A 67-year-old man from the Netherlands has written a book after spending more than 20 years researching his family history.
Elwyn Schreuder, from Rotterdam, has dedicated years working on the book, called Where does Elwyn come from?
The 356-page illustrated book is written in both Dutch and English – an ode to his father Han’s Dutch heritage and his mother, Margaret Roberts’ roots in Wales.
Mr Schreuder said: “When I finished the Schreuder family, I started to ask my mother, who was in her eighties at that time, about relatives who were born in Wales, and about her Welsh family.
“In order to find out more about them, we travelled to Wales.”
Alongside his mother, who was born in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire in 1916, and his son Floris, who was 12-years-old at the time, they made the trip to Wales in 1998 to explore their family history.
Together, they visited Llanelli and nearby Felinfoel to find information about his grandfather, who had the surname ‘Roberts’. They also visited Newcastle Emlyn and Cwm-Cou, Carmarthenshire, following his grandmother’s side of the family.
Mr Schreuder said: “We visited many graveyards. I felt interested and glad the graves were still there and that my mother was able to see them too.
“I can still hear my son calling me: ‘Hey dad, everybody seems to be named Thomas Thomas.’ To him it seemed an impossible job.”
He discovered that his great-uncle, Griffith Howell Lloyd, came to Senghenydd and started a building firm with his cousin, Griffith Davies, who came from Ceridigion and ended up living with his family in Gwern Avenue, Senghenydd.
On the right, Griffith Davies and his wife Elisabeth Gould circa 1900
Griffith Howell Lloyd married Margaret Lewis nee Morgan after she had lost her first husband in the Senghenydd Mining Disaster in 1913.
Mr Schreuder has already sold more than 100 copies of his book. The book costs €39.95 (€55.00 including postage).
To buy a copy of the book, contact Mr Schreuder on Elwyn.Schreuder7@gmail.com