Richards of Llanegwad

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The Richards of Llanegwad

by John Morriss

When Ivy Morriss had a stroke at the age of 88 her home had to be sold to pay for her keep in a care home and it brought her in more contact with her son and four daughters and when we visited her she began to tell us her life story.

Ivy was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, her father was John Mathew Hughes and mother Mary Phillips, there were two other daughters and a son older than Ivy.

When she two years old her mother died of TB and because her father was unable to look after her properly as he was working in the coalmines, he sent her to a lady in a chip shop in Merthyr. Her siblings were farmed out to other relations but because they were older were more easy to look after.

Ivy was raised in Troedyrhew, a few miles from Merthyr and by the time she was 13 was sent to be a servant at Whitechapel in London.

When she was 16 Ivy returned to Merthyr were she met and married Patrick Morriss a year later.

Not knowing anything about her parents or kin I decided to do some research and thanks to the kindness of the Welsh people I soon had a family tree to present to her just before she passed away.

Her siblings have long since left this earth but there are plenty of Welsh offspring still producing children from that good old stock.

My parents came to the coalfields of Kent in the 1930s and now my four sisters and I live with our families at Deal in Kent.

I discovered, to my mother’s surprise, that her mother (Mary Phillips) was born in Merthyr but Mary’s father came from Fishgard, as did his father and father before him, but on her father’s side her grandfather was born in Merthyr but his mother Sarah Webber was born in Cadoxten, Neath in 1853 and her mother was Rachel Richards, born in Llanegwad in 1820.

Even more surprising, both her parents had the same surname of Richards and both were from Llanegwad and were married on 4th December 1818.

If anyone thinks they may be related to John Morriss contact artdesigns@hotmail.com

and your details will be forwarded to John.

Other Richards family ancestry can be found at

http://www.family-richards.org.uk/bryans_world/historial_index.htm

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