Through the Time Tunnel

David Gepp has been researching graffiti scrawled on the walls of the disused "Time Tunnel" of Llangollen, Wales.

David said: "When the tunnel was built, about 1864, it was lined with a type of tile that took pencil readily and local people took to writing their names or messages to loved ones.

"It soon became apparent that a great number [were] written by young men of the area heading off to the First World War, and it became a real obsession trying to discover who they were, and what fate befell them in the trenches."

The fading signatures scrawled on the tiled brick were a poignant reminder of the Great War, the first kindlings of romance and the unrefined humour of youth.

One message says "Berlin last stop", another is signed "Balls from Belgium", and a third the schoolboyish "Hoof Hearted". [Link]

Boneyard Bunk Beds

An impending shortage of burial space in England and Wales may lead to grave-sharing.

In a technique called "lift and deepen" old graves will be deepened with room for up to six new coffins to be placed on top of the older remains.

Families could refuse permission for their ancestors' graves to be re-used for "at least another generation".

But once the deeper graves have been used once there will be no time constraints on when subsequent bodies are buried in them. [Link]

He Didn't Know When to Fold 'em

If her great-great-grandfather had been a better card player, Sophie Parkin might be living in Craig-y-Nos Castle in Wales.

Today the estate is worth around £2.5m but Sophie, 45, will never see a penny of it, nor will she ever live within the castle’s grey, stone walls.

Because, according to Sophie’s grandmother, the wealthy landowner was also a bit of a gambler and it was only a matter of time before the castle slipped out of his hands.

The winner of that fateful game took pity on the poor family and allowed them to stay on in the crofter’s cottage, but private schooling had to be swapped for hard work as their life of privilege disappeared before their eyes. [Link]

[Photo credit: Craig Y Nos by The Welsh Knight]

An English Name Prevails in Wales

"Jones" is considered a quintessentially Welsh name, but author Rocet Arwel Jones says that it's not Welsh at all.

"If Wales had a surname, it would be Jones," writes Mr Jones in his Welsh-language book.

"And yet it's a surname that starts with a letter that's not even in the Welsh alphabet. Does that make it an English surname?

"It was a surname in England before such a thing as a surname existed in Wales at all."

Jones says that the surname in Wales is an anglicized version of the truly Welsh patronymics "ap John" or "ap Siôn," and appeared only after the English system of using surnames took hold in Wales.

"The first Jones surname appears in Huntingdonshire, in England, in 1279. Looking at the collection of wills in the National Library [of Wales], the first Jones to appear there is Roger Jones from Tregynon who died in 1564." [Link]

He Came Looking For Welsh Rabbit

Susan Sarandon has been researching her family history for the BBC Wales show Coming Home, and has "uncovered tales of poverty, illegitimate children and law-breakers"—including one miscreant in her mother's Guyatt line.

She found that brothers John and Charles Guyatt moved from England to Bridgend to work as general labourers at Tondu Ironworks.

But the move seems to have been prompted by a bit of illegal rabbit poaching for which Charles was committed to a six-month sentence.

"Now we have our Welsh connection to Wales," said Susan. "Now I see - through crime we got to Wales. Excellent!" [Link]

And He's Not Even Welsh

99-year-old Peter Bartrum has been compiling Welsh genealogies since 1929. He's just donated his 26 published volumes, covering the years 300 to 1500 AD, to Aberystwyth University, which will put them online over the next three years.

Mr Bartrum, who is from London and has no family ties with Wales, handed his work over to the university recently.

Prof Gruffydd Aled Williams, head of the Welsh department, said Mr Bartrum's work "was an important source for academics and historians".

"It makes it possible to identify a person's lineage, his period and region with a minimum of effort, work which would otherwise take months of researching original manuscripts," he added.

"In theory, anyone who can trace their ancestry back to the 16th Century should be able to go back much further thanks to Dr Bartrum's work." [Link]

The Name is Welsh Just in Case

Based on the origins of local surnames, the Isle of Barra has been declared the most Scottish place in Scotland, Ripley the most English place in England, and Llangefni the most Welsh place in Wales. Researchers also tallied up foreign names, and discovered a cluster of Dutch names in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, Wales.

