It would be interesting to see the original Welsh sentence from Drych
describing where David was born and his parents were from.
This is because if the preposition 'o' meaning 'from' was used, whether he
was from Glanymddyfri or Llanymddyfri the same result would appear - o
Lanymddyfri.
See
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/pdf/welshgrammar_mutations.pdf fro
rules about the use of the 'soft mutation' in Welsh.
Only if the phrase was 'yng Nglanymddyfri' could you be sure that the place
was called Glanymddyfri, as the nasal mutation changes G to Ng and preceding
preposition 'yn' (in) to 'yng'.
The market town of Llandovery (Llanymddyfri) was in the parish of Llandingat
or Llandingad. See
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/Llandingad/
The most obvious place for young country people in Wales to meet was at
market or on the way to market. Both Talley and the modern village known as
Salem, north of Llandeilo ( known as Heol-galed in old maps) would naturally
have regarded Llandeilo as their market town, but would probably also have
travelled to market at Llandovery, the next nearest. I have come across a
couple who came from opposite points of the compass into Llandeilo ( Talley
and Llanfihangel Aberbythwch) who married there. Halfway and Salem
(Heol-galed) are only about 6km apart, as you can see on a map such as
http://www.fixmystreet.com/reports/Carmarthenshire/Manordeilo+and+Salem
An obituary published of an 80-year-old in America may simply have referred
to his place of origin by the nearest big town, and if he had referred in
conversation both to Llandovery and Llandeilo then the impression may have
been gained that he actually came from Llandovery (Llanymddyfri).
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/gazetteer.html#S shows that although
the hamlet north of Llandeilo is now known as Salem ( after Salem
Independent chapel built 1816 as in
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/Hanes17.html#SALEM ) there are or were
a large number of chapels carrying that name in Carmarthenshire, including
one in Llandovery in Llandingat parish, as described in
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/Hanes19.html#LLANYMDDYFRI
If it was David's parents who came from Llanymddyfri (or Glanymddyfri), they
might have been living at Salem/Heolgaled at the time David was born, but
were still known as coming from elsewhere.
Incidentally,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandovery gives a credible
explanation of the origins of Llanymddyfri as 'Church enclosure amidst the
waters' whereas the word 'glan' refers to the bank of a river, lake or the
sea ( as in the the song 'Ar lan y mor' ) and it is hard to envisage a bank
( a linear feature) being amongst 'waters'. Better Welsh scholars than
myself may disagree,
Where did David and Elinor marry, by the way?
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary J Gilchrist via" <glamorgan(a)rootsweb.com>
To: <GLAMORGAN(a)rootsweb.com>; <dyfed(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2014 5:31 PM
Subject: [GLA] Glanymddyfri in Carmarthen, Aberaman/Aberdare in Glamorgan
An obituary published in 1898 in the US publication in Welsh called
Drych details the death of a David Evans who was said born in 1818 in
Salem, Carmarthenshire. The obituary said he was one of 10 children and
gave his parents' names as Rees and Margaret Evans, Glanymddyfri. I
seek the mapping of this farm or residence which has not come up on the
ordnance maps.
It was said that his father died when David was young and David stayed
on to help his mother until her death after which at age 22 he went to
work on a farm where he worked for six years. I am hoping to find
reference to this in the tithe records at the national library.
In November 1845/6 David Evans marries Elinor/Eleanor Jones, born
Talley, who in her obituary in Tarian y Gweithwyr (Shield of the
Workers) in December 22, 1904 was said to have been the daughter of John
and Ann Jones, born in 1822 at Halfway House near Talley, one of nine
children, joined the chapel in Cwmifor in 1840, and had in 1904 two
sisters still living, respectively named Rachel Morgans (George) now of
Aberdare and Mary of Cwmtwrch.
David and Elinor spent some two dozen years in Aberaman/Aberdare,
Glamorganshire where he was known as Dafydd Evans y Calchwr (a lime
burner on the birth record of his son Rees in 1851) with the limekiln
owned by Crawshay Bailey and living in Treaman and subsequently a
haulier in 1861 living at 56 Cardiff Road.
Four sons and four daughters are said to have been born to them. Rees
1851, Ann(a) 1857, David 1859 and Margaret 1863 are the four that lived
to adulthood. In St John the Baptist Parish Church records, I find a
prior Ann born 1847 dying 1849 and Margaret born 1849 and dying in 1858,
the latter being the only child who shows up in a census (1861) but does
not live to emigrate with the family.
Presumably the other two sons that did not live may have been born
between Rees in 1851 and Ann in 1857 or between David in 1859 and
Margaret 1863. If they preferentially named their children for
grandparents, as it appears from Rees, Ann x2 and Margaret x2, a John
Evans would have been one of the sons and likely to have been born
before David but perhaps to have died after him so they didn't redeploy
the name John as they did for the first two daughters, Ann and Margaret?
The obituary says that David Evans worked for himself as a contractor
after the limeburner work. Would that refer to his time as a haulier or
perhaps after that? Even though railroad right-of-way land in Iowa was
inexpensive in 1869, I have pondered how he might have accumulated
enough money to emigrate with four children and buy land in Iowa in
1869. It seems that hauliers were paid quite a bit less than colliers
so this reference to working for himself as a contractor is
intriguing. Perhaps he did this after 1861 when the census indicates
that he is a haulier?
In 1850 he was a baptized in the River Cynon near the iron bridge by Dr.
Price of Aberdare and he joined and served as a deacon of the Eglwys
Fedyddiol y Gwawr baptist chapel. When he went to Williamsburg Iowa he
joined the Congregationalist church because services were available in
Welsh. He became a deacon there, too, but he remained a Baptist in deed.
A picture taken in Williamsburg with 8 or 10 aged men sitting together
on the park benches names them the "Welsh Board of Trade", a
tongue-in-cheek appellation given to this group that assembled daily to
discuss the issues of the day.
Given that David and Eleanor had to meet and marry, I presume that
Glanymddyfri is located in/near the triangle bounded by Salem, Cwmifor
and Llandeilo? Two later publications in old newspapers give this
location for subsequent people but no where can I find Glanymddyfri on a
map. Google keeps referring me to an alternative name for Llandovery
starting with Ll instead of Gl but otherwise spelled the same.
I am so in debt to so many of you for pointing me in good directions,
finding me great information and translating from the Welsh. Given
their common surnames, I feel that it is a miracle to have found the
parentage of both David Evans and Elinor Jones, pushing back our
ancestry into the 18th century where I feel that I should probably be
quite satisfied to declare success and write up what I have for the
other cousin descendants who will probably not outlast a prolonged
search. I just thought that any elaboration on Glanymddyfri or the
prospect of an independent contractor might illuminate this ancestry in
an interesting way.
Thanks for any thoughts,
Mary, great granddaughter of David and Ann(a) Evans S(h)elby, the latter
from Meline, Pembroke b 1840 and temporarily lost in America after he
shaved a few years off his age and an "h" out of his name.