Welsh Surnames Explained
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- Do you have roots in Wales or other Celtic nations? Surnames in these places have an interesting history different from that of surnames in other parts of the world. This video explains the origins of Welsh surnames, why there are so few, the role surnames play in society, and why people in the past centuries went about picking up a surname.
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Video Contents
00:00 Introduction
00:50 Hereditary Surnames
01:58 Patronymic Naming
03:10 Why the Differences?
03:49 State Governance
07:00 Blending Systems
08:39 Narrowing Pool of Names
12:21 When was the Change?
14:04 What Name Becomes a Surname
16:29 Outro
Image Copyright
Public Domain Images: License: creativecommons.org/publicdoma...
Evan Davies, Bu Farw, p. 157
• hdl.handle.net/10107/2416937
UK Map
• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Theakston & Davies 1913 Some Family Records and Pedigrees of the Lloyds
• archive.org/details/somefamil...
Llewelyn ap Gruffudd
• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Hywel Dda and Law Code Pages
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4400109
Welsh Flag
• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
English Flag
• upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
William the Conqueror Norman Conquest 1066
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4673901
Richard II 1851
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4673437
Henry VIII
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4672580
Remains Concerning Britain
• www.google.ca/books/edition/R...
Evan Davies 1846 Bu Farw
• hdl.handle.net/10107/2416937
Reverend Gentleman
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4702844
Smithy 1880
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4702715
Bible Welsh 1588
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4701320
Nobility Dolaucothi 1870
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4968883
Derry Ormond 1872
• archive.org/details/annalsant...
David Davis, Castellhywel Photo
• hdl.handle.net/10107/4673253
Other Images:
Nilfanion, 2011. Relief map of Wales, UK. Ordnance Survey. OpenData
• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
• License: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
• Counties outlined and highlighted
English Flag
• upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
• public ownership
Welsh Flag
• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
• Out of copyright/public ownership
St. John the Baptist’s Church, Hatherleigh
• www.geograph.org.uk/photo/80166
• Attribution: Grant Sherman / St John the Baptist's Church, Hatherleigh / CC BY-SA 2.0
• License: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Ancestry Images: For use as necessary for professional family history research.
All other images copyright to Davina Davies, Maxine Davies, GenealCymru, and Raymond O’Connor.
The channel has just had its 1 Year Anniversary, so feel free to hang out and watch some of my other 30 or so videos on Welsh History, Genealogy, and Culture.
If you want to get started on your own Family History research, check out the 1-week Free Trial through FindMyPast using my affiliate link: tidd.ly/3QmPMrk
Check out my other vids on Welsh naming patterns. The Truth about YOUR Welsh Surname: th-cam.com/video/0a6eognNi-M/w-d-xo.html Explaining Welsh First Names: th-cam.com/video/SMPNF8V-140/w-d-xo.html
Hey mate, my father's side of the family were Welsh, I was born in NZ. They all passed before I could remember them. We are Foley's which apparently is Irish? Are there Welsh Foley's? New sub. Cheers
@@footrot17 Hey, there very well could be. I haven't encountered any in my research yet. Surname DB says this about the history of Foley: "This interesting surname is an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic "O'Foghladha". The Gaelic prefix "O" indicates "male descendant of", plus the personal byname "Foghladha" meaning pirate or plunderer. This great sept originated in the southern Munster County of Waterford, and from there spread to Counties Cork and Kerry, where the name is particularly widespread, and ranks among the sixty most numerous surnames in Ireland." But who knows, maybe they stopped over in Wales before getting to NZ! :)
@@GenealCymru pirate or plunderer! lol
I know at least 3 generations were coal miners, so yeah they probably did move about. Thanks a lot for replying mate. Much appreciated.
Good work for just a year!!
Thank you! :D It's been a lot of work and a lot of learning, but it's great fun :)
Swedish surnames often are taken from nature, such as names of trees, herbs and flowers. Also names like Berg = Mountain, Sjö= Lake, Skog = Forest, Blom = Flower and all sorts of combination of such nature denominations. I haven't seen this in any other country. What can I say, we love nature!🇸🇪
That's very cool. I've seen some people with Lake as their surname in Wales, but yeah it's not super common. A first name that we have is Olwen, which means something like white footprint, but represents bunches of white clover flowers that an old goddess made when she walked through the forest.
@@GenealCymru Interesting!
@@GenealCymru One third of the 24 members of the Swedish government wear nature inspired surnamed. One is called Liljestrand = Lilybeach.
The most obvious one that springs to mind (excuse the pun 😃) is Native Americans.
Welsh first names likewise quite commonly are taken from nature. Eira - Snow, Eirlys - Snow Drop, Heulwen - Sunshine, Llinos - Linnet etc but nearly always names for females.
Keep the Welsh language alive ! It is the sound of the British isles
It's the sound of a long subjugated people
Its a useless language only spoken by a few arrogant aholes
It's the sound of sub-Alban Prydain, not the language of the Irish Isles.
I discovered some Welsh heritage. I'm Very proud of it.❤
I have Welsh on both sides of my family.
My 3rd great grandfather came to America from WALES, JAMES C. EVANS so here I am in the USA, stories of him speaking Welsh with other welshmen in Eureka Nevada in the late 1800s intrigue me as well as many other stories
I was very surprised to learn there was a good sized Welsh community in the Berkeley/Oakland California area, many were Welsh-speaking. My great grandparents went back to Wales from PA, had two sons, then returned to the US. They were pretty determined to maintain their Welshness, spoke Welsh at home, family members lived nearby and my mom remembers the Aunties chattering primarily in Welsh. There were Eisteddfod here, various places, at least intermittently, one regularly in Malad Idaho. Her dad wouldn’t speak it a lot but i have a cassette of him singing a children’s song about a chicken. Mom understands some words, at this point I might understand more than her though I have trouble putting more than one sentence together at a time.
