Need help with the proper construction of an "ap" name ...

Question

Just did a merge with a profile that has an "ap" name, and I could use some help with how to properly enter the name.

From what I've read, it seems like "ap Sion" would go in the LNAB as well as the Current Last Name field.

Where would "Graff" go? Is that a middle name? Did they use middle names in the 1500s in Wales??

note - edited to add Cymru tag, Liz

Comments

Maybe check what other people have done

• Google search on WikiTree and Ap
• genealogy/AP_RHYS
• genealogy/AP_GRUFFYDD
• genealogy/AP_CYNAN

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I got the LNAB part ... don't know what to do w/ the "middle" name. :-/

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I'd not ever heard "Graff" - Google translate say "Graff" in Welsh means "graph". Any sources for this family? I couldn't find them in Bartrum or on the web. And his son is shown as "Gruffydd ap Cardigan" - while he may have been _of_ Cardigan, he's attached as son to the profile for Gruffydd, so he would be _ap_ (son of) Gruffydd. 

Also, "ap" should be in the LNAB when appropriate (see this section of the Cymru project page).

Cheers, Liz

 

Answer 1

In other Welsh names I've seen, where there are two names before the "ap", the first one would appear to be the given name and the second one a nickname, like "George the Bald"  "Gruffudd the Somber".  I'm pretty sure the second name thus was achieved later in life and was not part of the birth name.  So whatever you see, I would put it as a nickname rather than as a middle name.  (Then if you discover it's wrong, it's easy to change.)

Answer 2

ap is the Welsh version of "son of"  It's a patronym which is used as the LNAB.  "ap" is not a middle name.

Answer 3

Sadly, this was first posted two and a half years ago and there's been no further work on sourcing these individuals.  As David Hughey says, "ap" means "son of".  So this Gruffudd has a son who is "ap Cardigan".  If Cardigan is his father, then Gruffudd is not his father.  But how can you tell when the only sourcing you have is a gedcom from ancestry.com?  

One issue is that many records were written by the English who spelled things the way they heard them, not the Welsh way.  So was there a "cardigan"?  Or was it "cadwgon?  

It becomes a fairly futile effort to try to figure out proper LNABs when you don't know who the people really were or even if they really existed!

Comments

They're all from Geni.

They're supposed to be the ancestors of Abel and Enoch Morgan, Welsh Baptist preachers of Delaware.  Smell the fire and brimstone.

This page

https://biography.wales/article/s-MORG-ABE-1673

says Abel's uncle was John Roderick.  And this page

https://biography.wales/article/s-RODE-JOH-1675

says John Roderick's ancestry has been revised.

Which might mean the whole line is irrelevant, or it might mean that Abel's father wasn't really John's brother.  DWB isn't necessarily consistent across articles.

The traditional line is given here

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20084561?seq=3

but I wish I hadn't read it and I'm going to have to go and lie down now.

Expanded version

http://benedgar.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-welsh-baptist-church-of-south-wales.html

Sources not noted.

Dunno if Dafydd ap Gruffyth is the same as this one

https://biography.wales/article/s-DAFY-APG-1600

Beyond him I think it's just the internet trying to make stuff up.