Rose was born in Pontycymer Police Station into a family of seven children on 27 August 1888. When born, she had two older brothers and three older sisters: Charles (12), Mary (10) and Francis (8) and Mabel (6), Ernest (4). When she 4 years old, her sister Lucretia was born and her youngest brother, Frank, was born when she was 7 years old. I firmly beleive She was named after her Auntie..Rosa Catherine Smerdon who passed away from nervous shock aged 19 on 29th march 1888.in the same police station..she was her mothers sister.

Rose's parents are Mary Ann nee smerdon and Charles Bray Smith

She married .... on the 8 june 1908 at st gabriels church, bryn road,brynmill, swansea,with her sister lucretia being her bridesmaid

As a seamstress, she worked in a store called Ben Evans. a large, iconic store in Swansea which was destroyed in the Three Night Blitz in Feb 1942.

Rose's husband, William went to North America shortly before the 1st World War, intending for the family to follow him. It's not clear what motivated him to leave; it was probably the need for work and a better life for the family, but it may also have been motivated by the need to avoid being drafted into the army for the war.

Rose wanted to stay in Wales and William continued to live in North America. He joined the Canadian army and also married bigamously and had more children. When he left, William, Odo and Bruce were very young and Rose ended up having to bring them up on her own. She may not have known of her husbands bigamy and he died in Dallas, Texas in 1962.

Rose's sister Lucretia may have lived with Rose through the war while she was having a relationship with a soldier named Robert Marshall. Lucretia had an illegitimate daughter with Robert, named Molly (Ena) and it is possible that the sisters helped each other during this period - possibly with the assistance of their widowed mother, Mary.

After the war, Lucretia and Molly (Ena) emigrated to South Africa to join another sister, Mabel, who was living there with her husband, Arthur Wicks and their family and her mother, Mary died in 19??.

In the 1940's. when Rose was in her sixties, her son, WIlliam, left his wife, and Rose had to assist her daughter-in-law, Nora, to bring up her grandchildren, Shirley, Merle and Jill. The family lived at 47 King Edwards Road; Nora worked while Rose looked after the children, did seamstress work and also took in lodgers to make ends meet.

but apparently my mum remembers an elderley man across the road of 47 one day...and my great gran , said "come away from the window"..we beleive it was him