And Welsh is still going strong here in the homeland. Cymru am byth 💖
@@ClubSoda98 im welsh decent Davies living in canada
@@daffyduck4267 My great great grandmother was like that. The story goes that she pulled the boys out of the mines when their dad was killed and they sang at various functions as a family foursome. When she was bedridden before she died she didn’t talk for i think a month. One day she sat up and sang Aberystwyth, all verses in Cymraeg of course, lay back and didn’t talk again. Śhe died a few days later. I wish I’d had someone speaking Welsh while I was growing up. It’s a lot harder to learn on your own with an app!!
My Grandpa's welsh surname has sadly come to the end of the line. My uncle only had daughters and they both are taking new surnames when they get married.
Most people do not realize that in Samoa there are a lot of people with the last name Pritchard. They are Welsh descendants. I would love to see you do a follow-up on the Pritchards
Very cool! No plans for more surname videos at the moment, but I could look into Welsh migration to Samoa for a video on that. I'll write it in my notes.
Bounty descendents??
Probably from ap Risiart.
@@edpe64 Interesting...
My maternal grandfather's name was Evans, I researched his line and found out they came to America from Cardigan in the early 1800's. They were Calvinist brick makers who sailed down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania on rafts, settling in Ohio to build the first railroads there. Thank you for your excellent content and fantastic delivery ❤
Welcome to the family, Willow.
My mother was Evans. Her ancestors came to America in 1759. They sailed from Dublin to the Philadelphia port. They then traveled down to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia where my family still lives. My husband's family is also pure Welsh--Griffith.
I was glad to see this. Someone in my fam tree had the name Llewelyn, or Llewellyn. When someone immigrated to the US, it got changed, simplified, to "Lewallen," and i have *always* wished it was spelled the original Welsh way. Subscribed, and am checking out the channel for the first time today! Thx!
At the same time it's pretty clever changing to Lewallen because it likely saves a lot of the original pronunciation in whatever place they ended up. I figure that's why a lot of Davies' who went to the Americas ended up as Davis', for the sake of the pronunciation.
I am a Llewellyn and my dads family is from south Wales. I was born and live in England , but I always spell out my surname on the phone ( and pronounce it the English way. without the double LL sound) as otherwise I get some very funny spelling. Shakespeare in Henry the V spelt it Fluellen !
@@philllewellyn6464 I've read Fluellen and heard Thuellan, etc. I love the true spelling with the double lls!
@@vickielewallen3799 and with Llewelyn as a middle name good to have it pronounced properly too!
@philllewellyn6464 I am too. Born in England my nan's dad was Welsh from Tenby south Wales.I've had some bizarre spelling of my name and always have to spell it out but I wouldn't change it for the world and am very proud of my Welsh heritage.
Thank you for this very interesting video.
There is an increasing emergence of channels such as yours spreading awarenesses of my precious little country!
It is most encouraging to discover people around the world are finding an interest in this part of the UK that often gets overlooked.
It may be a small country, but it has a rich history connected to ancient Britain!
Best wishes in developing an increased following.
You have one more subscriber.💖
Thanks for your kind message! I'm glad you enjoyed. Yeah I'm hoping to fill the gap in the 18th to the present history of Wales that like never gets any attention. I find mostly it's medieval history that gets done and I think our more recent ancestors deserve some love too!
my ancestors are from Wales
my last name is Czuba. we are from southern Poland. but I enjoyed your video, very informative and interesting. I would love to go to visit Wales. I lived in Kent, southern England for 2 years when I was a lad, because my father had a job in Sandwich circa 1973, I was 5! would love to visit Britain again, but especially the country and Wales ! thx
You would be very welcome! 🇬🇧
I am half Welsh and have many family in Sandwich! Both Kent/South-East England and Wales are incredibly beautiful when you know where to look, especially Wales! Very interesting info Andrew thanks for sharing! :)
I'm a Davis (many generations into the US)! I knew I was in good company but didn't know there were soooo many of us.
The patronymic system of naming held on in Scandinavia (and still does in Iceland) up until fairly recently historically. One of the amusing things about my own ancestry is that my grandmother had older siblings with different last names. When they came to this country, her father gave his name as Magnus Erlandson. His children who arrived with him were thus "Magnusson." But everyone of his children born in this country had Erlandson as their last name.
Different names on coming to America, is the story in my family.
I am not sure but among five brothers and a sister, one took the name of a rich uncle, another a patinomic of his father, another ( rumored to be his mother's child) after the name meaning "golden". Their mother used a name connected to military service, because it came with a pension.
BUT
My favorite story is how the Dutch, when forced to take last names by the Spainish crown, made up as silly of a name as they could think of, for example a name meaning "bornaked". 😁
Lucky!! Had that been two or three generations earlier it could’ve been a lot harder to untangle!!
Half of my kids are related to every other Hillendahl on the planet. When his father‘s family came a few generations prior they didn’t know what to do with Heiligentoggen (sp?). I guess Ellis Island was familiar with the “dahl” suffix and went that direction!
l heard a lot of lcelanders are dropping this naming system as archiac and going for something a bit more modern !
My Grandmother was the same way. Both of her parents and her older sisters were all born in Sweden, so they had their father's first name as their last name. She was born in Iowa. So she had her father's last name as her last name ..
@@Sam_Green____4114 GRUNTS ?
All my ancestors came to the U.S. before the American revolution and settled in Appalachia. There is a county is Kentucky named "Davies". I always wondered about the spelling--now I understand.
Mine too. Often people came in groups, were related and even moved to new areas in the New World as a group. My Mom's family moved to Georgia as a group of related families to Ga from SC. People tended to move west and south as new lands opened up. Dad's went west. All started out in either Va. or Penn.
