Fuentes3

By Fuentes3

Local history guesswork

This memorial is to a family named "Merediz" in a church in Cabranes, about 10km south of Villaviciosa. As far as I know or can find out, Meredith is a Welsh name only, and Merediz is how it would be transcribed into Spanish. So was there a family from Wales living here? They are, or were, after all, both coal-mining communities; but this is not a typical "nicho" that a mining family would have been able to pay for - this is the most expensive memorial in the churchyard.

Have a look next at the link here - and specifically at the top photo, the one that says it was taken in the barrio de San Lucas in 1925. 
http://losarbolesinvisiblespoesiawwi.blogspot.com/2019/09/ruth-m-anderson-asturias-1925.html

There is not, and there never has been, either a barrio or even a church of San Lucas in Villaviciosa. The photo (like all the photos shown in the article) was taken by an American, Ruth Matilda Anderson, paid by a hispanic society in New York, originally to record costumes in north west Spain though the brief was later enlarged. She came 3 times in the mid 1920s and left a wonderful collection of images. But here she´s been misinformed as to the name of the supposed barrio. 

What there was in Villaviciosa was a factory belonging to a Lucas Meredith, a Welsh trader, and Lucas is known to have built a street of factory housing, now demolished, for his employees. Looking at the poor quality of the housing, the photo could well show the factory housing that Lucas built; and since it´s only 10km from there to Cabranes, the unexplained Merediz family surname could well derive from Lucas. 

Anyway - it´s my photo for today. 

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