The wrong Yorath

One of the websites I use in family tree research is Genes Reunited. It was an offshoot of the more famous Friends Reunited, but I think it has outgrown its parent! You can put your tree on there and search for other people with whom you may share a relative. Every month the site runs each tree past every other one and sends you notification of which people may have a "hot match" with you. To be honest, as I have about 2,000 people on my tree I don't bother to check these monthly matches - but plenty of people do, and I recently had contact from a lady in Australia who was born in Cardiff, just two years after me.

It turns out that her great-grand-father's brother, Joseph Yorath, married my great grandmother's sister, Elizabeth Morgan. Not only that, but she has traced back this line of Yoraths all the way to a Richard Yorath, born in Kenfig in 1681. That's about the same period as my furthest line back, the Williamses of Llangynwyd and Llangeinor, north of Bridgend.

Someone told me that there was a programme recently on BBC Wales about the family of Gaby Logan and her dad Terry Yorath. Naturally, as it's a rare surname (from the Welsh Iorwerth), ever since I discovered a few years ago that I had Yorath relatives I've wondered if I was connected to famous ex-football player and manager Terry. So I watched the programme on i-Player - and the answer is... no! His line originated in St Lythan's west of Cardiff. But you never know, further back the Yoraths of St Lythans and the Yoraths of Kenfig may have been connected...