- FamilyHistoryOnline

Montgomeryshire Parish Registers

• Transcription and conventions used
• The Patronymic system
• Coverage
• Checking
• Grouping
• Abbreviations and codes
• Contact details
• How to buy
• Copyright and disclaimer

[return to the page you were on before]

Transcription and conventions used

These transcriptions were made by members of the Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society, using copy registers kindly lent to the society by the incumbents.

The policy is to transcribe to 1837 but to continue beyond that date to the end of the particular register. This accounts for the various end-dates of the transcriptions. There are occasional gaps in these registers and some parts are very difficult to read. To fill these gaps and to confirm and clarify the entries, Bishops Transcripts, which are located at the National Library of Wales, have been used. Entries which are wholly from the Bishops Transcripts have been indicated by ‘BT’.

Baptism Registers

These show the date of the baptism (occasionally the day and month of birth), the names of the child and its parents, the father's occupation, where the family lived and any notes. Not all entries will provide all information.

Marriage Registers

These show the date of the marriage, the names of bride, groom and witnesses, whether the marriage took place by Banns or licence and any notes.

A lower-case letter x against a name can be taken to indicate that that party signed the register, instead of making their mark.

The word otp indicates that the bride or groom is of this parish.

Burial Registers

These show the date of burial, the name of the person interred, where he or she might have come from and their age.

The patronymic system

Provided by Bryn Ellis of Montgomeryshire GS.

Prior to the nineteenth century the patronymic system of naming was common in Wales, particularly in those rural parishes more remote from the English border. Persons were named as the son of (‘ap’, or ‘ab’ before a vowel), or daughter of (‘ferch’). In the early sixteenth century and earlier its pure form gives names such as John ap David ap Howell ab Evan, showing four generations of a male person, and Mary ferch William ab Owen ap Hugh, showing the same for a female. Please note that a woman did not [could not!] adopt her husband’s ‘surname’ on marriage – she retained her family name throughout her life.

From the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries this system was in a process of change. The first development was often the dropping of the earlier names, giving us in the above examples names such as John ap David and Mary ferch William ab Owen. The next stage was often the dropping of the ‘ap’ or ‘ferch’, giving possibly John David or Mary William Owen. These might then develop the possessive ‘s’ at the end giving John Davids or John Davies, and Mary Williams.

Often the ‘ap’ or ‘ab’ would be fused with the following personal name, so giving, surnames such as Pugh from ‘ap Hugh’, Parry from ‘ap Harry, Probert from ‘ap Robert’, Bowen from ‘ab Owen’, and so on. The derivation of Jones from John normally arises from the Welsh version of John, Siôn, pronounced as in ‘Shone’.

The difficulty for the researcher is working out when this process happened in a particular instance, e.g. a son of John Davies above may be known as William John or William Davies [i.e. a surname has possibly formed]. William John’s son may be David Williams or David Jones. There are examples where what appears to be the development of a ‘surname’ [e.g. the existence of the ‘s’ at the end of the name] in one generation is not continued in the next. This process was a gradual one largely taking place between about 1600 and 1800, although there are examples of the practice surviving after 1800.

You are advised that in researching such a parish back beyond 1800 looking for the birth of say Edward Evans you should be aware of the possibility that his father did not have the surname Evans but was named Evan John or Evan Roberts or whatever. The chances of it being a patronymic name increases as one goes back in time.

In these transcriptions the basic rule has been to treat all names with ‘ap’ or ‘ferch’ [or variants] and/or with more than two names [e.g. John William Ieuan] as patronymic and typed all in mixed case (with capital letters only at the start of a name). Where there are just two names the second is treated as a surname and typed in block capitals even though doubt may exist as to whether a surname has been established or not. This editorial decision does not imply an opinion as to whether any second name is a ‘surname’.

Coverage

The number of entries and years covered for each parish is shown in the tables below:

Baptisms

Marriages

Burials

Checking

The information has been checked.

Grouping

No grouping is required for these records.

Abbreviations and Codes

A lower-case letter x against a name can be taken to indicate that that party signed the register, instead of making their mark.

The word otp means of this parish.

The Chapman County code for the County of Montgomeryshire is 'MGY'.

Contact details

Details of the society can be found on the society’s website at home.freeuk.net/montgensoc

How to buy

Details of the society’s publications can be found on the publications page on the website at home.freeuk.net/montgensoc

Copyright and disclaimer

© Trustees of the Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society.

When using this index to assist with your research, consult the original documents to check the details given here. The Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society accepts no liability for any errors or omissions that remain (although they would welcome notification of alternative interpretations of the entries in the parish registers.)

[return to the page you were on before]