Get on with it!

I've been tracing my family history since the late 1980s. I can't remember when exactly, all I know is I remember wanting to do it since I was about seventeen years of age when a newscaster on television did a documentary on how he traced his family back to the Vikings.

I finally started in 1987 aged thirty-nine. It is now something I wish I had started when I was seventeen; there have been so many people who would have been alive that I could have talked to.

They could have told me their experiences of life and being a member of my family, one of those being Henry John Harvey, (pictured right) working for Davies and Co. in Abercynon, south Wales, who went to America in 1906.

He arrived at Ellis Island in New York the day after an earthquake which destroyed San Francisco, and made his way up through Canada and finally down the west coast ending up in San Francisco.

Just think of all the wonderful adventures he could have told me of his time travelling all that way. I found him on the Ellis Island web site, an excellent site for anyone who has relatives who went to America.

He travelled on the SS Celtic from Liverpool. Apparently he went there so he didn't have to work down the mines of south Wales.

I discovered relatives of Henry John still living in the San Francisco area, second and third cousins. There were also other cousins in Texas.

Paulette Wrede (second right), my third cousin, started writing and eventually came to visit Wales, when I first met her and her brother, Ron Harvey Wrede (centre); Henry John Harvey was their grandfather.

Also pictured, Harry Harvey (right), Henry's son; Hazel Harvey (left) and Maryellen Wrede nee Harvey (second left).

Paulette told me Henry wouldn't talk about his life in Wales. He used to say that was the old country.

She then encouraged me to visit San Francisco. Due to work commitments I kept putting it off but finally booked my visit for 17th October 1989.

I will never forget that morning as long as I live; there I was curled up on the settee with a great big mug of tea, all ready to catch the 8am train from Cardiff to Gatwick.

Then the news came on the television and the first words the newscaster said were "Here is the six o'clock news for today, Wednesday 18th October 1989. There's been a major earthquake in San Francisco."

"Hang on a minute", I think to myself. That's where I'm going. I'll pinch myself, was another thought I had, and then maybe I would wake up, because this must be a dream.

They were now showing photographs of the collapsed Bay Bridge and the massive fire in the Marina District (pictured left). I didn't know at the time but Paulette lived just a couple of blocks from the fire.

She later told me that she had spent most of that night in her car with an elderly neighbour she had rescued from the nightmare of that earthquake.

Before five past six I was on the phone to California. It was hopeless, engaged tone all the time. "Oh well", I said to myself. "I've paid for my trip and I'm not about to let an earthquake spoil it", so off I go. Keep hoping on the flight everybody's all right. Change planes in Minneapolis; try phoning again, still same problem, engaged all the time. Not many people on the plane, nobody seems to be going to San Francisco I think to myself.

Arrive in San Francisco just one hour late, pilot tells us things are getting back to normal after the airport being closed for some time. Finally get through customs and there's Paulette. "Everybody's just fine", she tells me; thank God for that I think to myself.

Despite all the dreadful destruction I had a truly wonderful experience visiting California and have been back since, twice.

I visited Carmel, where Clint Eastwood was mayor; it truly is a romantic place. I have also visited the redwood forests, where I stood amongst the giant sequoia trees, the largest living things on the planet.

I also did the usual touristy things like Alcatraz and the Napa Valley, where they make all the wine; I also experienced one of the many aftershocks that had occurred.

I ate some lovely meals in quaint restaurants and as the Beatles so aptly put it "There are places you'll remember all your life" and California for me is certainly one of them. So to all you wanting to trace your family history, get on with it, and you too might have An Experience Of A Lifetime.

Colin Harvey - Tongwynlais

This article previously appeared in the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society magazine