philippa cooper <pkcooper(a)senet.com.au> asked:
<< Being a humble colonial, I am uncertain as to which list I should be
asking questions of! I don't want to offend anyone. My family interest lie
in Pontypool and Aberystwyth (and I apologise for any misspellings). So
which list is for me? >>
Hi Philippa!
Sorry about the delay in responding; I've had some problems both with this
infernal machine and with my ISP's email servers.
Don't you dare worry about offending people by asking questions about
locations, sources of information, or anything else related to your hunt for
family knowledge! That's one of the reasons these mailing lists exist - so
people can help each other to find the best sources and methods for family
research. Finding geographical locations is one of the biggest themes on
these rootsweb mailing lists.
Pontypool is definitely in Monmouthshire. The best list at Rootsweb for
information about Pontypool and its population over the years, is
<MONMOUTHSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com>.
Useful links for the Pontypool search (maybe some of the other listers can
throw in a few here, too?):
Gwent Family History Society:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wlsgfhs/index.htm
Take a peek to see if your people are included in Mike John's tree of
Monmouthshire families:
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=27071957
Main Genuki Page - Loads of useful information;
http://www.genuki.org.uk/
You should find information about Pontypool under Monmouthshire in the Wales
section of Genuki, and for Aberystwith in the Cardigan pages of the Wales
section.
Are you looking for Aberystwith, a large coastal town on the West Wales
coast in Cardiganshire, or Aberystruth in Monmouthshire, a sub-district of
Bedwellty in the industrial South East Wales? Aberystruth is covered by all
the Monmuthshire mailing lists, including Blaenau Gwent; Aberystwith is
covered by the Cardigan and Dyfed lists at Rootsweb.
If you get confused by anything in your search, just ask on the relevant
mailing lists - there's usually somebody who knows how to answer your
question, or who could point you in the right direction for you to find the
answers yourself.
Hope this helps!
x Kate.