At 10:18 AM 23/05/02, you wrote:
Dear Mr. Graham,
Do you have anything on the Edwards's of Cardiff,Wales prior to 1630 or know
how to go about getting the information. I have traced my family back that
far,but, have hit a brickwall.
Sincerely,
Joe Edwards
Joe, I am putting this on the list/s for others to pick up on.
You certainly have done exceptionally well getting back that far. No wonder
you have hit a brickwall! I don't have any records re. Cardiff. I suppose
you have accessed all that the LDS folk have microfilmed? There are, of
course, some militia records, land-tax records, etc. that you might be
lucky enough to come across. I've found some of these back to 1400, even
1100 in England for a friend of mine, making him rather gleeful. Not sure
what there would be for Wales, but if you can get into the LDS library
catalogue on-line at
www.familysearch.org or go to one of their libraries
and access the catalogue on their computer (seems easier to use if it is
one of the older cdrom disks) and type at the country section just Wales,
instead of typing in a specific county, then see what records come up.
Again, you can search via county and not simply a town, and also see what
records are there. Some of the records will overlap. Also when in the
country section (Wales) you can scroll to PROBATE and you will find wills,
some back to the 1500s. You will have to check out what diocese Cardiff is
in, of course, for the wills will be listed under the jurisdiction of
consistory courts, such as the Consistory Court of Bangor, etc. I'm not
sure what diocese Cardiff is in (possibly St. Davids) as I'm mainly
oriented for North Wales - never the twain shall meet! :)). Wills can also
be listed under peculiars, that is: a local church court such as an
archeaconry or a parish, or even a bishops court. There is even a Dean of
Westminster peculiar court. You would have to check with Phillimore's Atlas
and Index of Parish Registers which is in every good genealogical and many
local libraries, to see what Cardiff comes under. There are maps which are
colour coded, so picking out which diocese a given parish is in is quite
easy. North Wales is generally divided into the Consistory courts of
Bangor, and St. Asaph, but there is a little fellow called the Peculiar of
the Vicar of Harwarden. And the Consistory Court of Chester is close by.
Some Welsh wills do overflow into that. Lots of opportunities here for
searching out old wills. You can locate the records for the year/s you want
with the LDS records, and then order the microfilm to be viewed at one of
their libraries.
Check it out
Graham