In a message dated 27/04/2003 09:01:20 GMT Daylight Time,
smuggler(a)austarnet.com.au writes:
The Somerset family is described as Edward Anscell of Westmounton
(sic) nr
Taunton and Wethlyan daughter of ........ Appowell.
>From reading a Welsh research book I have ascertained that Wethlyan would
actually be Gwenllian and that a daughter would not appear as Ap powell.
Gwenllian would have been born about 1500 and no details of her family are
given.
I have been unable to track the Anscell line any further and am wondering
whether there is any way of tracing Gwenllian, From what I have read the
name "Gwenllian" is fairly common in Wales, and not having any details of
her father, it seems to me this is an impossible task.
Advice appreciated - even confirmation that this is an impossible task.
With sincere thanks
Anne Wiltshire
Not an impossible task, but could be a long and difficult one.
If Mrs Anscell is Gwenllian the daughter of xxxxx Appowell you may not have
her father's name but you do have her paternal grandfather's name — it was
Howel
If Mr Anscell's family was posh enough to be in the Herald's visitations,
there is a chance that Mrs A's was too.
A search through some of the printed genealogies might find reference to
Gwenllian and her marriage, or may throw up some possibilities for further
research by having Gwenllian's with a grandfather Howel.
Ask in your largest local reference library if they can get hold of any of
these books through interlibrary exchanges:
Lewys Dwnn (ed. by S R Meyrick), Heraldic Visitations of Wales, 2 vols
(Llandovery, 1846)
J A Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire, 4 vols (London, 1907-32)
G T Clark, Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamorganiae (London, 1886)
J E Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (Horncastle,
1914; reprinted, Wrexham, 1985)
J Y W Lloyd, History of [...] Powys Fadog, 6 vols (London, 1881-7)
Thomas Nicholas, Annals [...] of the [...] County Families of Wales, 2 vols
(London, 1872)
West Wales Historical Records, 14 vols (Carmarthen, 1912-29)
An LDS research center may also be able to get copies of some of them.
All the best
Alwyn