Connie (& anyone else planning to visit by public transport)
As you say, Cardiff does have 2 stations, but Queen Street is only for
local trains; Central is the Inter-city station. But you might not
need to come as far as Cardiff.
As Wendy said, Gwent Record Office is near Cwmbran (actually at
Croesyceiliog) - but not very near Cwmbran station (which is on the
Manchester/Newport/Cardiff line), and as far as I've been able to
gather, there is no bus service from Cwmbran station to the Record
Office. I've often wanted to go by train, but not yet tried. I'm not
sure how long it would take to walk, or which way one
would go - though I doubt it would be more than half an hour. (My
problem is I carry a big heavy research bag!)
I think there is, though, a BUS from NEWPORT to the Record Office; and
I would think your intercity train to Cardiff might also stop at
Newport en route.
Monmouthshire CENSUS material is all in Newport Library - and most of
it is NOT also in the Record Office, which only has certain years.
Newport Library also has the Electoral Registers, and old newspapers.
Newport Library and the Record Office both hold indexed transcripts of
many Parish Registers and Memorial Inscriptions, as well as Gwent FHS
1861 Census Index. Newport Library also has the IGI, and the GRO
Indexes of B, M & D for England & Wales. There is an useful list of
holdings from a link on Newport Library's very informative EARL page:
http://www.earl.org.uk/familia/services/newport.html.
I wonder whether you might be better to stay in Newport, book readers
for film (Census) or fiche (GRO & Census Indexes & IGI) at Newport
Library on some days, and go to Gwent Record Office by bus on other
days, to look in
Parish Registers etc. From Newport there should be at least
occasional public transport up ANY Monmouthshire valley for house &/or
graveyard photography - but without the preliminary searches in the
Indexes, you might not know which valley(s) you may want to visit.
I suppose really it depends what period you are researching. If you
are PRE-Census, the material you need would be far more likely to be
in the Record Office; and as there may well not be easy transport
between one valley and another, you may want to stay as near the
Record Office as possible.
I don't know anything about accommodation in Gwent, sorry.
Perhaps someone else local may have thoughts on this.
In case you had some reason for mentioning Cardiff, you may be
interested to know that Glamorgan Record Office in Cardiff also has
the GRO Indexes, on fiche; and has MOST of Monmouthshire's Census
material, on fiche (far more than Gwent Record Office has) and Gwent
FHS's 1861 Census Index - but of course it does not have Monmouthshire
Parish or Electoral Registers etc.
Anne Scales
AncestralRoots(a)annescales.freeserve.co.uk