I was born in Owensboro, Kentucky which is in Daviess County. Owen is another Welsh name. We had Welsh farmers here who came down the Ohio River on flat boats from Pennsylvania and Maryland and raised sheep 🐑 and we are known for our barbecued mutton. You can eat it at Moonlight BBQ or Old Hickory if you’re ever in town.
Most of the settlers in Appalachia were English,Scottish and Welsh.The census records of the Appalachian states from the 19th century have their names and where they were from by it.
its a great name, means "very handsome, athletic, intelligent"😁
My Thomas and Davis ancestors settled in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia in the early to mid 1700's. Amazing how a country as small as Wales had such a huge impact by its diaspora worldwide.
Absolutely. I have some videos planned about some of those connections between Wales and the rest of the world.
All of britain par the Highlands were once Welsh speaking Britons. This island was conquered over and over again and the remainder of everybody is in modern day Wales
I have Watkins, Lewis and I think Hughes that came to Wilkes-Barre & Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s, I *think* my Rees’ & Griffiths stayed mostly in Wales. Davis and Reynolds’s in 1700s, in a circle where Kentucky/Tennessee/Virginia meet. Several Reynolds’s pop up in my Ancestry DNA matches. There are also Fraleys, Smiths and a few Edens.
Do you know anything about the surname Yancey? We have a county and a city named after Us in North Carolina but the name is lost in time from the 1600s it goes nowhere but the rumor is, they came over from Wales.
@@wylldflower5628 wow , I'm a Jones and my great grandmother maiden name was Hughes all from KY . Prior to 1850-60s ? Virginia 😁.
My great-grandmother gave her sons Evans as middle names, after her mother-in-law's maiden name. I think this was a way to honor her heritage. It was fun finding out I had Welsh roots.
Same here, It was also fun when i found out i have Welsh roots.
Nancy Adamou. I get tired of US tv scripts saying that the name EVAN is Irish. America is obsessed with Irish. Evan and Evans is Welsh. The name Roberts can be found all over Wales. The US Chief Supreme Court justice, John Roberts, has a Welsh name. It would be interesting to check his ancestry.
@@patryan1375 I'm not sure why you brought up Evans being Irish here in the US, I had never heard that.
Welcome to the family, Nancy!
Awaken my dragon 🐲.. hmmmm..😁..
This video fortuitously came into my feed! Both of my maternal grandparents were from Abergavenny but only my grandmother had Welsh lineage. I now know why the family tree starts to get muddled as I try to get past my great-great grandparents - Davies kept marrying Davies and it’s hard to know if it’s the “right Davies”!
Thank-you for this wonderful history lesson.
I have some other videos that can help you with all the common names. I'm also fortunate to have at least 5 Davies families that I'm descended from haha, but you may want to look at my video on place names and on Welsh first names/naming patterns if you're looking for any support as you work on your tree :)
Lots of Davies are part of my family.. my grandmother for one. 😊
I got messed up with a birth certificate, thinking a Jones married a Jones... but it turns out the mother was a Davies. It would appear daddy registered the baby's birth too late, so in order to avoid the fine he gave the wrong birth date. She was born in January, so I was told weather probably was the reason. He also didn't seem to understand the concept of maiden name so he listed his wife as being a Jones rather than Davies.
Thanks for the video, really interesting to read the comments from all over the world, with the same surname I'm Welsh or Cymro, Cymru is Wales, Wales was invented for us, its a very rich place historically and our beautiful language. I'm live in South Wales but my name Griffiths comes from Denbighshire North Wales.
Agreed. Welsh history is fascinating. It is such an important part of global history that I don't think gets talked about enough. Most of the time it's medieval history that gets covered, but the modern period is where Wales really shines in my opinion.
I have known for years that my Jones ancestral surname was Welsh. What a nice surprise to see your channel and learn that my Williams, James, Edwards and Thomas surnames are likely Welsh.
I’d also heard “s” endings often connotated Welsh.
Do you know what part of whales that Jones originated from? My mother-in-law’s is a Jones from Northeastern Wales, about 30 miles south of Liverpool. There seems to be a lot of Joneses around that area.
@@fleetskipper1810 jones is like smith in English ie very common surname
Not from any particular area of wales
I think wlliam is norman (via william the conqueror) and Edward was anglo saxon
My maternal grandfather was Edward Edwards ,my grandmother was Elizabeth Jones from the Welsh/Shropshire Borders.
Shw mai Dai, My Grandfather was a proud South Walian 'Silure' as he refered to the Roman title of tribalism. Born and raised in Pen Y graig atop the Rhondda. He could recount our family lineage to six centuries!
My father being the eldest of his offspring was the 1st male in our family not to be born in Cyymru.
I found your video here most interesting and will certainly watch more. Cantre Diolch!
Glad you enjoyed the video!
My name is Emyr Griffith Davies, born Bangor 1960, Welsh speaker born of English mother of Welsh/Scottish parentage. Father born of Welsh parents, his mother, a Jones from Pentrefelin North Wales, and father, a Davies from Merthyr Tydfil South Wales.
It might interest you that Cromwell was a name that was known in Wales. After the Civil War and the actions of Oliver Cromwell the Welsh connection changed their name to Williams. A friend was able to trace her ancestry back and this is what she found.
They changed it from Williams to Cromwell. I believe his ancestry was Welsh and Dutch.
@@taffyducks544 He had distant Welsh ancestry due to his great-great grandfather being Welsh, but this ancestor moved to England and married an Englishwoman and took her surname. So he is mostly English
Eerie. I have the same story In my family background. Small world
@@fyrdman2185 wouldn't be mostly, very difficult to now show the strength of any particular ancestry where he would be concerned. I never meant to claim he wasn't English, just highlighting his ancestral ties with other nations.
My family (Williams) descends directly from Cromwell.
