Genealogy Chat

My father was evacuated from London to Pontypridd in Wales during WW2. He was a very private man and did not really discuss his time there. Since his death I have learnt that he loved it very much and did not wish to return home although he had no choice. I wish to visit the town to find out more and possibly where he was homed. Can anyone point me in the right direction to begin my research?

Not really sure about this one, but I would start at the nearest Archives Department to Pontypridd. I would think someone there might at least know where to start looking. They may have kept records of who looked after who. Hope someone can help you with more precise details. Good luck Kath. x

My grandmother was evacuated from Yarmouth to Newark. She treasures the letters sent between her parents and herself. Did he have anything like that at all? I know that my grandmother's evacuation was sort of arranged via her school are there any local records detailing where the children went though I know many just turned up and were homed without any planning. I am glad he had a good evacuee experience - my grandmother didn't and talks like it only happened yesterday. Pippa

I agree with the idea to go to the Welsh archive, maybe you could also check with the school he was at prior to evacuation as many schools went en masse.

You will find that evacuee Info in the CRO's is rather patchy. If your father was a London evacuee the best place is the LMA (London Metropolitan Archives) and there is a leaflet on Evacuation of London children. LMA has recently undergone some renovations and some records have come from The Guildhall Library in London and some have gone to the Guildhall from LMA so you would need to check the website to see if the Evacuation Records are still there. I understand the renovations are going on until the end of June. Many children went with their schools so that may be easier to trace but you will need to know the name of the school he went to in London. The Libraries and CRO around Pontypridd will have some general info on Evacuees to that area but unless he committed some misdemeanour whilst evacuated, then the chances of finding his personal name linked to Pontypridd is highly unlikely. If you have the name of his school, then the school may be mentioned and you may get some thing from the school records. Trying to find what actually happened to evacuees, if not already known, is not an easy task, as no official records were kept. School records were kept but if it was a private evacuation then this will be much harder to trace. There is a very good organisation called the Evacuees Reunion Association and their web site may be able to help: http(://)www(.)evacuees(.)org(.)uk (Remove brackets) There are also many evacuee stories on the BBC Site if you go to bbc(.)co(.)uk and then go to the history site click on World War 2 Peoples War, click on Story Archive Full Listing and then scroll down to 'Evacuees Stories', you will find hundreds of stories there. You can key in the name of a place and maybe find a connection that way. I have found one connection this way with someone who went to the same school as myself. You could try this and maybe contact all the Pontypridd people to see if anybody remembers your father. I keyed in Pontypridd and about 10 stories came up so far. You could even try Keying in your father's name in Brackets in case anyone may be looking for him, but put whole name in brackets otherwise you get too many results. More are being added all the time as we are coming up to the big celebrations in London in early July for the 60 years commemmoration and the Evacuees have a big slot this time in these celebrations. They will be running an information day if you can get to London for this. Most people of my generation wanting to find connections re their evacuations, are joining the ERA(Evacuees Reunion Association) and using their Lost Touch Column. I am on the committee of the Evacuees Reunion Association and was a WW 2 Evacuee and am in touch with many London Evacuees, so if you think I can help you further then come back to me. Janet