Hi Bettye and all,
I think you're right about Milford Sound; from memory a river there has a
Welsh name too. Presumably he was reminded of home, sort of thing, but those
towering mountains - straight out of a Norwegian tourist brochure - and the
annual 4 _fathoms_ of rain cause one to reflect occasionally on the climate
of one's forefathers. :-)
Dale
Oz
-----Original Message-----
From: dyfed-bounces(a)rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On
Behalf
Of Bettye Kirkwood
Sent: Monday, 21 April 2014 9:20 AM
To: P PARRY
Cc: dyfed(a)rootsweb.com; glamorgan(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [Dyfed] The name of EBENEZER
Dear Richard,
Quite a few years ago I was asked by the late Dillwyn Miles, author and
several times Mayor of Newport, Pembrokeshire, to find out if the
delightfully
situated Ebenezer Church on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, New
South
Wales, was named for Ebenezer Gronow.....a Pemb. native who emigrated,
settled
his family there, and whose final resting place it is. I visited,
and a
church pamphlet stated the church was 'built on the rock' which was a
biblical
interpretation of the name Ebenezer.
In Pembrokeshire, at least, in a certain period of time,the name Ebenezer
was
extremely common as we're many biblical names ....I had trouble
myself
with an
Esay which could be a variation of Esau, but I have never heard
variations
of
Ebenezer, except perhaps Eben.
Ebenezer Gronow, incidentally, was a whaler and sealer and spent a lot of
time
in New Zealand waters...in fact I think he was responsible for naming
Milford
Sound.
Bettye Kirkwood, Australia