The town's county councillor, Timothy Van Rees, may have a slightly Dutch sounding surname but insisted he had Welsh roots. In fact he said he couldn't understand this link at all.

He said, "We are a tiny town of 700-800. I can't think of any Dutch people here. I've been a councillor for the town for 25 years and I've never noticed it"

There was a possibility that the preponderance of Dutch names came from Dutch farmers who bought land near Llandovery and Carmarthenshire in the past.

But Mr Van Rees, whose says his own surname is Welsh, admitted it was sometimes mistaken for Dutch.

"My family descends from the Vans of Monmouthshire. Van is a Welsh name. The difference in Dutch is that it's spelt with a small v and in Welsh it is a capital v." [Link]

It's Hard Keeping Up With the Joneses

A Welsh television channel is organizing the largest single-surname gathering in history. They're inviting anyone with the surname Jones to come to Wales and help break the world record.

The channel is hoping to fill the 1,600-seat Wales Millennium Centre with an audience of Joneses, which would smash the previous record set in Sweden, where 583 Norbergs gathered to set the current target.

And the channel is making sure there is plenty of incentive for members of the huge Jones family to make the trip.

A variety show starring a host of famous Joneses - called Jones Jones Jones - will keep crowds amused on November 3 while official Guinness staff carry out what is hoped to be a huge count. [Link]

Another incentive: Rules state that "Maiden or hyphenated names do not count," so there's no chance you'll run into Star Jones Reynolds.

The Grass is Always Greener in Ireland

A third of United Kingdom residents suffer from "plastic paddy syndrome," according to a recent survey. There is no known cure.

The survey, commissioned by Rankin Selection Irish Breads, found that nearly half of all English, Scottish, and Welsh people would prefer to be Irish.

Welsh emerged as the least popular with only 13% choosing it, while English was just in front with 14%. Scottish came second with a modest 29%.

A mutual love between the Irish and Scottish was also revealed with 58% of Scottish people choosing to be Irish and 72% of Irish people opting to be Scottish. [Link]

Let's Wish the Welsh Well

In case you haven't noticed, it's Wales Week in New York—kind of like Mardi Gras with a wind chill advisory.

In New York on March 1, daffodils and red dragons will abound around town, as the Welsh community in New York celebrates St. David and Dylan Thomas, Wales' most famous poet, with weeklong events that include lighting the Empire State Building in red, green and white, the colors of Wales. [Link]

The press release from the Welsh Development Agency goes on to tell us what we'd be missing if not for Wales: principally Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jack-Daniels-induced blackouts.

There's a whole website devoted to Wales Week, with a page devoted to Welsh genealogy. The Wales Tourist Board pitches in a website of its own—Homecoming Wales—with tips on finding your Welsh family, and answers to the question, "What's Happening in Wales?"

What is happening in Wales? A Man Versus Horse Marathon, of course.

I almost wish my ancestors hadn't subjugated the Welsh.

Imagine All the People Related To Him

From icNorthWales:

Lennon's roots in N.Wales revealed

Dec 8 2005

By David Greenwood, Daily Post

JOHN Lennon's little-known Welsh roots are to be revealed 25 years after the former Beatle was gunned down by a deranged fan.

Television researchers, with the help of a Merseyside fiction crime writer, managed to trace Lennon's family tree to a North Wales farm.

An hour-long S4C documentary, simply called Lennon, will shed new light on the Liverpool-born music legend's roots, suggesting he had strong Welsh ancestry.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Da Vinci Code Fans Need Not Apply

From icWales:

Can anyone crack Wales' Da Vinci Code?

Oct 5 2005

Sam Burson, Western Mail

WALES' version of The Da Vinci Code remains cloaked in history amid fears there may be no experts learned enough to reveal more about the religious manuscript.

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ has triggered a sensation since being discovered at the National Library of Wales earlier this year.

