Hi All,
I thought you might be interested in this paragraph from "Eglwys Cymmin
Epitaphs" by George Gilbert Treharne, published in 1920:
» At page 28 of my Eglwys Cymmin : The Story of an Old Welsh
Church, Carmarthen, 1 918, I give a list of the Church Registers kept
in the Rectory, beginning in 1731-2, and state that there is no
Register of Marriages between 1757 and 1838. The following extract
from a letter recently received by me gives a pathetic and typical
illustration of the way in which Church Registers in Wales have
been lost : - ' I was born at Rhosgoch Fach,in the parish of Eglwys
Cymmin in the year 1852 . . . when I remember first my father
and mother kept a little grocer's shop in the cottage adjoining my
Uncle Henry's (my mother's brother) house at the Roses. They had
an old manuscript book from which they would tear out a page or
whatever was wanted to wrap up the purchases of their customers,
whether it would be an ounce of tobacco, two ounces of tea, a
pound of soap, or whatever it might be, and I have no doubt that
my brother Tom and I were guilty of chewing many of the pages
into pulp to make bullets for our home-made pop-guns. The book
was knocking about our house for several years, for I know we
had some of it after I was able to read the manuscript. The paper
was good stout paper, yellow with age, and possibly with damp ;
the handwriting was bold and clear, and I think a little angular. I
know it was a list of names, dates, &c. I am certain it was part,
if not the whole of the Register you refer to as missing. The last time
I saw my father before his death, I asked him if he remembered it.
He looked at me with surprise, as we had never spoken of it before,
and with evident pain. He said, " Yes, it was the old Register of Eglwys
Cymmin. I did not then realize the value of it." Seeing it pained
him, I did not question him further. You see how simply and innocently
these precious things are lost. How my father got possession of the
book I never learnt.
Yours faithfully,
Feb. 9th, 1919- (Signed) B. T. Price.
Interestingly, this book has a list of all epitaphs still legible up to 1917. Having found
my 3xgreat grandfather's gravestone in Eglwyscummin, it was weathered too much to read
- he died in 1825 - but I found the transcript in this book. It is free to read as an e
book, and can be found by googling the book title. It would be invaluable for anyone with
relatives buried there pre 1917.
Regards,
Elizabeth