King Henry VII's Welsh name was Harri ap Tedwr which became "Tudor" in English.
wasnt it hari tudur?
@@ejones8360 There are indeed two different spellings. The text below is a quote from Wikipedia:
"This name is sometimes given as Tewdwr, the Welsh form of Theodore, but Modern Welsh Tudur, Old Welsh Tutir is originally not a variant but a different and completely unrelated name, etymologically identical with Gaulish Toutorix, from Proto-Celtic *toutā "people, tribe" and *rīxs "king" (compare Modern Welsh tud "territory" and rhi "king"[respectively), corresponding to Germanic Theodoric."
And Harri is Henry in English and it’s why Harry became the name the likes of Prince Henry uses
@@Penddraig7 Harri the name apparently meant warror.
It wasn’t Harri ap Tedwr, his name wasn’t Harri ap any form of the name Tudor
Most of the common Welsh surnames are well represented in Jamaica, such as Morgan Griffiths Cadogan Meredith Howell/Powell Jones Davies/Davis Llewellyn Evans Vaughan. There are a large amount of Thomas and Williams too, but those are possibly from all over Britain and Ireland.
Yeah. Wales played a big role in British imperialism and slavery which is a big part of why those names are so common in Jamaica. There's definitely videos in the works about all that. If you know any black Jamaicans who are looking for some support doing their family history, I can do some work free of charge. I have some experience with the Jamaican records from doing a loved one's tree. There's a couple Jamaican genealogy Facebook groups that I'm in that are probably the friendliest and most helpful groups on Facebook.
@@GenealCymru Oh! Thanks for the information. The two persons I know personally their male ancestors came dacades after slavery was abolished, one Meredith and one Griffiths. I can ask if they are interested.
@@AnthonyEvelyn Aa okay. Interesting. The tree that I did went back to early to mid-1800s South Trelawney/North Manchester area. I've got a bit of a one-place study going for one of the communities there, trying to collect as many records as I can.
@@GenealCymru Thank you very much!
@@GenealCymru I am a black American Morgan who is married to a Welsh Morgan and we live in Mid Wales. I know that some of the Welsh who immigrated to The USA were Quakers and abolitionists. Is there anything in your research that would suggest newly freed black people might have taken the surname of some of these Welsh abolitionists? There's certainly a lot of Jones, Thomas, Davis, Williams, and Evans. It's all so fascinating! My husband has managed to trace his father's family just a bit further back than you did (1680s).
My Grandmother Jones was a war bride, came to Canada after WW2 - she was from Pontypool. Trajically she died before I was born and just recently I was thinking of exploring her roots. Thanks for this, really interesting info.
I hope you do find out about her history. Glad you enjoyed the video. I've got some research coming up that's taking me (in the records) to Pontypool too-I just found out a relative was a vicar there.
With a population over around 3.5 million and knowing where your grandmother came from in Wales should help but there are a lot of Jones’s in Wales. Pob lwc!
@@garmit61 I was born a Jones
There’s a lot do do and see around Pontpool as it’s not far from Cardiff, the capital, which has a lot to offer & see xxx
@@kushcloud420 me too
My mother's maiden name was Bebel. She was from Cardiff and I grew up in the States but know nothing of it's origins because of her passing at a young age. I thank you for the knowledge..
I’m also a Davies and my family originate from cwmbran.
This was really intresting!!
Thank you for covering welshness as it’s often so missed
Very cool. And I totally agree. I ultimately started the channel because there's just not much info on Wales on TH-cam especially beyond Medieval history. Glad you enjoyed!
They say that things change with time and I always say....."They TRY to change." When my parents married, both sides of the family were more than annoyed. They BOTH said they had "Married outside their race", even though both sides were white as milk. My mother was a Campbell and her mother was a Jones. My father was a Reynolds and his mother was a Pool..... possibly Dutch. Reynolds has become a common enough English name in the last thousand years because of the Norman Conquest, without being a Norman name. Reynolds is the Anglicized version of Reginwald, from Switzerland. It turns out that a third of Duke William's army in 1066 were Swiss and Burgundian mercenaries. After the invasion, the new Reynolds tribe was parked on the Welsh frontier at Devon and it is from there that all the Reynolds' in the world originated.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
My paternal grandmother was a Reynolds ! From Tres Hebert in the Rhonda valley. I know I butchered the spellings.She immigrated to Canada when she was 16 in the 30's. I still have her steamer trunk she used for the boat ride.
Thanks for the info on our name. Hello cousin ! From 🇨🇦❤🌈
Interesting comment! Thank you
@@thekatt... My mom’s…. Father was born in Treherbert. His mothers Rees/Griffiths side moved there from Llandybie Carmarthenshire. They seemed to have 2-3 little homes in a row, various family members moved through! Small world, I’ve never seen Treherbert on a board even!
The “outside their race” wasn’t so long ago! I was put up for adoption in part because my father wasn’t a nice Welsh boy from the Oakland/Berkeley Welsh community, in spite of his Davis surname!! After I met my mom my cousin told me it was a good thing I hadn’t found her when our grandfather was alive-I had a lot of red in my brown hair and moss green eyes; apparently he had quite the Irish, umm, feeling!
In my family I have Ragland, Morgan, Davies, Jones and Thomas. My ancestor, Evan Ragland, was shanghaied from a dock in England and sold into servitude in Virginia.
My mother was a Thomas before she married. She was extremely proud of that name. Her grandmother's maiden name was Rhys, she was a cook at Dale castle in Wales. I visited near there in 2006. I took my nephew so he would remember his Welsh roots. I started to teach myself Welsh but found it too difficult without a person to converse with & things
Like Babbel don't have Welsh as an option. My father's family is also Welsh. One of his ancestors ran mining for the civil war governor of Ohio, A miner of Welsh origins.
