unmarried
woman over 18 was officially referred to as a Spinster…
The
records in the archives are computerized, with genealogical resources,
index of births, marriages, deaths and census returns on microfiche and
CD, and searches can be made online to gather more details and search
farther afield, with free access to web and Ancestry.com from the center’s
terminals. The friendly staff will gladly assist in what you might be
looking for among the extensive resources. Use of the Family Research
Center is free, but to see original documents of archive collection it
is necessary to register for a Reader’s Ticket, which you can get
on a first visit, but need a proof of identity (on one or two documents)
with name address and signature. You can photograph the documents (no
flash), or make printouts of computer records for a nominal printing
charge. High quality scanning and digitization service is also available.
The Family History Center at the Swansea Civic Center is open Wednesday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Tuesdays 9am to 7pm (Saturday hours fell to budget cutbacks). There is a city parking lot for the Civic Center, or it’s an easy walk from the harbor tourist district, 15 minutes from the train station and served by city bus lines. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Web
Info
West
Glamoganshire Archives
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SEE ALSO:
CAERPHILLY
CASTLE
DYLAN THOMAS - BOATHOUSE AND TOURING SITES
