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Leopoldine Konetschny, C. 1939
Can you please Help?
by Audrey Beaumont
My German grandmother Leopoldine Konetschny, worked at Langland Bay Convalescent Home as a cook and lived there for three years from 1938 during the 2nd World War, after escaping Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, as an anti-fascist activist.
She also workedas a housekeeper at 'Owls Barn,' a house next to Clyne Golf Club.
Owls Barn, Golf Club Road, Mayals, Swansea, 2022
The 1939 Register held by West Glamorgan Archive, Swansea, reveals that my grandmother Leopoldin Konetschny, was resident at Owls Barn, next to Clyne Golf Club House, Mayals, Swansea, while working as a 'General Domestic,' for Mr Henry Cook, a Coal Exporter, his wife Hanna and daughter Britta.
An extract from the 1939 Register. © West Glamorgan Archive
Leopoldine Konetschny, C. 1943
My mother Brigitte was age seven, when she was separated from her mother and never saw her again, following her mother’s escape from Sudetenland. After the war my mother Brigitte, came to the U.K. to find her mother’s grave in Swansea and married my English father. My mother is today still alive at the age of 92 years.
If anyone could fill me in on her days at Langland Bay, I would be ever so grateful. I would like so very much to be able to tell my mother something more about her own mother as she never really came to terms with the separation in the 1930s.
Bridgitte mother of Audrey Beaumont c.1934
Leopoldine Konetschny holding her daughter Bridgitte, pictured with a lock of hair, Briditte is the mother of Audrey Beaumont, c.1934.
The story is quite sad as she was part of an anti-Nazi political activist group in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. When Hitler invaded Sudetenland, she had to flee for her own safety, however had to leave behind her only child, my mother Brigitte, age seven, with her grandparents.
When war broke out towards the end of the decade, she tried desperately to return, but did not have the financial means to do so. When the frontiers closed she had no option but to stay at Langland until the war ended. This however, sadly did not happen as she died during the war years on 30th December 1944 at the home.
Leopoldine Konetschny was born 8th November 1902
Czechoslovakia.
Bridgitte mother of Audrey Beaumont,2021
Bridgitte, Her daughter, my mother, emigrated to England in 1948 to find out where her mother died, but was unsuccessful in her attempts.
Ancestry.com has allowed me to find out the above information.
Audrey Beaumont says,
'Could you possibly help?'
Audrey concludes:: I suppose what I am now searching for, is more information on Leopoldine and photos of the time and to know more about Leopoldine’s life at Langland whilst she resided there as a cook.
Could you possibly help?
My great grandmother Leopoldine Konetschny had a Czech passport and was in contact with a couple who lived in the vicinity of Langland., Mr and Mrs Griffiths. Mrs Griffiths, who was a German lady married to a British man. This is the only link I have at the moment but will continue to search out further information.
Could be -
Derek and Heinki Grifiths, from Highpool Close, Newton, Swansea.
Derek died a few years ago.
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