Driving and Genealogy Tours for 2025

Just spending these dark evenings researching some new venues for the coming year. The nice thing is that I get to spend the next two months driving to places like the Cambrian mountains and Aberystwyth to double check on what’s happening in places like the National Wool Museum, the National Library of Wales (where they’re showing an exhibition of Welsh Art – sure to be a draw!), or just revisiting places like Pembroke, Cilgerran or Castell Carreg Cennen – three of the scores of castles that we have here in Wales! To follow up on my interests in Industrial Heritage, I’ll be visiting the sites of former iron works, tinplate works, slate quarries and coal mines to make sure I know what’s new on these sites.

Genealogy is a great way of getting into the requirements of visitors. At present I’m waiting for some names and dates of birth of the forebears of some clients for the Spring – then I can look into where they were born, where they moved to, where their children were born and so on. One great trip I did last year was to take an American visitor to the town where her great grandfather lived and died (tragically in one of the coal mining tragedies of the 1850’s), and then I could take to where her great great grandfather was both born and died. It was only 50 miles away, but buried in the hills it was a million miles from the noise, smoke and tumult of where his son lived and died. Crucially, just seeing this tiny hamlet (4 houses and a church!) the visitor could finally understand why people moved from one part of Wales to another as the industrial revolution of the 1800’s took place.

I’m really looking forward to taking you for a personalised tour around these areas – never a set route, always adapted to your interests. Contact me to discuss how I can show you the Wales of today, and of your ancestors.