By Sally Boyce
TWO men living oceans apart rolled back the centuries to find a shared past in 19th century Radnorshire.
Former Brisbane police officer Lytton Wellings met Titley gardener Malcolm Evans, each having separately traced how their forbears left home in Knighton for Australia, nearly 170 years earlier.
Their delving got them in touch 12 months ago, and this week they shook hands and exchanged information about the Wellings family, who have lived on the Welsh border for the past 200 years.
The Brisbane meeting was great for 68-yearold Lytton, having researched his family’s Radnorshire roots for some time.
His late aunt was aware her surname, Lawn, echoed family connections with Chapel Lawn, near Knighton.
Malcolm, aged 57, a keen member of Pembridge History Group, discovered that he shares an ancestry with Lytton stretching back seven generations to John Wellings, born in Clun, in 1720.
“We’ve worked out that we are fifth cousins once removed,” explained Malcolm.
The research will continue, and there are hopes of tracing the ancestors of those transported to the former 19th century penal colony of Van Diemens Land on Tasmania.
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