Originally from Six Bells, the couple emigrated in 1961 to Pittsburgh where Ken worked as an engineer in the steel industry. They eventually settled in California before retiring to Las Vegas.

Living on the other side of the Atlantic hasn't stopped the Morleys from keeping in touch with their homeland and tracing their family history.

Like many families in the coal mining areas of the south Wales valleys, Ken believes the Morleys originally came from England and he's trying to find out when.

"We have traced our Morley family to the Rhondda Valleys in Glamorgan to my great-great-grandfather David Morley, born about 1796 in Llantrisant," he says.

"We are trying to trace from where and when the Morleys migrated to Wales from England."

Their closest links outside the Valleys appear to be with the West country, as indicated by the travels of Ken's great-grandfather.

"Charles Cook (left, with wife Elita and sister Elizabeth) visited Six Bells first in 1846 as a youngster with his mother from Camerton, Somerset, and came up the Valley in a coal tram," says Ken.

"He returned to Somerset and worked in the coal mines there until in his teens he returned to Six Bells to spend the rest of his life there. He died in 1932 at age 91."

Hilda's family - Lucas - also came to Six Bells from the West country at the turn of the 19th century, in this case from Gloucester via Varteg.

The couple began their research by collecting information from all of their living relatives, and then giving them a copy of their branch of the family tree for comments and revisions.

"A lot of the information came in obituary notices from various newspapers along with photographs of themselves," says Ken.

"This has certainly brought the family closer and our files are ever expanding with family information, if only from Christmas cards."

Armed with this information, the Morleys then searched the internet, finding family-related names from Canada and Australia as well as the UK. Ken says they've also discovered the possibility of family links to some famous names from history.

"Recently we came across the following web site - www.prospector-utah.com/butch.htm - which identifies the possible origin of the Morley name along with possible connections to Daniel Boone, Butch Cassidy and King Rollo of Norway, which makes for some interesting reading."

The Morleys still keep in touch with friends from Abertillery, including several players from the town's rugby team which Ken captained in the early 1950s.

For more about Ken and Hilda's family history, see their homepage or the memories section of Abertillery Online.