[bd476]

One of my dreams is to visit Wales and do my research there. When I began researching my Grandmother's early years in Wales, I was told that Welsh genealogy is the hardest to trace.

However, I have been relatively successful, at least in filling in many details of my family's Welsh heritage to around 1810. Before that date, I either have to pay someone, spend a lot of time at an LDS Family History library or fly over there myself.

Still it has been a challenging search because I'm researching one of the most common Welsh family surnames.

[Myrddin]

However, I have been relatively successful, at least in filling in many details of my family's Welsh heritage to around 1810. Before that date, I either have to pay someone, spend a lot of time at an LDS Family History library or fly over there myself.

One angle that makes things difficult is the original patronymic naming tradition in Wales. It was common to identify a person by the name of the house where he lived AND 3 generations of patriarchal reference. The English didn't like that, so they forced the Welsh to adopt the English custom of having a surname in 1754. The Welsh didn't like being forced to take surnames, so they rebelled by inventing surnames based on possessive forms of given names. The classic is Ioan -> Jones. Son of Owen 'ab Owain' -> Bowen. Son of Hywl 'ap Hywl' -> Powell.

The switch to use of surnames in 1754 will force you to dig into parish registries and become somewhat competent in reading Welsh.