Yeah learning a language without some place to use it is very very difficult. If you can find Welsh language music that you like, that's a really good place for your language skills to live in the absence of other people around you to talk with. Also very cool story about the mining ancestors. They shared a similar experience to a lot of Welsh migrants to the US.
Thomas also a Swedish surname.
Try Duolingo. They have Welsh.
Part of my family use the Thomason last name and others use Thomas . I'm not sure why
try "Say something in Welsh", very popular for learning Welsh.
This was most enlightening. Always fun to learn about peoples names.
I am glad I stumbled upon this. It explains quite a bit about my family name. My last name is spelled Rees. Three of my grandparents came from Wales. My paternal grandparents last name was spelled Rhys. My understanding is my grandfather changed his six children's spelling of our last name as he felt it was more American.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! Yeah Rhys had quite the number of spelling variations. One thing to remember when it comes to even the early 1800s is that many people didn't know how to read or write. So often it would be someone else writing down their name and so they would just learn from that. But definitely Anglicising names would be advantageous for migrants to the US.
Ap Rhys or of Rhys morphed into pryce from my understanding.
@@greybone777 Also Preese and Price.
I wonder if we have a connection because my fatherline is Preece which take the p out and you got Reece which could be another variation but who knows.. every welsh person I spoke to always says you cant get a more welsh name than preece and whenever I visit powys I always get a weird feeling and I can see, hear or feel the spirits in the castle their.
Ancestors: Reese Hughes b. 1620 Wales and John Michael Jones b. 1484 Wales. Still working on them gathering more information. I think there are a few more in my tree but can't recall them all at this minute. Glad I found this video. Thank you
Try Ancestry DNA
This is so interesting! Thank you for taking the time to put this together. This actually sheds a tiny bit of light on my family history.
Thanks again!
That's awesome! I'm glad you found the video useful. I've got lots of other Welsh history and genealogy videos on the channel that you might enjoy also and that go into more specific topics like migration and different examples of how people actually got their surnames.
For such a tiny country, they really birthed a LOT of VERY common surnames!
Indeed. Many people are under the impression that there arent many Welsh surnames. But that isn't true. In proportion to its size, Its actually quite alot.
It's not the size it's how you use it my grandpa used to say . David Davey Davis ap David Davison Davies aka dai Bach.
Wow this was quite detailed. I appreciate you splitting the difference between the hereditary and the patronymic naming conventions. I'm heading to Wales soon and a lot of these names pop up at the little town that we are looking at because we have family origins into town of Lanelly Hill. Thanks for the video and keep up the good stuff
Glad you enjoyed! I hope you have a good trip. :D
My names “Reece” this was super interesting to watch
Glad you enjoyed! :)
Wow! I learned a lot. Thank you for sharing this. You have great narrative style.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!
Fascinating content, clearly and soothingly presented. Thank you (Canada?). I just love this stuff! We recently had an exhibition in my area of South East London on generations of British emigrants including the original Patagonian Welsh communities. It presented a thought-provoking juxtaposition of the experience of my own parents’ challenging arrival in cold 1960s London from the West African colonies, and the British poor starting afresh in turn of the 20th Century Australia, Canada…A surprisingly similar experience of triumph over adversity.
From a Nigerian Cockney.
👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👍🏿🇬🇧🇳🇬🇨🇦🏴
The Patagonian Welsh who landed on the wrong continent were mainly from Bala in North Wales
Williams and Lewis. Early settlers in the Carolinas from Wales
This really helps me a lot. I had traced my Lewis line back to Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales around 1682 or so then they came to American around the same time as William Penn and helped settle modern-day Pennsylvania. They later went to Virginia then lastly to Kentucky. This video helps answer so questions of some earlier documentation I had found with the long Welsh names similar to the ones presented in the video and now I know they may be valid and may be able to take my Lewis line back another few hundred years. Thanks.
@@annarussell3751 Took me 25 years to get past Virginia. When they burned the courthouses during the Civil War did not help. But tell him to look for great Uncles where the trail goes cold found my 8th GGfather living with his older brother but I had not added that brother so took me a while to really connect them.
@@kybullfrog76 Thank you!!
If you are a British Lewis you will have two choices as to its origin. English - it would have started centuries ago in Rome, moved to Germany as Ludwig, from there to France as Clovis where it changed again to Louis and finally to England as Lewis. Welsh - it would have been Llewellyn until Wales was conquered and things started to change. When records were kept for tax or other purposes, the scribe would have been English and he would not have been able to say, let alone write Llewellyn. But he would have known the name Lewis and that’s what gradually was written down. Some Llewellyn’s then used the new version and became Lewis.
@@kybullfrog76 Hey cousin..... (probably)
Jones here , all family members from KY . Prior to 1850-60s ? Was Virginia and still miners ! 😁 Jones have been miners in my family forever, idk exact years. But everyone, all the Jones males are miners.
Thank you. Very informative. My 6th great-grandfather Jacob Voyles (Voiles) in 1718 was the first of his line to be born in Denbighshire, Wales. His father,
Charles Victor Voyles (Voiles) b. 1685 had immigrated from France.
Been trying to put together my Father's Mother side Voyles. I have hit a blank finding my Grandmother Emma Jane Voyles married Blaine William Pope.
I never got to meet her. She died when I was young and I can't find where she is buried. Any help from Voyles family line would be greatly appreciated.
@@sondraferguson2452 Do you know where she lived and an approximate year of death?
Another source of the name Voyle comes from the Welsh word, ‘Foel’ which translates as, ‘Bald’ or, ‘Bare’. So a bald man or a man who owned owned bare ground may well have been given the name, ‘Foel’ which mutated into, ‘Voyle’ over the years.
