Observer readers are being asked for their help by a man from Bicester who is searching for information on his family history in Tenby.
"My great-great-grandparents, George William Barnes Sr. and Isabella Barnes (nee Amory), acquired No. 4 The Croft in Tenby sometime between 1851 and 1861 and established a lodging house there - which I gather (along with the former No. 3 The Croft) is now the Fourcroft Hotel, run by the Osborne family," wrote Mr. Matthew J. C. Barnes in a letter to us this week.
He continued: "I believe that Isabella Barnes (or her niece Eliza Schofield) also acquired No. 16 The Norton sometime around 1881 and may have run that as a lodging house as well.
"Isabella and George had only one child, George William Barnes Jr. (born 1866), whom I gather became an early photographer in Tenby with a studio at Napleton House in Warren Street in the 1890s. Although George William Jr. spent much of his life in Warwickshire after the turn of the century, I know that he died at No. 3 The Croft (having lived at No. 4 The Croft) in Tenby in 1932.
"My father, who was born in 1926, recalls some happy summer holidays with his grandparents in Tenby and I believe that the Fourcroft Hotel may have been in Barnes' hands until about 1937.
"George William Barnes Jr. married Edith Eliza Ann in Tenby in 1891 and went on his travels to Warwickshire (via a spell in Penally) shortly after that date. Edith Eliza Barnes became a local Tenby poetess of some minor celebrity, I gather. I have a small book of her rather awful poems.
"Edith Eliza Ann's father was the Rev. Robert Ann, who was minister at the Congregational Church in Tenby between 1886 and 1889 after having been a non-conformist minister in Handsworth in Staffordshire for 29 years. I gather from various sources that his ministry was not exactly an unqualified success and he was effectively booted out of the job. Robert Ann and his wife Mary (nee Poole) lived in Warren Street until their respective deaths in 1891 and 1896.
"One of George William Barnes's four children, Kenneth Norman Barnes, returned to live in Tenby after a career (cut short by illness) in the Indian Civil Service and was married to Isobel (nee Davison)in 1921. Isobel died in 1971 and Kenneth in 1977. I believe that their address was 2 Rock House in St. Julian Street. and I gather that Kenneth ran a small business called 'Mr. Mend it'. They had no children.
"Although there is no Barnes presence in Tenby nowadays, representatives of the family were therefore there between about 1861 and 1977 and seem to have had some minor impact on local affairs.
"If anyone in Tenby has any recollections of any of these characters, or is doing any research into them, I would love to hear from them.
"My father and I hope to return to the 'scene of the crime' a little later in the year - for me this will be a first visit - and it would be wonderful to get some more information in advance."
Mr. Barnes can be contacted at Upper Cow Leys Farm, Piddington, Bicester, Oxon, tel. 01869 247516.