EDWARDS of Brecon

John Edwards would appreciate help with his research. If you can help or know of anyone researching his EDWARDS family or any descendants of the family, he would be very glad to hear from you.
Contact him by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

John says:

I wonder if your society can assist me in tracing relatives in the Brecon area?

I have recently been researching my family history and find that my paternal grandfather, Noel Edwards, born 1879 in Brecon, was shown in the 1881 census as living at The Cock and Horse Inn, 48 The Watton, Brecon. Noel and his twin sister Mabel lived there with their widowed mother, Elizabeth (born 1848) and their brothers, Sidney, born 1874, David, born 1875, and sister, Margaret Elizabeth, born 1877. Their mother, Elizabeth, (my great-grandmother) was the widow of David James Edwards, an engine driver on the Merthyr and Brecon Railway. She was the Innkeeper of the establishment.

Noel moved to Merthyr Tydfil in about 1905 and married my grandmother, Lilian Maud Porter. They had three children: my father, Frederick Raymond, born 1918, and his sisters, Phyllis born 1909 and Muriel born 1911. Noel died in 1918 (three months before the birth of my father) and Lilian later moved to Newport.

The Cock and Horse Inn is now known as The Gremlin. My cousin from Newport has visited The Gremlin and we are planning to hold a family get-together there in the foreseeable future. We are all now in our 60s and 70s and we would be really pleased to meet any 'newly-found' relatives from the Brecon side of the family to join us for lunch and perhaps a trip on the Canal.
It would be a great pleasure to meet any descendants of the people mentioned above. I would particularly welcome any photos of my grandfather, Noel Edwards, and my great-grandparents, Elizabeth Edwards and David James Edwards.

I am a retired police officer living in Surrey; my sister lives in Cardiff and my brother lives in Merthyr.

Request submitted 14 May 2012