Greetings,
First, before I forget again....Besides spending a few days in NYC toasting
my Irish ancestors over St. Paddy's day, I found a few bookstores and
gleaned all the Irish and Welsh books I felt to be of help. Let me just
say.....only ask me privately about the Irish Troubles and my opinion of
such. I'd be in more than hot water voicing my opinon after reading what
was done to them and the laws that seem so much like another nation we know
in more recent times. The parallels are too obvious.
(Oh, yes...I break many rules and talk politics! <G>)
So to Wales...I found a book on Famous Welsh Battles. As I am able to
read, I'll pass on the info. If interested in your own copy:
Famous Welsh Battles by Philip Warner, Barnes & Nobles, 1977. (labeled as
an "Exclusive Edition for $6.98) (Makes you wonder if they are testing the
waters for the topic)
The Table of Contents:
Battles of Pre-History
Battles against the Romans
Battles for Supremacy
Battles against the Normans
Battles of owen Gwynedd
Battles of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn Fawr)
Battles of Llywelyn the Last
Battles of Owain Glyndwr
Battles of the Civil War
Battle of Fishguard
NOW --from my contact (Roy) at Dolgellau) who will forward more info on an
article he wrote about Penllyn. (He's a veteran teacher...University level
of English)
Notice his comment below about there being only one Evan ap Evan that he
knows. He also gave me the name of one of HIS Evan's brothers....John, but
his death date and ours do not match. I'll check with him further. I
would dearly suspect there is truely more than one Evan ap Evan. ALSO, he
used "ap" before Evan, so I wrote to ask him the correct way as I have read
it should be "ab" before a vowel sound. Of course, Glenn doesn't follow
this rule, either. Perhaps, as my source is a language text, that this is
a modern creation. Hopefully, we will see.
From what he writes below, it will be imparative that we locate
township
names, so lets get a list started, ok?
Best wishes....enjoy....
Emily
He writes:
The Record Office in Dolgellau has the Parish Registers -
but the Llanfor register (the early one) was lost, so the existing one
starts only in 1720. The Bishop's Transcripts (in the NLW) start in 1660,
and are in generally good condition (a few years missing.) Do you read the
17th Century scripts? I've met so many people in the reading room almost in
tears because, after a long and expensive trip over, they couldn't read the
documents - SO frustrating! Of course, it's the same for all of us over
here, but it doesn't cost us so much to get to the library.
Penllyn is the name of the hundred which contains the parishes of Llanfor,
Llanycil, Llandderfel, Llangywer, and Llanuwchllyn (ie: surrounding Bala
Lake.) If you intend to get stuck into the primary sources, you'll also
need to know the township names (they were used more than parish names in
old records.) In Llanfor, there are many townships - and they constantly
underwent changes, both in name and in extent. Ciltalgarth is a township -
it consists of a "plas" (a mansion - the gentry house) and a number of
"Tyddyn" - cottages or dwellings. Most of the houses in the township
belonged to my ancestors until the late 1800's, and more than half of them
are now under water - a reservoir for Liverpool. I don't have any notes on
a Roger ap Robert of Ciltalgarth - (are you sure of the reading of "Roger"?
- The name did exist, but was very rare) - but I do have other Roberts -
worth following up. I may have things on others (Sarah ferch Evan ap Evan
interests me - I know of only one Evan ap Evan at that time, and itfhe was
her father then you and I have more ancestors in common. But that will need
to be examined.)
Here are some facts that will help with Welsh records:
1. No "surnames" until well into the 18th Century (except among the top
gentry.)
2. No final "s" as well as an "ap" - one or the other. (Or both, used
indiscriminately.)
3. Wives never adopted their husband's name (except among the top gentry.)