Farewell to The Lady Windsor
© 2006 Leighton Moses
It has always been an important part of Welsh culture to know where you came from. In Wales, the “land of my fathers/mae hen wlad fy nhadau”, the laws of Hywel Dda (Howell the good c.880-950) stated that it was a duty to know ones relatives to the ninth remove. Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of Wales to his non Latin speaking friends (1146-c.1223), believed that even the poorest people were able to recite six or seven generations of their family tree.
If Glyn and I had been around in Hywel’s time we would have fallen foul of his laws but, following our research, we can at least look Gerald in the eye, having gone back seven generations of the Moses family. Previously, if you had asked me to write down all I knew about my family’s history, I would have struggled to fill one side of A4! Now after painstakingly following the family tree as it branched out through the generations, we have documented literally hundreds of people who all share the same two common ancestors – Thomas Moses and his wife Sarah Evan. This illiterate couple living on a small farm straddling the Clydach and Cynon Valley’s in the 1700’s, now have descendants living all over the world; from South Wales to North America and South Africa to Hawaii!
The research has uncovered a fascinating story of one of the oldest family’s of Llanwynno Parish, which eventually left behind it’s agrarian roots, and through enterprise and ambition has expanded over three continents. As well as encompassing an important period in Welsh history, this website will give insights into language, religion, education, morals, health, tragedy, emigration and, above all, the individual family members – from Sarah Jane Moses who lived for two hours in Penygraig back in 1886, to Floy Madolyn Moses who clocked up 99 years over in Pennsylvania in 2000.
We hope you find this site of interest, and any comments or contributions are welcome.