Bob Owen, Croesor (Q63356)

Robert Owen, O.B.E., M.A., better known as Bob Owen Croesor was an antiquary and book-collector from Llanfrothen, Merionethshire. Born in 1885, he was employed as a farm labourer and later as a clerk at the Parc and Croesor Slate Quarry. He became a lecturer with the Workers Educational Association and was also a popular radio broadcaster. His interests lay in local history and Welsh genealogy. He collected manuscripts as well as books, and transcribed parish records. Although an advocate of the study of local history, his own topics of research were far reaching. He was an authority on the history of the Welsh in America in particular. The obituary of Bob Owen Croesor in The Times reads : It is a mistake to look upon Bob Owen as a mere Welsh book-lover, and an obsessed collector of Welsh books; a perusal of his shelves proved him a true cosmopolitan with its ancient catalogues, bygone price lists, and the basic apparatus of classification schemes. Far from being a clannish Celt, he opened his windows wide to the world. He wielded many, and very variegated weapons of research. He was the most scientific genealogist of our generation in Wales. He was a contributor to various periodicals, journals and newspapers. He had a popular series of articles in Y Cymro on the subject of the homes of the Welsh, Cartrefi Cymru. Amongst his publications are Cymru ac addysg America (1957-1958) and Diwydiannau coll : ardal y ddwy afon, Dwyryd a Glaslyn (1943). He was a truly unique character who died in 1962.