The Welsh Connection
The
Australian population apart from its indigenous peoples, are a nation of very recent
immigrants. In our branch of the Costello clan, that migration comes not only from Ireland
but also on our mother's side, from Wales. The Welsh family are Thompsons
and they have already done an enormous amount of research to trace their ancestors back to
the 1700's.
Where Costello meets Thompson
Where the Costello's meet the Thompsons is when Bernard Costello marries Muriel Ann
Thompson in 1945 at Ely, in Cambridgeshire. They had met at a nearby RAF base because
Bernard was a navigator flying Lancaster bombers with Bomber Command and Muriel was a
nursing sister in Princess Mary's Royal Nursing service and a flying officer, stationed at
RAF Hospital Ely.
Muriel journeyed out to Australia as a war bride in 1945 and it was to be another 26
years before she and her family were to meet again. Let's trace some of the antecedents of
her branch of the Thompson clan.
Generating a Genealogy
The genealogy researched by Lynne and Stephen Thompson and published by John Thompson
(Uncle John) came about because Uncle John started to get curious about his namesake
grandfather, John Thompson.
He found out he was born in Pensford and then Lynne and Stephen got on the trail,
exploring the graveyards of that area, and finding the records. They completed a
genealogy-on their honeymoon no less.
When Aunty May died and left her estate to be evenly divided between all her
direct descendants, the family realized that only now did they possess a reliable listing.
Using census material and birth and death registers, the family researchers were able to
take the family as far back as 1767.
Coster Thompson (1767-1840 Pensford- a town near Bristol) married Honour
? (1777-1838 Pensford)
Their children were Lumption(1803-) Lamrock, (1805-83) William, George
John,Peter, Elizabeth, and Coster jnr. All are listed from Pensford.
The line carries on when William Francis Thompson who is listed as a
coppersmith in the census (1803-1878) marries Anna Beer (1820-1888) from
Aberavon.
They have children William, Anna, Elizabeth, John, Caroline, Emily, Mary
(1853-1935)
and Coster (1857-1943) This marks the last record in the census of the family residing in
the Pensford area.
The line continues through John Thompson who is listed as a cabman in
the census (1844-1930 Port Talbot) who marries Elizabeth Morris(1846-1919)
and the family live in Port Talbot.
This is the first record in the census of the family residing in the Port
Talbot/Aberavan area. Elizabeth's father was one Isaac Morris who
worked as a tailor and came from Poland. Isaac might indicate that he was Jewish and
perhaps had anglicized his name to Morris. The census also tells us that John and
Elizabeth shared a house in Wern Place with John's brother, Coster and his family.
They sire children named May, Elizabeth, Arthur, Frederick, David, Harriet, John,
Robert, William and Agnes and Sydney.
The branch continues through the youngest, Sydney Thompson
(1890-1948) when he marries Margaret Anne Banks (1894-1965) Margaret's
family name was Griffith and she was a cousin to the first secretary at the time, Jim
Griffith.
The Banks
The Banks are also a fascinating family with all manner of stories.
For instance, it is said that Margaret's mother had a child out of wedlock, William
Henry and that she gave him up. However, when she married Sydney, they
managed to steal him away from the family he was with and bring him up as their own son.
Records show that the family went to Scotland-Dumbarton- for a time, whether to foil
the discovery of their deed or not, we can only speculate.
Another story concerns Margaret's brother, another William but known as Willie who was
a merchant sailor and who disappeared in the 1920's and was never heard of again. A friend
of the family said that they had seen him in New Zealand. Other stories related to
Willie's passion for shark fishing and whether he had been taken by a shark at sea, or so
badly wounded that he was too ashamed to return.
Syd and Margaret have children Stan, (1915-86) Sidney (1916-74)
Dorothy May (1919-82) Muriel Ann(1921) William
Gordon (1924-74) John(1928) and Myra (1935)
Stan marries Dilys Roberts (b.1918) and have 4 children- Brian, Jeffrey, Anne and
Elaine
Sid marries Phyllis Hall( 1914-1990) and have a son Michael.
Dorothy (Dot) marries Cornelius (Con) Evans and have children: Two sets of twins,
Bernard and Terry, and Margaret and Muriel.
William (Bill) marries Rae King and have children Ian and Ann(Gaenor)
John marries Eileen Margaret Smart and have children Lyn and Stephen.
Myra marries Richard Howard Thomas (Howard) and they have children Richard,
Andrew and Betsan.
And Muriel marries Bernard Costello from Australia and have children Susanne, Stephen,
Paul and Jenny.
The Next Generations?
There are generations after this of course, but we are hoping that that generation who
are familiar with this technology might take it on from here.
Meet two of them
Above is a picture of Grace Harriet Thomas born in May 1992. Myra and
Howard's granddaughter. Grace's parents visited the Costello family in January of 1992
when Ruth was pregnant.
And here is a lovely little girl Amber.
She was born on 24th April 1998, exactly seven days before Grace's 6th birthday.
Richard is her very proud Dad, Gisele is her very proud Mum. Her full name is Amber
Sophia Danks - she has her mothers surname. She has a brother called Tristan, and
obviously her sister Grace.
