Wales Pre 1500 Resources

Profile managers: Stuart Awbrey [send private message], Steve Bartlett [send private message], and Wales Project WikiTree [send private message]

Wales Project | Managed Profiles Teams | Pre-1500 Team | Pre-1500 Resources

See also

• Pre-1500 Resource Page. this is a general page on medieval resources which is not specific to Wales, but some of the resources are useful to us, too.

Geographic Resources

Before 1535 in some cases, and before the Statute of Rhiuddlan in 1284 in all cases, Welsh geography was comprised of cantrefs and their constitutent commotes the the larger kingdoms and principalities into which they were organized.

• The Cantrefs and Commotes of Wales. These can all be found here

Name Fields in the WikiTree Data Field

Prior to 1535, the Welsh naming pattern was patronymic. ap (ab in front of a vowel sound) meaning "son of". and "ferch" meaning "daughter of" precede the father's name to form the WikiTree Last Name at Birth. The Welsh "f" sounded like a "v" to English scribes, so in many sources one will see "verch" rather than "ferch." We aim not to use verch, even when the anglicized source uses it as there is no letter v in welsh.

Please also note that in order to distinguish between father and son with the same given name the descriptor (epithet) Fychan, meaning "the younger" was used. For example, Idwal, the son of Idwal would be called Idwal Fychan, rarely Idwal the Elder would be given the Descriptor Hen. Fychan was often anglicised as Vychan, this is not part of the LNAB. Putting it in as a middle name is acceptable. As anglicised surnames came necessary in the 1500s this was transmuted in the surname Vaughan.

Other descriptors (or epithets to give them their posh name) such as Goch (red), or Ddu (black) may refer to hair-colour we will put as a second forename. Welsh Epithets, as second forenames were rarely used in those days

• See name field guidelines on the Welsh Project's page here .

• You can learn more about the meanings of Welsh names:

Welsh Names.

Welsh patronymics

Welsh Epithets

Sources and Resources for Profile Data

General

Medieval Welsh genealogy is distinctive for its reliance on pedigrees, which were undoubtedly transmitted orally by bards for some time before they were written down. Bards were specially trained to transmit material by word of mouth as it had come to them; still, errors are inevitable. Pedigrees are long on names and short on dates, which makes working with them hard. Because of the turmoil in Welsh history, primary records such as charters are fewer for Wales than for England. The list of sources on which one can rely without question, will be very short!

Reliable Sources

Reliable Sources with Conditions

• Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1400 and Welsh Genealogies AD 1400-1500 by Peter Bartrum is available online at Bartrum Genealogical Project (Link updated 7 June 2023). It is an excellent source of information, but needs to be used with caution, especially as you follow the lineage back. Many of the people charted do not have any date(s) given, and generations are sometimes condensed. For details, see Darrell Wolcott's article, The Bartrum Welsh Genealogies (accessed 1 August 2019).

• Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans by Carl Boyer, 3rd, published 2004 is digitized at Internet Archive - Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. It generally follows Bartrum.

• Medieval Lands: A Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families by Charles Cawley is a study which attempts to provide a narrative biography of all of the noble houses of Europe cross-referenced to some original sources. Valuable because of the broad scope of the study but mostly doesn't have the in-depth investigation of individuals as some other resources in this list. The complete website is at Medieval Lands: A Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families
  

There is a separate section on Wales.

• Dictionary of Welsh Biography, which was originally published by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in two English-language volumes and three Welsh-language ones covering the whole history of Wales up to 1970. This electronic version was first launched by the National Library of Wales in 2007, and it includes all the articles from the print volumes and also articles about a number of people who died since 1970. The DWB is now published online only, and it is a fully bilingual resource.

Less Accessible

Other Genealogy Resources:

• The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fodog and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen and Meirionydd (1881-1887), Lloyd, Jacob Youde William, (6 volumes. London: T. Richards, 1881-1887), FHL book 942.9 D2L; FHL microfilms 990,213-990,214

Vol.1 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

Vol.2 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

Vol.3 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

Vol.4 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

Vol.5 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

Vol.6 || HathiTrust || Internet Archive || LDS

• Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches Between the Years 1586 and 1613 by Lewys Dwnn (1846), Dwnn, Lewys; transcribed and edited with notes by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, (2 volumes. Llandovery: William Rees, 1846), FHL book 942.9 D23d; FHL microfilm 176,668.

