Family lore’s always held the Williams clan stretched back to Ireland. I’ve visited the Emerald Isle, and
“Danny Boy,” along with Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart” from his album The Wind that came out not long before my old man died, always played a part in mourning his passing.
I always had a feeling in visiting Ireland, and even the western shores of Scotland, that I was walking where progenitors had strolled, farmed and fished.
So I was talking to my wife Christine’s aunt on a recent visit, and she mentioned the free FamilySearch website.
I used up free Ancestry searches long ago, dabbling to extent my interest stretched past family lore. A general knowledge seemed enough.
But I dabbled a little more with FamilySearch and opened up a gateway stretching further than I’d imagined on my father’s side. (Ireland seemed to be a branch on his mother’s tree.)
Adjacent footnotes and records seem to confirm the path. The Williamses branch back from my grandfather Sidney Glover Williams Sr. (I’m technically Sidney III) to his father William Milton Williams to David Crockett Williams and his pop Bird and eventually back to Virginia not far from where I live now but then on to England and the merchant and tailor Sydrach Williams. Apparently that Syd visited Italy and ran afoul of the Inquisition at one point.
Before him? It’s back to Wales.
Wales!?
A customs officer said as we showed our passports on the way to Scotland once upon a time that since we’d seen Ireland and were headed for the Highlands, we’d need next to visit Wales to have a complete picture of the UK.
I’m having to rethink homeland a bit because the “Son of Williams” line stretches back to Griffiths and Gruffydds in what was once the county of Caernarvonshire in the Northwest region of Wales.
Maybe some people sailed over from Ireland, but the Gruffydd son of Gwilyms of Penrhyn folk have pretty deep roots in The Land of the Dragon and were involved in moments like the resistance to the Norman Conquest.
All of it brings a bit of awe even as my thinking recalibrates. A little more interest is piqued, at least to explore the history of Wales we didn’t get into that much when I took upper level British history classes in college, thinking I might need that in my writing. I’ll have to do a bit more thinking on identity and heritage than I ever have.
One thing’s for sure. I’m going to have Christine retool the outline for my obituary to include descendant of Welsh kings!