The 17th-century tome lists huge amounts of information on the bloodlines of biblical characters, including Jesus himself. It also contains intriguingly crossed- out passages about Mary Magdalene, a figure also central to Dan Brown's phenomenal best seller The Da Vinci Code.

[snip]

Llandovery College Dean Peter Hogan, who discovered the manuscript among papers belonging to the public school at the Aberystwyth library, is now having to play a waiting game.

He said yesterday, "If anybody can help us find out more about this, we would be more than glad to hear from them."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Welsh Place-Name Database Online Today

From BBC News of Aug. 1, 2005:

Welsh place names online database

A computer database of Welsh place names and their historical meanings will be launched at the National Eisteddfod in Bangor on Monday.

The late Professor Melville Richards, of the University of Wales, Bangor, painstakingly logged details on more than 330,000 slips of paper.

The massive paper archive has now been transcribed and made available online.

Prof Richards was professor of Welsh at the university between 1965 until his death in 1973.

His research papers were left to the university, along with a vast quantity of slips relating to place names.

These slips record documentary references to many thousands of farms, fields, hills, streams, islands, and bays in all parts of Wales.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Learn about places like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll Llantysiliogogogoch at the Place-Name Research Centre: Archif Melville Richards.

British Vital Records Outsourced

From the (Manchester, England) Guardian Unlimited:

Population database will move to India

Protests at offshore move for lists of births, marriages and deaths

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian

A database containing details of every birth, marriage and death in England and Wales since 1837 - all 250m of them - is to be transferred to India in one of the biggest offshore contracting deals ever to be signed by the government.

The controversial deal - due to be signed in a fortnight - is going ahead despite criticism from MPs, peers and trade unions that to transfer the information could be illegal, could put people's personal data at risk and could lead to inaccuracies in historical registers.

[snip]

The MPs also questioned whether the move was lawful without a new act of parliament because the Births and Deaths Registration Act forbids the information leaving England and Wales. Evidence was also given to them suggesting that an Indian workforce may have difficulty spelling complex Welsh and English names.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

How hard could it be for them to spell English names? Could it be any harder than spelling Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam?

The News We've All Been Waiting For

From the icWales:

Kylie's Welsh roots revealed

Jun 4 2005

David James, South Wales Echo

HOW Welsh is Kylie Minogue?

The question has baffled celebrity spotters ever since the wee Aussie with an Irish surname declared: "My roots will also be in Wales, in a little town called Maesteg."

And today, the Echo can lay the issue to rest.

Thanks to a new website, we have pieced together a family tree highlighting the Welsh blood in the pop princess' veins.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Finally I'll be able to sleep at night. . .

The Truth Hurts

From the UK National Archives:

Census reveals the gossip columnist from 1861
19 May 2005

In vividly describing his neighbours as “bastards”, “prostitutes” and “syphilitic paupers” in the census, Isaac Norris Hunt could almost be depicted as the 1861 version of a gossip columnist.

A data collector for Stow-on-the-World in the 1861 national census, Mr Hunt took a rather overzealous approach into his task of collating information on his fellow Cheltenham residents.

Along with the vigorous observations of I.N Hunt, The National Archives has unveiled the complete name, birthplace and occupation of residents across all 52 counties of England and Wales in 1861. You can trace the lives of ancestors through the five consecutive censuses.

A railway manager by profession, Mr Hunt took the opportunity to add some highly personal remarks when entering the occupation of his neighbours:

* Several are listed as prostitutes including Emma Cook aged 19 and the 64-year old Mary Newman
* Eliza Williams is said to be ‘kept’ by her ‘paramour’ William Clapton
* The unfortunate Hannah Cokey is described as a ‘pauper, syphilitic’
* William Shall was an ‘absconding bankrupt’
* Elizabeth Wixey ‘cohabits with a man’
* and the two young sons of the ‘very doubtful’ Lavinia Collicott are described rather bluntly as ‘bastards’.

Unsurprisingly, Isaac Hunt does not appear to have undertaken the role of enumerator in any of the later censuses, which are now held at The National Archives.