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

• The History of Wales, Caradoc of Llancarvan, translated by Dr. Powell, augmented by W. Wynne, (London: T. Evans, 1832), GoogleBooks

• Sir John Edward Lloyd. A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911. [ ] (2 Volumes)

Volume 1 - Paleolithic to Sea Rovers

Volume 2 - From the Norman Conquest

• Inquisitions Post Mortem: Mapping the Medieval Countryside
  Names and lands included in medieval IPMs from c. 1236 to 1509 with over 500 involving Wales.

• Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families: with Their Collateral Branches in Denbighshire, Merionethshire (1914), Griffith, John Edwards, (Horncastle, England: W.K. Morton, 1914), FHL book Folio 942.9 D2gr; FHL microfilm 468,334.

• The Golden Grove books of pedigrees (filmed 1970), (Manuscript, National Library of Wales manuscript number Castell Gorfod 7. Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1950), FHL microfilms 104,349-104,351.

• George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman. History of the princes of South Wales. Wigan [Eng.]: Printed by Thomas Birch, 1876. Open Library

• Sir Joseph Alfred Bradney. The History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans Into Wales Down to the Present Time, in multiple volumes. Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1904-1993. FS

• Theophilus Jones. A history of the county of Brecknock. Vol. 1. Brecknock: Printed and sold by Wm. & Geo. North ... for the author; and sold by J. Booth ... London., 1805. Open Library

• Theophilus Jones. A History of the County of Brecknock. Vol. 2. Brecknock: Printed and sold by Wm. & Geo. North ... for the author; and sold by J. Booth ... London., 1805. Open Library

• Edward Hamer, Howel William Lloyd. The history of the parish of Llangurig. London: printed by T. Richards, 1875. Internet Archive

• Archaeologia Cambrensis, A Record of the Antiquities of Wales and Its Marches, and the Journal of the Cambrian Archeaological Association. various, 1846-1900. National Library of Wales

• George Thomas Clark. Cartæ et alia munimenta quæ ad dominium de Glamorgan pertinent. Cardiff/Talygarn: William Lewis, 1910. [ ] (6 Volumes)

Vol. 1: 1102-1350

Vol. 2: 1196-1270

Vol. 3: 1271-1331

Vol. 4: 1332-1452

Vol. 5: 1453-1580

Vol. 6: 1148-1527 + 1580-1721

• There are bibliographies for the various shires in Wales at GENUKI

• Welsh Journals Online at the National Library of Wales

• Center for the Study of Ancient Wales Darrell Wolcott's articles need to be read carefully. Some have been found in error.

Gazetteers

• The National Gazetteer of Wales

• Tallis's Topographical Dictionary - Gazetteer of Wales

• GENUKI Gazetteer

History

• Lloyd, John Edward Sir. A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, and co., 1911. Open Library (Volume 1 - Paleolithic to about 1040 A.D.)

• Lloyd, John Edward Sir. A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, and co., 1912. Open Library (Volume 2 - About 1040 A.D. forward)

• Gruffydd ap Cynan, translated by Arthur Jones. The history of Gruffydd ap Cynan. Manchester [Eng.]: University press, 1910. Open Library

• John Davies. A History of Wales. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin press, 1993. [ ]

• A Brief History of Wales, by Peter N. Williams, at Britannia

• Welsh History Review 1960-2000. It contains academic articles and book reviews, mostly in English.

• Welsh History Timeline

• The website Castles of Wales has a number of good articles about medieval Wales, including A Timeline of Medieval Wales.

Language

• Welsh Terms Found in Journals

• Welsh Language Tools for Genealogists

• Common Word and Phrases on Gravestones

Unreliable Sources

• FamilySearch Genealogies - Community Trees - This is a compilation of many sources, including Bartrum, but including unsourced user-submitted trees. May be useful for the beginning of the search, but information shown here should be confirmed with more reliable sources. NOTE: Be sure to limit your search by going to the bottom of the search page and changing the search parameters from ALL to Community Trees.

• Popular Genealogies -- user-submitted trees on Ancestry.com, Geni.com, and other popular genealogies may be useful for beginning a search, but profiles which contain only information from these sources should be considered unsourced. Such sources are never adequate justification for creating a new pre-1500 profile.

Sources