A three-generation family story through Gwent Archives’ collection: The third generation
In 1879, at 17 years old, Fanny Vella married Francis Vella, a 31-year-old who lived one street over from Fanny. Fanny then went on to have 11 children between 1880 and 1902. I was struck by Fanny’s records from Pen-y-Fal, which noted (after being admitted in Sept 1898) her attack had lasted 20 years and that she was “very peculiar in her behaviour from time to time during the last 20 years” – correlating almost exactly with when Fanny married and started having children.
A month prior to Fanny being admitted to Pen-y-Fal, her eldest daughter, Amelia, disappeared. Amelia left Newport in August 1898 disguised as a sailor and was escorted from the ss. Blaenavon in Grand Canary after having passed as a member of the ships’ crew, and as a boy, for almost two voyage. I was able to find Amelia’s story in numerous newspapers with several including sketches of Amelia in both a sailor’s apparel and a dress and one even interviewing Amelia herself.
I found it particularly interesting, for our theme of LGBTQ+ history month, that newspapers also reported on Amelia’s time as a servant for Captain Morgan and how Amelia had told Mrs Morgan she wished she was a boy and how Mrs Morgan had dissuaded Amelia from wearing boy’s clothing.
Similarly to the previously generation, I also found Amelia and her siblings in the Newport Workhouse records on several occasions. Importantly, in August 1898 Amelia’s parents were admitted to Newport workhouse with five of Amelia’s younger siblings. When they were admitted, Amelia’s father was listed as a Donkeyman – someone who oversaw a small steam engine, called a ‘donkey-engine’ which propelled coal into the main engine of a ship. One newspaper which noted Amelia’s story wrote how her father was out of work due to disruptions of the coal war and how one reason Amelia went abroad was to get money to help her family, especially her mother, as her father was out of work
It has been amazing to follow the journey of this family through our collection – all from Amelia’s presence in the Newport LGBTQ+ timeline.
To explore this history further, you can access the The Wales LGBTQ+ Timeline Collection – LGBTQ Cymru and Forbidden Lives: LGBT stories from Wales by Norena Shopland to read more about Amelia’s life and other important milestones in the region.