My PAF geneology database goes back to 1420. About 4,000 people in the database. The Welsh geneology comes to a halt at 1777 around the village of Llanfihangel y Creuddyn. The Welsh maintained a patronymic family name structure until 1756 when the English forced the use of surnames. Many Welsh created surnames by making a genitive form of a forename. Robert->Roberts, John->Johns, Edward->Edwards. Some patronymic forms were anglicized. John ap Howell became John Powell. Rhys ab Owain became Rhys Bowen. The original patronymic forms were generally maintained in 3 generation format and associated with a specific house name. My great great grandfather's house in Ysbty Ystwyth was name "Tynewydd" which translates as "new house". The address used by my friends in Cwmystwyth is given by their house name "Afallon" rather than by a house number on a road. That is the norm in the back country of Wales.
Good luck in the pursuit of your studies. If I can be of assistance in finding resources around Wales for you, please feel free to ask.
Thank you once again! I always thought that Owain became Owen, which is a frequent name in my collateral line, as is Johns (I'm from VA). My husband's dark coloring comes from his mother, who was a Dine, a name so far associated with the English. I have set aside the genealogy for awhile so that I can finish school, but I look forward to going back to it. My dear husband points out that I have a very bland genealogy (all A/S) but he obviously has interesting genes from somewhere!
Do you live in Wales now? My former finance was from Cardiff and he was still continuing to have difficulties because the building housing his birth certificate burned down years ago.