We had written a postal letter to Gwyndaf Richards because of his last name and location which we had found on the Internet, and he replied by email. Although we're not related, at least from what we know, in my letter I had mentioned the farm Pen y Graig, where our ancestor John Isaac had been an apprentice shoemaker at age 21 in 1851. He wrote back, saying that he could see the ruins of Pengraig across the valley from the window that he was looking out as he wrote, and he offered to show us the property when we came - we were thrilled!

When we met him in Pont Llogel, we were delighted to see that he had also brought his father, John Dafydd Richards, and his aunt, Ella Lloyd. John Dafydd is 85, and he and Ella hiked up the hills with us, and showed us where the farm had been. Ella was a teacher and taught many Isaac children, and John played with Isaac children who lived at the farm when he was a boy. He remembered running up the hill to get to the farm quickly, to play as much as they could in the hour they had for lunch.

Last fall, Mom and I found a really wonderful book called "Life in a Welsh Countryside" that was written by Alwyn Rees about 1945. It is fascinating to read, and it really gave a detailed look at how people lived their everyday lives in the area. Sometime in the conversations with Gwyndaf and John, the book came up, and we were very impressed to find out that John Dafydd had been interviewed for the book when he was a young man. We were also amazed to learn that Gwyndaf, along with a team of other people in the area, had recently written a sequel to the book, "A Welsh Countryside Revisited"!

Gwyndaf invited us to his home on a hill near Pont Llogel where five generations of Richards have lived. There we met his wife, Eirlys, who had prepared tea for us, and we enjoyed a beautiful view of the valley below, and great conversation with them all. It was a very special day for us.