Thomas is remembered by most for his final play 'Under Milk Wood'. Started in New Quay and partially written at Southleigh near Oxford, then finally completed in New York minutes before its first public performance, 'Under Milk Wood' has stimulated a long-running debate as to which town is the model for 'Llareggub'. Local Author David Thomas notes that many of the characters (from New Quay) were written in long before Dylan Thomas ever visited Laugharne. He has clearly established a strong case for New Quay being the model for 'Llareggub' while the name 'Under Milk Wood'  is probably taken from the farm called 'Wernllaeth' where Dylan was taken by his good friend, the Aberaeron vet Tommy Herbert. Dylan and Caitlin's  daughter Aeronwy was named after the river Aeron which flows through the Aeron valley to Aberaeron , and about which Dylan said was: 'the most precious place in the world'.

Thomas' Grandfather was a guard 'Thomas the Guard' on the Great Western Railways and lived in Johnstown, on the edge of Carmarthen. His Father, David John Thomas, was educated at Aberystwyth University where he gained a first in English after winning a scholarship in1895. He later became a senior English Master at Swansea Grammar School where he is remembered as being strict and blessed with a deep and sonorous speaking voice. D. J. Thomas wanted to be a poet, and felt that teaching was very much a waste of his talents. In her book 'Caitlin', Dylan's wife describes him as : '..the most unhappy man I have ever met and it showed in his face. He was unhappy with his life. It was exactly the kind of life that he had hoped not to have, and by the end he could feel himself sinking back into the very existence he had sought to escape'. Dylan's  Mother was Florence Hannah Williams - born  on the Llanstephan peninsula just across the water from Laugharne where her son and his wife were to live later.