I have just received an interesting message from BC, telling me that one of my relatives, Ann Jayne Belton, who once lived in Bwlchgwyn, emigrated to British Columbia just over 100 years ago. I hope to hear more, soon, but in the meantime I am just wondering - why? What would make a young lady travel so far? Did she travel with other relatives?
Ann Jayne's brother, Edward O Belton, emigrated to Pennsylvania a few years later, he had already left Bwlchgwyn to work in the deep mines in South Wales and he and a friend from South Wales travelled together. A couple of years later, after a visit home, Edward returned to America accompanied by his younger brother and a cousin. They went abroad to work in the anthracite and coal mines, the motive is reasonably clear (and, so far as I can tell, Edward O Belton did well for himself in America), but Ann Jayne? That, I think, will be an interesting tale!
