This tree came about because of a family legend about my wife Olwen's great  grandmother, Mary Smith. According to the legend she was a Cherokee Indian who  married William Newberry and arrived in this country just in time for the birth of  her daughter Agnes. This part turned out to be just a story and she was in the UK as early as 1861 and in 1878 she married William Newberry in Wales. He was from Somerset and the son of a thatcher. Researching American Indians was a revelation, forget the films about marauding Indians massacring the white settlers, it was most definitely the other way round. Researching Smith was and is a nightmare. The Indian legend turned out, in all probability,to be partly true but that takes us into the history of the 'Mestees' and 'Melungeons',originally in the southern states of America but  that's a story for another time. I am grateful for the opportunity to research the  North American Indians and gain an insight into a lost way of life. Mary Smith turned  out to have been born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA, her father was described  as 'a gentleman' on her marriage certificate and her mother came from Ireland. Sadly  Mary died in childbirth in Cardiff at the age of thirty five and is buried in Cathay  Cemetery, Cardiff.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the Hughes were mostly miners and agricultural  workers and the arrival of the Pooles in Wales was down to Joseph Poole being  chased out of The Forest of Dean for poaching in about 1900.  
 The Days (my father's line) hailed from Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire and then to Bedfont in  Middlesex. They were mostly agricultural labourers and gardeners. Ordinary folk, nothing exciting  to report on the Day family except my grandmother's brother gave his father a good hiding one  night and he died (the father, that is) the next day. An inquest was held in the pub next  door. It's not known if the proximity of the pub had anything to do with the fisticuffs. Oh yes,  my great grandfather Day died after falling out of a window. There's careless then!

The Bristows are my mother's line and have their roots in Sussex where the name is  said to go back to Rollo the Ganger. Rollo or Ralph and Ganger or Walker. Legend has it that he  had to walk because he was too tall to ride a horse. Rollo was a 9th century Scandinavian  nobleman who raped and pillaged along the south coast of England, Scotland and France. It  was he who started the house of Normandy and was an ancestor of William the Conquerer.        Robert Fitz Hamon came over with William the Conqueror and it was his  younger brother, Haimo Dapifer, who was the grandfather of Stephen Fitz  Hamon. Stephen acquired the Burstowe Estate in Surrey. As was the custom he took the  name of his estate and became Stephen de Burstowe. The name 'Burstowe' was eventually  corrupted to 'Bristow'. 
 My eleven times great grand uncle, Nicholas Bristowe, was 
 born in 1494 and became 'Keeper of the King's Jewels' as well as many other titles  that are well documented. He was a most trusted aid to four monarchs, Henry V111,  Edward V1, Mary and Elizabeth. When he retired in 1561 his eldest son, also called  Nicholas, took over. In time his son, also called Nicholas, took over making three generations,  all called Nicholas Bristow(e), serving at court.
 I'm not sure if I would like to trace a direct line back to Rollo but it seems more  romantic than a long line of agricultural labourers. Our Bristow line suffered from  continually being the younger son so we eventually ended up with nothing except a few  interesting ancestors and some good yarns. 
 So if anyone wants an autograph.........