Excellent narration with accurate pronunciation
Thank you, for posting the video. I knew I had some Welsh roots, but never got around to seeing from where my ancestors hailed. My maternal grandmothers side has the strongest line; Dawson, from Ruabon, Debingshire, Wales, & Meredith, which traces back to Trelawynd, Rhyl, Wales to circa 1700. I think there is another line out of Caerwys. Hitting the subscribe button, now.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed. And thanks for sharing your story too!
Oh very interesting and now I know why my Mother's side of the family has a 25 generation family chart. It is the two Welsh ancestors, one into Virginia in the 1600s, a Lewis and one in the 1870s, Williams, both from Brecon.
Knowing ones ancestors was important.
my maternal grandfather was of welsh descent. he was george leland hughes. thanks for a very good video. i subscribed.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed!
Kia ora, this was very informative. My first British ancestor to arrive in New Zealand in 1825 was named John Thomas. His father was a highwayman, also named John Thomas. Who transported to Australia from Devon in 1800. Recent DNA testing has showed we have Welsh ancestry. The name Thomas seems to have been common in Southern Wales, which neighbours Devon. We were proud to discover our Welsh heritage. We have Maori heritage as well. Maori also keep extensive family records call Whakapapa, mine goes back over 1000 years. Hopefully one day we will get to explore beautiful Wales.
I'm glad you enjoyed. And thanks for sharing about the Whakapapa. I love hearing about experiences of family history across different places and cultural traditions.
My great grandfather came from Swansea Wales. He was a Williams as well, but I've had trouble tracking the family back into Wales. Thanks for the info.
No problem. Glad you found the video helpful. I've got plenty more videos focussed on how to do Welsh research that can help if you get back to figuring out your great grandfather's line.
Interesting and informative video, thank you! My family emigrated from Wales to the USA in the late 1600's. My ancestors first arrived in Pennsylvania then moved west to the Appalachian Mountains where they later began a slow migration south on what is known today as the Appalachian trail. My closest ancestors settled in Northwestern South Carolina. My DNA shows that my ancestors came to Wales from the Saxony region of modern-day Germany just after the Romans abandoned their conquest in Wales. I was fortunate to learn so much about my ancestors so far back in the past.
I'm glad you enjoyed! It seems like your ancestors followed a path that a lot of Welsh people took at that time. There's so many who went to Pennsylvania. I don't know much about Appalachia, but I'm sure they would have had connections with others who took that route.
@@GenealCymru Yes, it seems the Griffith family settled along the Trail in every current state that the Trail goes through, all the way to its end down in or near Alabama. There is a place near where I live in South Carolina called Welsh Neck which began as settlement of Welsh Baptist people from Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1737. It was the result of Robert Johnson, the royal governor of the province of South Carolina, granting the first Welsh settlers ten thousand acres in northeastern South Carolina during 1730 that eventually became known as the Welsh Tract.
Wow that's really interesting. Every time I see Welsh Baptists in Pennsylvania, I always wonder if some of them were my ancestors too. There's quite a few who I know went to the US but who I haven't been able to find in the records.
There are a lot of Welsh surnames in West Virginia. That’s because mining was the big industry there. A lot of Welsh miners emigrated there to seek employment in a job they already knew. My husband’s Welsh relatives were all miners in NE Wales. They were Joneses.
So glad I found your channel!
Welcome!
I found this topic clearly and interestingly presented. Well done.
Glad you enjoyed!
My 3x great-grandfather on my mother's side, Thomas Price, came to the U.S. from Margam in the 1840's.
Da iawn.
I have Welsh ancestry on my paternal side on, My ancestors were Wogan Williams Phillipps Hughes Davies Davis Thomas Howell Evans Lloyd Vaughan Morris Griffith Lewis, and Roberts, and Jenkins.
Vaughans are buried in Brecon Cathedral down by the Havard capel. and Wogans are on the maternal side decended from the illegitimate daughter of William( I )the bastard. of Normandy.
@@Morgan2XL sorry i haven't been on ancestry, this month since i am busy on celebheights quora, and youtube.
I also have Williams
This is very interesting and informative. Thank you.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed!
Thank you for covering the Rhys (Rees, Reese, Reece, Rice) family for I am a descendant of them.
@@irenejohnston6802 Yes correct. Those are the ones I could think of at that moment. Thanks for mentioning those.
Fitz Rys too!
Fellow Rice here. Up in maine. Checkout the Edmond Rice foundation in Massachusetts.
Our family name is Lake. My grandfather was from Usk (Brynbuga)
Thank you very much for the information. Just dipping my toes into following the past. My grandfather was a Davis. Guess we are related far down the line. Appreciate your time and energy to inform us. Very Interesting and informative. Take Care.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed! I've got 5 different Davies lines, so there's definitely a chance we are related :)
@@GenealCymru My Edward Davis (1829-1872) came to America (c. 1840) as a Puddler and I've never been able to get any earlier info than that because there are so many Davis's. Are we related too?
I was told my great grandpa was of welsh decent. His name was Woodward? Another grandpa will named gumersall from gombersal england. Small village in Yorkshire. It was recorded as gumersall by immigration officials.
That was very interesting. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed!
The surnames I have found in my tree are from Flintshire: Hooson, Roberts, Parry, Price; and from Breconshire/Monmouthshire: Prothero, Prosser, Whitance, so far. Interesting video.
Our surname is Cadogan and I'm 3rd generation Australian. I tried years age doing our family tree but when I got to my great great grandfather things got complicated, I worked some of it out but ended up taking a brake from it for a few years.
Well you're clearly from the city of Cardigan, which would be pronounced Cadogan in an Australian accent! I'm from there as well, and highly recommend you go visit if you can. It's a fabulous area! Unfortunately the local records office has closed and everything has been digitized and centralized in Aberystwyth. I had previously had great success with the local registrar at Cardigan, but when I returned a few years ago I was devastated not to have access to the original books. I had no luck dealing with the digital records at all.
