WELCOME
The Story so far.....
During the Middle Ages a legend was written about a British warlord known as Vortigern who had fled to Wales to escape Anglo-Saxon invaders. He found a large hill to build a castle on and had his men lay the foundation for several towers. The men worked all day but the next morning when they awoke all of their work was destroyed. This went on for several weeks.
An advisor of Vortigern told him to seek the help of a special boy in the kingdom who was born of a human mother and sired by an incubus. The boy they found was named Myrddin (Merlin) who told the king that the destruction of the castle was caused by two fighting dragons that were buiried under the hill after being tricked by an acient king. Vortigern had his men dig until the dragons emerged, one white and the other red. The red dragon represented the native Brittons because it had lived on the island longest. The other dragon represented the invading Saxons. They continued to fight until at last the red dragon of Wales was victorious. From this time on this dragon has been the symbol of the people who would be known as the Welsh. This is where my known ancestry originates.
Sometime around 1720 my great (X9) grandfather left Wales and his job as a coachmaker and sailed to Philadelphia where he married and started a family. Within a few years he moved to a Welsh settlement in South Carolina. Later during the American Revolution my great (X7) grandfather served with the South Carolina Militia under Francis Marion who was given the title of The Swamp Fox by the British officers who fought him. His job for the militia was to forge swords. Later, another grandfather would become a blacksmith who helped rebuild South Carolina after the Civil War. My great, great grandfather was also a full time blacksmith in Texas. I have a picture of him on this site.
In 1854 my great (x6) grandfather Rees passed away after a long life and his widow along with a few of their children decided it was time to move to the open spaces of Texas with two other families who they had close ties with. The very next year these three families found a nice area to continue their cattle business halfway between Houston and Galveston. They became the founders of the city where I live and continue blacksmithing, art and teaching.