Swansea: Woman meets relatives after 121-year-old postcard finally delivered
A woman has met long-lost family members for the first time after a 121-year-old postcard was finally delivered.
The postcard arrived at an address in Swansea earlier this month, now the home of Swansea Building Society.
Helen Roberts still lives in the area, not far from her grandfather’s childhood home.
Her grandfather was a brother to Ewart, the postcard’s sender, and its recipient Lydia.
The message on the card reads: “Dear L. I could not, it was not possible to get the pair of these. I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about 10/- [shillings] as pocket money not including the train fare so I am doing alright. Remember me to Miss Gilbert and John. With love to all from Ewart.”
The 58-year-old, who had been tracing her family tree online, received a message after the postcard appeal was first shared.
“It was from a lady who’d seen the article on social media, and she put the name and address of the person the postcard was sent to into Ancestry and then traced her [to] my family tree,” she said.
“As soon as I saw the address and the name I recognised it straight away as being my grandfather’s family home as a child and Lydia being his sister.”
‘Close a few loose ends’
On Wednesday, Ms Roberts and her sister Margaret Spooner met with Ewart’s grandson Nick Davies and Lydia’s great granddaughter Faith Reynolds.
Mr Davies had travelled from West Sussex and Ms Reynolds from her home in Devon for the family reunion.
“It was great on Wednesday, meeting two members of my extended family who I’d never heard of before, let alone met,” Ms Roberts added.
“This has enabled me to close a few loose ends and find out more about my grandfather’s siblings.”
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The postcard is understood to have been sent by Ewart to his sister while he was staying with their grandparents in the coastal town of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire.
“It’s been great meeting up with Nick and Faith who’ve got knowledge of their own families, and they’ve gained knowledge from our aspect as well,” Ms Roberts said.
“And we are keeping in touch, we’ve exchanged emails and we just hit it off straight away.”
The family is not only scattered across the UK, with a relative living in Canada having contacted Mr Davies after the tale was first shared.
“The whole thing has been mind-blowing. Not just the postcard turning up, but how it connected the family and how much it’s gone viral globally. It’s astonishing,” she added.
Ms Roberts said she was pleased she had started building her family tree as it opened the door to the family reunion.
“If I didn’t have that information in my family tree then maybe I wouldn’t have been contacted by the lady who did contact me,” she said.
“It’s something that I would encourage, it’s definitely a positive thing. It’s a good feeling to find all this and I would certainly recommend to people, if they’re interested in that sort of thing.”