Hi Ian, I don't know how or why my email came through to the list again (I was sorting
messages at the time) but I'm glad it did because of your reply.
I have so much material here that I don't know where to start anymore. I do have most
wills pertaining to Maes y Geirchen. I'm only missing one and that's the John
Williams that sold MaesyG to Penrhyn & luckily that one really isn't as important
to me. Only one will was for a William Williams.
I think I'll have to take over some counter space & have a look at everything
again now that you mention it. It's getting a bit tedious at this stage. Doesn't
quite move as fast as the internet does it! lol
Thanks again. Will have more questions I'm sure.
Best regards,
Bonnie
On 2012-02-06, at 6:54 AM, I Thompson wrote:
Dear Bonnie,
If you are going ahead then I would first ask the archivist at Bangor what they would
charge for a blanket search of their archives. It sounds like you are doing it from afar?
I have found that not only are they genuinely interested, they can offer advice as well.
That's how and where I would start.
You would need to give them all the info you have, naturally, and dates and names as well
as presumptions you have eg that the same family owned Maes Geirchen for a long period and
may have been called Williams or maybe John Williams was the first of that name &c.
Just a thought - you have close read all the docs such as that marriage bond, haven't
you? It is just that some indexing isn't as family history friendly as it might be
and you read through a document and think, "Why the heck isn't that (place name,
long patronymic) in the index??!!"
Sometimes the patronymics are quite hard to spot (not just hard old writing) like
"Md" (Maredudd) "Wm" (William) "Jno" (John) "Iev"
(Ievan) "Dd" (Dafydd). It takes quite some getting used to and with some like
"Ric" you end up thinking if this is a "Ricardus" (Richard) or a
"Riceus" (Rhys).
If you are going to spend a sum on a researcher - which sounds worthwhile - have you
spent the £16 on getting the 8 or so pre 1650 Bangor town wills from the National
Archives? (Esp those with a William in their name)? The writing is impossible but might
pay off and I am sure there are plenty of people on here who could help!
For others in a similar position, there are other nuggets like Randle Holmes of
Chester's 1650 pedigree book in the Harleian collection in the British Library,
indexed as "pedigrees of North Wales families" or similar. It is just the right
period for your interest but only, I presume, contains details of families that were
interested in his services.
It might also be worth asking them to look if there is a reference to John Williams of
Maes Geirchen Maynol (Vaynol) Bangor??
Yours,
Ian
> After much humming and hawing on my part, I'm going to jump in with both feet. Is
there anyone on the list who is familiar with the late middle ages period & could give
me their most learned opinion on the following.
>
> I have ancestors from around Bangor that I have found documents on back to 1658. They
were obviously of the landed gentry ... don't hold that against me please. I believe
they were a minor branch of a prominent family. My search on the internet is about
finished I believe, having searched every possible thing that I can think of.
>
> I know there are researchers out there who would be happy to help but how do I find
one familiar with this period to give me advice?? Yes I have looked on the NLW website
list of researchers. Possibly I need to contact each and every one again to see what they
can do as it appears there is a new list recently.
>
> Any comments would be very much appreciated!
> Bonnie Williams
> Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
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