A three-generation family story through Gwent Archives’ collection: Introduction

This is the first in a series of blog posts from Bec Howarth of Gwent Archives.


Introduction

I was preparing social media content for LGBTQ+ history month when I came across the Welsh County LGBTQ+ timeline collection. Little did I know, this discovery would lead me to finding a rich history and a three generational story.

After finding the project, I quickly read through the timelines for the counties we cover at Gwent Archives – Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and one for overall Gwent. Whilst scanning the Newport timeline, one individual caught my eye. Amelia Vella had been discovered for disguising herself as a sailor on several voyages and passing as a member of the ships’ crew but it wasn’t just Amelia’s fascinating story that caught my eye. The timeline mentioned Amelia’s mother, Fanny Vella, was a patient in the Abergavenny Asylum. Knowing that we hold the Pen-y-Fal collection here at Gwent Archives I was suddenly asking myself – could I find Amelia’s mother in our collection?

Western Mail, 31st October 1898

I quickly searched the collection and found two entries for a Fanny Bella – not an exact match but close enough I allowed myself to hope. Reading through the first entry I could find nothing to match her up with Amelia or prove she was Amelia’s mother. But the second entry, just months after Amelia’s arrest, wrote how Fanny’s daughter had been on multiple “voyages as a sailor dressed in male apparel”. This was definitely Amelia’s mother! In this same entry for Fanny, the item writes of her family history and that her father, George Klein, had died at Pen-y-Fal and that Fanny’s sister, Sarah Jane Klein, was also a patient at Pen-y-Fal. With this discovery, I became intrigued with the three generations of this family all linked through Amelia’s story and Pen-y-Fal.

Below is an extract from Amelia’s mother’s notes from her time in Pen-y-Fal which writes how Fanny’s daughter had months prior been on multiple “voyages as a sailor dressed in male apparel”.

Form the Pen-y-Fal collection, Gwent Archives

We’ll publish the second part of this blog (‘The first generation’) on 23.06.26

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