Children of Cefnmeurig Cottage Cause Confusion.

The search for one's roots is not a fashionable new pastime in Wales; it has always been popular.

Writing in 1899, J Gwenogvryn Evans said:

"A considerable section of the community takes the most astonishing interest in the subject of pedigrees... The writer has found it difficult to swallow his soup with grace as he listens to "a descendant of Rhodri Mawr" wondering if there was no way of recovering some of the family estate, which was so extensive in the year 946."

Six centuries earlier, the half-Norman, half-Welsh Gerald Cambrensis (whose mother was Nest, "the Helen of Wales", incidentally) wrote:

" ...Even the common people retain their genealogy, and can, not only readily recount the names of grandfathers and great-grandfathers but can refer back to the sixth or seventh generation."

He could have been talking about me. I am a common person and I can recount the names of my grandfathers and great grandfathers. I also know the name of my sixth times great grandfather, living at Cefnmeurig. And my mother's name is Nest.

Luckily, the 1747 will of John Rees of Keven Meyrick survived and proved the link. This is an important document not only for the family but also for the parish as it gives an indication of when surnames were fixed in the area.

Up until the 19th century (in some rural areas) the Welsh used an ancient PATRONYMIC naming system whereby the children of a marriage took their Father's forename as their surname (or very occasionally mothers). As a result surnames were not fixed and changed from generation to generation.

For example: my John Rees had three sons, John, William and David. 
The three sons went by the names of:
John John or John John Rees;
William John or William John Rees
David John or David John Rees

John John had a son, David, who was known as David John 
William John also had a son, David, who was known as David William

Thereafter all David John's descendants had the surname JOHN and all David William's descendants had the surname WILLIAM OR WILLIAMS.


This goes some way to explain why the pool of Welsh surnames is so small, most having derived from a quite limited number of forenames, popular at the time surnames were fixed.