How it started

The Richards Family HistoryHistory

HOW IT ALL BEGAN!

It all started about three years ago with a chance conversation to a friend who happened to be researching his Family history at the local Genealogy centre , here in Chester, England. I had for many years been in possession of a family tree which an Aunt had compiled many years ago but due to the quality and state of the paper I was unable to link several portions of it together.

(Never use a clear adhesive tape for joining paper, it goes a horrible brown colour. a picture of which is available on the picture page.).

On the suggestion of this friend I visited the local centre and he introduced me to the 1881 Census on CD Rom which had been compiled by the Church of Latter Day Saints, a copy of which I later purchased and to whom a debt of gratitude is owed by all Family researchers and without whom my work would have been made so much harder.

It was this first visit that gave me the lead to unlock the family history, the story which hopefully you have revealed before you.

My Grandfather SAMUEL RICE RICHARDS⁽³⁷⁾ was listed in that census of 1881 as being 14 years of age and living in Aquarium Street, Rhyl, with his brothers and sisters and his mother, but there was no trace of his Father (My great Grandfather) so the search was on.

Another chance happening was when I happened to be assisting a friend over the telephone with a problem he was having with his computer, that I visited the Cheshire BMD site Which incidentally has to be one of the best research sites in the country for doing family history research if your ancestors happen to be Cheshire based. They are putting ALL the Births Marriages and Deaths onto the internet so that searches can be made and then certificates ordered. It was on one of those visits that I happened across a recently updated Marriage record of my grandfather (Samuel Rice Richards) that gave me another great boost. It gave me the second key to unlocking the Richards Family History.

This chance visit gave me the opportunity to obtain Samuels Marriage Certificate, which not only gave me my grandmothers details (which had previously been uncharted as she had died at a very young age) but my Great Grandfather on both sides of the Richards line. I had always been led to believe that my ancestors had come from the Isle of Anglesey, when in truth they had come from the Llyn peninsular. The town of Pwllheli in fact, but read on as the story gets more interesting as time goes by.

The American Connection

A recent contact from America has put new impetuous into the research with a discovery that the Richards from Pwllheli do in fact have relations alive and well in the USA.

It transpires that David Morgan Richards, the son of William Richards and Anne Williams (daughter of a shoe maker) lost his father who was the captain of the ship 'Disraeli' in May 1868.

David Morgan Richards later became a Methodist Minister who emigrated to America in the early 1900's.

A distant relative of his was searching for his (David Morgan's) ancestors and found this "The Richards" web site and over the past few weeks we have been in constant touch, exchanging information.

With the explicit permission of those relations in America, I shall, hopefully, be making the information that Deborah has collated so far, available for others, on this Web Site.

She has completed most of the research on her ancestors pertaining to the Richards's and their time and work in USA. There are still Richards from the 'Pwllheli' line living in various parts of the USA.

Several visits to the Mormon site at Salt Lake City a site which has improved out of all recognition since it was first launched a couple of years ago, and has been a fantastic starting out point, and should be visited by all person who want to research their family history as it provides names and dates which were, and have been latter, verified at various local family research centres.

The story is by nowhere finished , in fact some would say that its only just begun, but I have achieved in a few short months more than I ever thought was possible. I had originally set out to find out just who my Grandfather was. I have done that, and a whole lot more, besides, and I hope that I can be an inspiration to any one else who might be contemplating doing the same sort of project. I along with possibly millions of others awaited with eager anticipation the online census information from 1901. but was sadly disappointed at the failure of the site of the very first day.

After 8 months of revamp the 1901 census now seems to be working well. Although having to pay full fees to access the test the site was somewhat of a cheek. It is now fully functional, but, still has some draw backs which have become apparent as searches are made, mostly with regards to spelling of names and places.

I have managed to retrieve the Data with regards to my Mothers side of the family the 'WARDS' who come from Lincolnshire and I have now put the information I have onto the site as a link from the main data page.

Now that I have got some data on the Wards from the 1901 and also the 1881 census, I am in a position to go and visit the Local Research centre in Lincoln itself.

A few recently found OLD photographs have also been added in the picture pages, and as more information becomes available I will update the necessary pages.

I have on the following pages put all the data that I have been able to collect and confirm with regards to the Richards /Ward, which is my side of the family and I will endeavour to keep this updated as and when I get more information (my wife was/is a PERKS and this information is available but NOT on this site, yet!). I have not for obvious reasons included any items which include the present day, but the tree now goes back into the mid 1700's with more research taking us further back all the time, though this becomes more and more time consuming as we get further and further back. I regularly update these pages so please come back and visit again and see if there is anything new.

I have decided that it is a necessity to keep ones mind focused on the job in hand as it would be an enormous task to follow every lead down through history. I am finding that the storage and retrieval of data even now is becoming quite a task. I have never been what could be described as having a tidy mind but I have learnt that whilst doing this , one has to be tidy both mentally and practically.( Oh if only Mother was here to hear this). Even now I still get lost navigating through all the data that we have stored to put on here can be in its self a daunting task.

I still keep a paper copy of all the data that we have collected possibly its part of my make up but mainly its a distrust of this electronic storage, as it has been known for my machine to Crash in a major way and data retrieval is a nightmare, Having already been down that road. Hence the hard copy!

I have attempted to give as broad a view as possible being selective in what I researched have only followed the male lines back on my Fathers and Mothers side.

I have along with my wife, have, with great difficulty learnt to read the old hand written script which was used when they wrote these records, . Although the quality of some of the images on the films which carry the images leaves a lot to be desired.

Should you wish to contact me with regards to any of the information that I have put on here, I can be contacted by clicking on the link below.

Contact me

I am able to supply a file copy of the data in most formats, including MS Word, GEDCOM, PDF and Plain Text , most of which, I have made available as File Downloads in PDF format and as RTF on the downloads page. Should you, however require a copy of the complete GEDCOM file, which includes the "PERKS" data, please contact me directly using either the feedback page or the link from above.

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