C. S. Lewis's Welsh Roots

In the opening paragraph of his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis wrote, "My father belonged to the first generation of his family that reached professional station. His grandfather had been a Welsh farmer."

A number of weeks ago a man by the name of Grahame Davies, a Welsh poet and author, contacted me by e-mail seeking information about the Welsh roots of C. S. Lewis. I was able to put him on to someone with the right information and Grahame was thus able to photograph what we believe to have been the Welsh farm of C. S. Lewis's great grandfather. The farm is called "Ty Issa" and it is near Caergwrle, Wales. Interestingly enough, "Ty Issa" was also the name of Lewis's grandfather's home in Belfast.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Currently I am researching my Welsh family history in connection with that of my Northern Ireland ancstry to see if there is a connection between myself and CS Lewis. Therefore, I have the details of the CS Lewis family tree if you are interested and can email it to you if you would like a copy. I am researching his Grandfather Richard's siblings marriages and siblings as my Great Grandfather Capt John Lewis was from North East Wales and moved to Tranmere in Birkenhead Cheshire before moving to Antwerp and then to Templepatrick in Northern Ireland. There are strong resemblences between a young photo of Jack and Albert and my own father and his identical grandfather John all at the same age as well as other similarities, including 4 creative writers in our family.

Fiona M Lewis filewis@hotmail.com

4:44 PM

Will Vaus said…

Yes, Fiona, I would enjoy having a copy of C. S. Lewis's family tree and any information about it which you wish to e-mail to me. Thanks much!

will@willvaus.com

9:02 PM

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