When I first read that the man I was researching was born in Union Buildings I wrongly assumed it was the Cardiff Workhouse. I was only after I got his birth certificate and read No.12 Union Buildings did I realise it was the name of a street and began to look elsewhere.

I then read somewhere that Union Buildings had become the Morgan Arcade. I put out a plea on the ‘Cardiff Now & Then’ Facebook group asking if anyone had a map with Unions Buildings marked on it.  The good amateur historians of Cardiff came up trumps once again.  Kim Judd pointed me towards some old and incredibly well detailed fire insurance maps of central Cardiff which has 12 Union Buildings marked on it. 

Not only that, a while later a picture of Union Buildings was kindly posted by Kim.

Looking at the picture it appears that there is a group of people outside No.12 having a chat and drying a sheet.  Is this the family I am researching I wonder?

Using the excellent National Library of Scotland side-by-side mapping facility I think I am able to tell that No.12 Union Buildings stood where the lovely Crumbs Kitchen now stands in the Morgan Arcade.

I had read that there were some ‘courts’ in central Cardiff; areas of dense small houses, but hadn’t realized that today’s gentrified arcades have replaced much of that Victorian housing.

How did I end up here? I was busy researching a fallen soldier ahead of putting him on the Roath Virtual War Memorial.  Unlike many of the soldiers I research I had a lot of information to go on with Michael O’Brien but I just could not track down any addresses for where he had lived nor his genealogy.

From his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record I knew he was 37 when killed in 1917, and he was son of John O’Brien, of Cardiff; husband of Catherine O’Brien.  A newspaper cutting told me he was a well-known Cardiff and District Rugby Union player and played in the league for Roath and Mackintosh clubs.  Plus when he enlisted he was in the employment of Mr Wisbey, builder and contractor of Grangetown. Another war record told me that his sister was Ellen Alderman of Madras Street, Grangetown.  How could I fail to find him with all that information?  Try as I might however I just could not find any trace of him.

I kept homing in on an O’Brien family living in Milton Street, Roath.  The names looked right but the ages did not.  In looking at that family however I did find something very interesting!  More of that in a separate blog.

The breakthrough to finding my Michael O’Brien finally came when I sketched out a family tree for him in Ancestry. Among the hints Ancestry offered me was that Michael O’Brien possibly appeared in someone else’s family tree though they had their tree set to ‘private’.  I had nothing to lose so I contacted them and asked if ‘their’ Michael O’Brien was the same as the one I am researching.  Turns out he was and they kindly provided me with some key bits of information.

It turned out that Michael’s father John had died when Michael was an infant and his mother Catherine had remarried to John Donovan.  My Michael O’Brien therefore appeared as a step-son living with John and Catherine Donovan. The added confussion was that Donovan was Catherine’s maiden name before she had married John O’Brien.

You just wouldn’t believe how difficult it can be to research the name O’Brian and all the different ways it can be spelt.  There is O’Brien, Brien and Brian, Byran with and without the O’. I’d already had experience of researching the surname when I looked at Billy Brian, the trick cyclist from Roath.

I still can’t locate him on the 1881 or 1901 census but he is probably there somewhere.

Piecing together all the bits of information I have been able to compile the following summary for Michael O’Brien in the Roath Virtual War Memorial.

MICHAEL O’BRIEN

Private, 6th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (Service Number: 25506)

Michael O’Brien was born at 12 Union Buildings, Cardiff on 18 Aug 1880 to John O’Brien, a coal trimmer and Catherine O’Brien nèe Donovan, originally from Cardiff.  He was baptized at the St David’s Roman Catholic church on 22 Aug 1880.  Michael lost his father when he was an infant and his mother remarried to John Donovan in 1886.  At the time of the 1891 census the family were living at 43 Mary Ann Street.  In 1911, , aged 30, Michael was living with his mother and step-father at 190 Penarth Road and working as a mason’s labourer, employed by Wisbey builders and contractors.  Michael was a well-known Cardiff District rugby union forward who played in the league for Mackintosh and Roath clubs (whether the family ever lived in the Roath area has yet to be established).  During WWI he was a Private in the 6th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The battalion landed at Boulogne in May 1915.  He was injured on 7 Sep 1916 and after that entitled to wear a wound stripe.  Michael was killed in action on 12 Mar 1917, aged 37, in the Arras area, France.  He is buried at the Beaurains Road British Cemetery just south of Arras (grave C24). Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.  His next of kin was his sister Ellen Alderman.

What I still haven’t been able to find however is a link for him with Roath.  Why was he playing his rugby in the Roath area I wonder? More research needed!