Chapter 2 -- Family Notes

Hilda May was the second youngest of 10 children of Frank and Mary Arnold (nee Lodwig). In addition to the surviving children, Frank and Mary had two other children one that died at birth and a baby girl who survived a couple of years before dying as the result of being burned to death while laying in front of an open fire. Frank and Mary would forever be known as Mam and Dad to their children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces, and indeed, the whole extended family.
From oldest to youngest the siblings were (I think):

• Ethel
• Lily
• Llewellyn
• Clifford
• Violet
• Hetty
• Hilda
• Dolly

It's a shame I don't know the dates of birth and death of these family members but if anyone reads this and can help me out with the right dates I'd be appreciative (since I wrote the previous, I have engaged in family tree and have discovered the birth and death dates of all the family members, and then some.
The grandparents (Frank and Mary) and all the children and even some family "additions" lived in a small terrace house in Swansea (18 North Hill Road). North Hill Road used to be called Poppet Hill and was high above the city of Swansea in an area known as Mount Pleasant. The stout wooden gates of the Swansea Union Workhouse protected the inmates a mere 200 yards from the hous. I was later to find a distant ancestor who enjoyed their hospitality.
By the time I was born all the siblings had married and moved out of the family home. My grandmother, Mary had died in 1947 and my mother who was unmarried chose, I believe, to look after my grandfather until his death in 1959 at age 89. I expect the fact that she was unmarried, a single parent, and therefore alone, had little impact on her decision.
I lived in the house on Poppet Hill until I was 10, when my mother was married and we moved away to the distant lands of Penlan, a 1950s council housing estate on the northern heights above Swansea. I lived there until  I moved out, a short and miserable nine years later.