Hi, a Williams here. Welsh ancestry. I recall a poem I heard years ago about the naming of the welsh people. The first line is 'Williams, Baker, Smith, and Jones...' Does any one recall hearing this? A quick google reveals nought.
One of the Irish Williams’ here. When we visited we used to walk down a certain road until we came to a house and garden covered in Carnations.
Cornish, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Norwegian here lol.
My grandmother was a Smith from Machnylleth area
@@McCRBen When I was in Washington DC, a couple of years ago, I picked up an Irish Williams coat of arms key ring, from an Irish shop. Pretty pleased with that. I am sad or what?
Greetings, another Welsh Williams here.
Thank you for speaking slowly and deliberately. It helps absorb the info. I am forwarding this to a Williams who speaks Gaelic, and a Morgan, ex long ago of Wales.
Thanks. That's what I was going for and I'm glad i helped. I figured there'd also be a lot of people who have a different accent from me watching and so the slower pace would help.
Fascinating video! Reese from Nebraska here! My Great Grandad and his folks immigrated from Pembroke and Pill in 1872, but I would love to track down more records from over seas! This vid earned a sub from me!
Glad you enjoyed! Definitely check out some of my other videos that talk more about how to do Welsh Genealogy. The one on the Top Welsh Record Sets might be a good place to start :). 1872 is a really good immigration date because they'll have been in multiple census' by that point which is always helpful!
wow, this is fascinating! thank you for sharing! my mum’s DNA tested as welsh (mine did not) and we have a jones line on her side that i can find in liverpool before emigrating to the US in the 1890s, but i’ve always wondered if we have any welsh further up that line! also, i find your voice very relaxing to listen to 🙏🏼
Further down, many Welsh people would often settle in England a generation or two before leaving for America. This is what makes many North Americans believe they are solely English. When many are a mix.
I'm a Lloyd - Jones and that's been like that a while wondering if I have a full name as my surname
Very interesting channel thankyou!
Glad you're enjoying :D
Hi, I know it’s a year after you have posted this, but I wanted to say Evan Davis is a name in my tree along with many other Welsh names. ❤ Thanks for posting this, it’s super helpful!!
No worries! I always make sure to respond in some way to people who take the time to leave a comment :) Glad you enjoyed and found it useful!
Glad to see my name, Pugh mentioned.
Yep, Zachary Levi's Real last name is Pugh...the Guy who played Shazam for DC.
I only knew one person with your last name he was in the USA Navy
What a great video. I learned so much. Very well done.
Thank you.
New sub 👍
❤🇨🇦🌈
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for an interesting video:)
Glad you enjoyed!
My grandfather was named David John Morgan. We only realized recently that he was full Welsh and I’m just beginning to understand where we came from. Looking forward to learning more!
Oh yes, you'll find there are many David John Morgans in Wales (my 7x Great Grandfather was one hehe). I hope you enjoy learning about Wales and your heritage!
I've got little to prove anything, but by family tradition my x3 grandfather came from Wales and the sir name is Maughan (pronounced Mon). We laugh and say, well it has more letters than needed to get the point across so it must be Welsh.
Its the Irish spelling of Morgan, a royal Welsh name that was anglicised from Morcant. Said to have been the name of King Arthwys Ap Muerig's son. The real King Arthur.
@@taffyducks544 I'd just like to say 'thank-you' for the contributions to comments etc. that you make. You are everywhere! I'm learning lots about my Welsh heritage. I've only been researching my FT for a few years and am enjoying learning about the history of Wales, too. I am a first generation (senior) Australian of Welsh parents. Sadly I wasn't told much and didn't ask about my heritage when younger and my parents are long gone. I do know that a taffy is a Welshman, though. My DNA says that I am 70% Welsh ancestry and I'm proud of that. I've visited Wales, in a rush, and before I started to research my FT, and will return again in the next couple of/ few years.
Interesting video. I have a small amount of Welsh ancestry in various lines. Some of my Welsh ancestors were living in Shropshire but very close to the border with Wales (in places where almost all the people had Welsh names). One of the families goes from ap Evan in the mid-1600s through Beavan, ap Beavan, Bevan and even one Ab-Evans up to the early 1700s, with all of them interchangeable. So, for example, a Peter Beavan born mid-1600s in Chirbury, had children with the surnames Beavan, ap Evan, Bevan, ap Evan, Bevan, Ab-Evans and Bevan.
One of my 4xG grandfathers was called Evan Evans, from Llanbister, but lived most of his life in Welshpool, and finding out anything about his origins is very difficult. Searching for Evan Evans in Wales is like searching for John Smith in England.
I had the same problem with my Great Grandmother, Jane Jones, but a mistake on one of the censor forms helped a lot, I was just browsing through different streets, remembering what my Grandmother told me, I saw someone of the right age group called Jenny Jones. It turned out that it should have been Jane E Jones, got her.😃 I was able to go back two more generations, revealing some very interesting history. Checking marriage certificates etc.
Interesting information.
I married a Jones a relative of Benoni Jones who has a plaque in Massachusetts as a survivor of a massacre. He is decended from Griffith Jones who came to America in 1635. He was from Frongoch Merionwethshire. He is mentioned in History of the Connecticut Valley. His mother was Margaret Jane Griffith sister of Henry 1st Baronet of Burton Agnes.
I’ve struggled doing ancestry family tree, not for my mum’s family that goes back to 1400 but southern England, however grandma Davies family that was a struggle because of all the continuing surnames and forenames being so similar. Soon as it got to Wales that is where the family tree ends.
I definitely suggest taking a look at some of the other videos on my channel. There's tons of them that help with Welsh genealogy specifically. And just in terms of expectations, getting to the 1400s for Wales is very, very difficult, so I'd say focus on figuring out the early 1800s. The 1700s, I've found, doesn't have the best records, especially if you're unable to get into the physical archives.
