Providing a Sense of Place Enhancing Your Family History with the National Monuments Record of Wales

Have you ever wondered what your ancestors’ home was like? Where they worked? What their community looked like and what sites they saw as they went about their day-to-day lives, an ocean away from your own? Researching historic buildings and other sites can enrich genealogical research by connecting the people in your family tree with real places, allowing you to imagine and understand their lives more fully.
The National Monuments Record of Wales, managed by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, holds information and records relating to over 100,000 sites across Wales and the surrounding seas. These records include millions of images, many of which can be viewed for free online. This talk will guide you through our collections, how to access them, and how they can be used to enhance your own research. It will also discuss the assistance which our helpful Enquiries Service can offer and highlight other free online resources which our team of experts use to help people discover Wales’s rich history and heritage.
Originally from Missouri, Dr Adam Coward is a historian with over a decade of experience in the Welsh higher education and heritage sectors. He is currently a Library and Enquiries Officer at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales were he assists researchers, including genealogists, in accessing the history of Wales’s built environment.