Thank you Ruth and Rina, I think you are correct about Mary. It can be a
real challenge reading the handwriting when you don't know what it should
say, eg for place names. I appreciate the help because this Mary ET
(transcribed Mary ES 1881) is my maternal grandfather's mother, and as far
as I can tell from anywhere, was an only child. Her mother died quite early
on which is a bit of a trend in my family history but I think it was the
same for a lot of people? A lot of the baptisms and burials for Ward that I
found in the archives were closely matched in date. I don't think
Radnorshire (or indeed the C19th) sounds like a very healthy place. Mary
herself had 10 children in London and Chichester and only raised 7.
I'm lucky, I have a copy of a very nice family photo taken around 1905.
Someone did a study of families here in NZ because we have this myth of
large families - the truth seems to be that more babies survived in the
conditions here, and perhaps that couples could afford to marry a year or
two earlier. The other fascinating thing the author said was that while
having a large family was unusual, being born in one wasn't. That really
made me think. After all, the children of childless couples do not become
genealogists!
Thank you Mike for the posting about the indexing of Welsh families, what a
hurdle :(
Bye for now
Lesley-in-New-Zealand