From the Star

Previous accounts of the Reverend have focused on Ebenezer's disputes and clashes, but the people behind this project said it aimed to focus on his colourful family life.

Author Kenneth Mervyn-Jones is a great-great-great-grandson of Ebenezer and the information for the CD-rom was mainly taken from his research into the family tree.

The launch will take place at Parc Howard Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday between 11am and 2pm. The site was chosen for its link with the project.

“It was the perfect place really,” said Mrs Rees. “The land on which Parc Howard stands was previously known as Bryn Caerau. This is where Ebenezer’s son-in-law and his family lived until they were hit by bankruptcy.”

Self-funded, the project has taken three years to complete.

A larger-than-life character

THE CD-rom tells the story of a larger than life character and outlines in detail his wives, children, grand-children and their descendants. It says Rev Morris fathered numerous children from multiple marriages over 43 years.

A possible bigamous marriage was also uncovered during the research.

Many of his children became clergy or married clergymen.

Links have also been traced to the royal family.

Family Tree Magazine May 2003

Birth of a Town

THE 2,334 colour A4 pages on this CD-ROM are the results of eight years' research into Llanelli’s colourful past by William and Benita Rees with co-operation from local archives, museums, libraries, businesses and commercial organisations in the area.

The CD-ROM may be used on PCs running under the Windows 95 or later operating system or Apple Macintosh Computers (OS version 7.1 and later) in conjunction with the versatile Adobe Acrobat Reader software with its comprehensive browse, search, zoom and print facilities, which are included on the CD-ROM.

To view, Acrobat Reader is opened and the file Birth of a Town pdf is opened from the CD-ROM drive.

The contents are split into 31 sections including, Contemporary portraits, Family Trees (23); Maps (29); Newspapers; Prominent people (30), many with census extracts, biographies and obituaries; and Societies and Trade directories (10) from 1811 to 1897. Every section and sub-section is bookmarked (indexed) so that browsing for an item of interest is minimal. The Find facility of Acrobat reader may be employed to search for people, places, occupations and topics, using which I found one W G Probert in Vaughan Street in 1897, a photographic artist.

An excellent presentation and a fascinating comprehensive history and information source for Llanelli available from Meiros Publications, 12 Craddock Street. Llanelli. Carmarthenshire SAI5 BE (tel: 01554 775320; e-mail: benitaafan@aol.com; website. llanelli history.il2.com), price £19,99, plus £1.50 p&p to UK addresses. Cheques payable to Meiros Publications."

Llanelli Star December 5th 2002

History disc launched

A NEW CD-Rom which, has been published to celebrate Llanelli's colourful past was launched on Tuesday December 2. The CD which was compiled by Benita and William Rees with the help of Art Designer Andy Taylor is the completed works of an eight-year project that started when Benita and William decided to research the history of their home.

"It's been a culmination of 8 years research and 3 years working with Andy Taylor the art designer to produce the CD-Rom which now has 2,334 pages," said Benita.

The CD which features many local historical landmarks and material has also had an input from local Burry Port poet Marie Horridge. She described being a part of the CD as a totally thrilling experience.

"It's an honour to have been asked to be a part of this CD. It is of fantastic quality."

The Llanelli - Birth of a Town CDRom can be purchased from Meiros Publications on telephone 01554 775320 priced £19.99.

Alternatively, visit www.llanellihistory.i12.com for further information and a sneak preview. Any schools that are interested please contact as Benita and William as they are more than happy to come along with their laptop to do a demonstration.

Llanelli Star November 28 2002

History of Llanelli goes on CD-Rom viewing

A NEW CD-Rom has been published to celebrate Llanelli’s colourful past.

Llanelli - Birth of a Town is a limited edition CD tracing Llanelli from its origins to the present day.

It has taken local residents William and Benita Rees eight painstaking years to put the CD. together.

The project started when the couple moved to Llanelli and wanted to research the history of their home.

But when they went to the public library, :they were amazed to see that at that time, none of the books or articles published about the town covered the complete times of Llanelli.

As Mr and Mrs Rees became more intrigued with our town’s history they decided to produce a small booklet – but the enormous amounts of material they gathered soon turned into something else altogether different.

Encompassing Llanelli’s tradition of being in the forefront of technology, the couple decided mix new with the old and produce a CD-Rom.

“We were fascinated by the town’s colourful past and hoped to produce a small book entitled Llanelli Ancient & Modern, but we were overtaken by events when the material we gathered grew to enormous proportions,” they said.

“Any possibility of producing a book in the traditional sense at a reasonable cost flew out of the window.”

ARTdesigns were asked to step in and help Mr and Mrs Rees produce the work on a CD in Adobe PDF format.

As most PC’s already have this software it seemed the best way forward, and now all 2,215 pages of Llanelli's history can be viewed on screen.

The sections are bookmarked for easy reference and the whole CD is fully searchable.

The Llanelli – Birth of a Town CD-Rom can be purchased from Meiros Publications on telephone 01554 775320, priced £19.99.

Alternatively, visit www.llanellihistory.i12.com for further information and a sneak preview.

Llanelli Star October 3 2002

The Internet

with Vicky Williams

Delving into town’s past

Local historians can take a trip down memory lane when you log onto www.llanelli-history.i12.com

For a fascinating insight into Llanelli’s history check out this historical web site, which. gives you access to a wide range of topical issues regarding Llanelli’s colourful past..

This interesting site gives you the opportunity to read up upon Llanelli’s history from ancient times to modern day. .

It is filled with intriguing details including information about local poets and their work, place names and newspapers.

By clicking onto your desired topic of interest you will be given a list of information regarding that subject and its historical significance in Llanelli.

By logging onto ‘newspapers’ for example you are : presented with a list of newspapers that were available in our town over the years ranging from the Llanelly Mercury and The Llanelly Guardian to our very own Llanelli Star.

There are even extracts for you to read keeping you up to date with the most. important news stories of that era.

You can access information on Llanelli’s pubs and inns, both new and old, with details about how and .when they originated including colourful photographs where you can go on a pictorial pub crawl on line.

This site even has access to information for people who may be tracing their family trees and even portraits and brief details about Llanelli’s past and present businessmen.

There is information about important historical buildings based in Llanelli and you can even read about Llanelli’s ghosts.

For more information about Llanelli’s eventful past log onto the website.

BBC Radio Wales Interview November 7 2002

Radio Wales Interview

Photo courtesy David H. Jones
Radio Operations Co-ordinator/Cydlunydd Adnoddau Radio
BBC Cymru Wales

The authors (third and fourth from left) were invited to the Radio Wales Roy Noble Show on Thursday 7th November 2002. As Roy was on holiday Oliver Hides was the interviewer and said he was impressed by the sheer volume of information provided on the CD and the quality of the images (provided by Andy Taylor).

He congratulated William and Benita on their fine achievement and said the work would be available for future generations to access and the CD was 'a piece of history'.

The Radio Wales team for the Roy Noble show gave William and Benita a warm welcome and made them feel 'at home' and supplied a 'famous Roy Noble goodie bag'.

The day was a memorable one and thanks are given to everyone at Radio Wales.

Further Information