Starting out

I suspect most families have at least a vague idea of their ancestors or family tree beyond the second generation. Observe the sentimental scene of grandparents and parents sharing stories with the children beside the fireside on winter evenings. Names of people and places are drawn out from the dusty attics of memory, permeate the room with their presence for a few brief moments, then evaporate quickly into the collective cloud of the past. They are rarely documented. The stories are oral, and are meant to be told and not necessarily written.  In any case, such was the case with myself.

My name is Philip Roger Richards, born 18 October 1968 in Neath, in the county of West Glamorgan, in the principality of Wales which is part of the United Kingdom. I was born to Clayton Windsor Richards and Heulwen Richards (nee Jones) and have two younger siblings - Arwel Wyn Richards and Meinir Eleri Richards. I married Nicola (nee Kirkman) in Neath on 27 May 2000. I have two children, Kirsten Jamie Richards (b. 26 June 2002 in Tilburg, Netherlands) and Luke Clayton Richards (b. 11 June 2007, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa). My wife and children currently live in Overton, a village in the county of Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Nikki and I with our children Kirsty and Luke (Somerset West, South Africa 2011)

This blog is meant to provide a means for me to reflect and document the researching of my family tree. I am not a professional family historian/geneaologist so my methods may be inefficient, but I intend to learn something about better methods as I go along and have some fun in the process. 

I also hope that this will be interesting to the rest of my immediate family and to my and my father's extended family and that they may be able to add some information to make the research more accurate and interesting.

A specific note of gratitude to Mr Trevor Dunkerley of Combe Martin, Devon, the importance of whose place of residence will hopefully become clear in the next post. He, together with other members of the Combe Martin History Forum on Facebook (link here ) were both helpful in terms of providing very useful information in getting me started, and at the same time restoring my faith in the potential and usefulness of social media sites like Facebook!