The Parfitts were a Somerset family. Gladys' parents were George Parfitt and Frances Ruth Gulliford. They lived in Camerton, Somerset until they moved to Monmouthshire in about 1890. They were one of the many Somerset coal-mining families that left to find better paid work in South Wales at that time. They lived in a small stone cottage which had no running water - its still there but now has all the mod cons.