My grandfather was a Davies and lord it’s hard to find stuff
My gran was a Davies too, her grandad was from Swansea.
Could you do a video on the imposition of names due to political/coercive motivations?
Great suggestion. It'll take quite a bit of research, but I've added it to my list. Thanks!
Jones here, my dad came from a long time farming family in rural Kentucky. I live in Ohio, where I grew up.
This was good information.
Glad you enjoyed!
My father was from south Wales and a number of years ago I met someone who commented the only other person he had ever met with the surname Binding was his wife. He claimed that when trying to trace her family tree it went over to Somerset across the Bristol channel where it appear to have been Bidon/Bindon or something similar.
Names like Pritchard, Prowse, Preece and Probert are relics of the old system: the initial ‘P’ is what is left of ‘(M)ap’ - the equivalent of the Gaelic ‘Mac’ (son of).
Indeed. Fascinating how something so simple such as names can change.
This is what I struggle with, being a Pritchard… we can trace back to when the family arrived in Wisconsin, we know where they came from- Caernavon, but can’t find birth or marriage records- so was he Richard AP Richard and Robert AP Richard? So confusing!
Thank you for this! I am a Wynn and figuring out who is who when everyone has the SAME NAME makes genealogical research crazy-making. Your info was very helpful in explaining why.😊
Glad you found it helpful! Definitely check out some of my other videos too cause most of them are and will continue to be about various ways to get around the same/common names issue.
Excellent. I thought I was a quarter Welsh for most of my life, but discovered maybe not but its left an affinity for Wales.
Yeah I have a few ancestors with a Welsh surname, lol. Back in the noughties I got interested in genealogy, so I spent a bit of time having my DNA tested, I didn't group with Irish people, literally found a most recent ancestor match with a Welsh person to about 20 generations.
Family names are rare in my country (Iceland). We all get a first name and and then are specified by the first name of our father! I am a son, my first name is Hálfdan, my father's first name is Ingólfur and I am officially Hálfdan Ingólfsson. My sister's name is María, and she is officially Maria Ingólfsdóttir. This is an old Norse tradition.One has to be thick not to realize that 'son' means son and 'dottir' means daughter. By the way, my sister María remains María Ingólfsdóttir even if she married a nice guy named Ásgeir Ásgeirsson decades ago.
There is a modern twist: Anna Sveinsdóttir (Anna, daughter of wife-and-child-beating Svein and his beleagured wife Þórdís) is bound to change her name to Anna Þórdísardóttir once she reaches her majority.
The point: We remain individuals and are linked to out kin by first name throughout our lives.
I worked on my friend's tree last year and her ancestors were from Þingeyjarsýsla. Once they came to Canada, the name Arason was the one that ended up sticking as their hereditary surname. Her 3x Grandfather was an Ari. The Icelandic online records were pretty cool to look through. Also thanks for sharing about Icelandic naming practices!
Very interesting - my father was Reese Griffith, great grandfather was David Griffith and great grandmother was a Davies
So interesting! Thank you! My 2nd great-grandfather came from Pwellen, Carnarvon, Wales to Utica, NY in 1852. We know very little of the family before they left Wales.
Glad you enjoyed! :) That's a really good time for them to migrate too because they'll be in the 1851 Census in Wales which is much better to work with than the 1841 Census since it has more specific details.
Being of Welsh descent, I must say that I found your program very interesting. My surname Williams was mentioned, and then you mentioned Davies and Davis. Davis was my mother's maiden name. We always thought they were Scotch-Irish, but evidently there's more Welsh blood in the family than we thought. This bothers me not one bit; Welsh was good enough for King Arthur and Dylan Thomas, after all. Having traveled in Wales, I can recommend Cardiff as one of the neatest towns there ever was just to hang out in. Swansea, Tenby, and Holyhead all have their charms, too. In fact, I can recommend visiting England, Wales, and Scotland for the history and the people.
Glad you enjoyed! I was to Cardiff for a day a number of years ago. It was a beautifully sunny day visiting Cardiff Castle and then WHOOSH down came the rain and our umbrella broke so we had to hide under a tree. A very fun memory.
Dylan Thomas didn't speak Welsh.
Many Welsh went to Ireland so it's possible your ancestors went to Northern Ireland/Ulster as planters (if indeed they were 'Scotch-Irish'), and then on to the US a generation or so later. I'd also say that Americans seem to often claim Irish ancestry when they have a British surname and in many cases it's not Irish but Welsh, Scottish or English. For some reason in the US having Irish ancestry seems to be extremely sought after and the facts tend to get ignored, I mean who wants to claim English blood when the US fought the War of Independence against them, and as for Wales that might as well be Ireland for an American. I remember when I was at Uni in Wales my Northern Irish friend had met an American over the holiday and she sent him a letter, the letter arrived with an address of Glamorgan, Wales, IRELAND. 😂 That sums it up.
A lot of old coal mining towns in the Mid West USA are still woefully short on their Welsh ancestry and focus much more on the Italian side of things.
Im not sure it's just my theory that Welsh and Italians often look similar and the Welsh and Italian flags have the same colours.
I lived in Clinton Indiana throughout the 90s and it was me that informed the locals including the town Mayor of they're Welsh heritage.
So now on the Labour Day weekend festival known as "the little Italy festival " in Clinton, the Jonses,Davis's, Llewellyns and Evans all all display the Welsh flag on their porches. Also the town has included the Red Dragon flag in the town fountain display. 💚❤
Yeah identity is complicated matter and there's a lot that goes into it beyond blood/DNA/descent. Nice to know that people are finding an interest in their Welsh history though :) I've traced quite a few of my ancestors to the US who went for mining. I've got one that went to Pittsbourgh around 1800 (probably as a Baptist minister though), but I haven't been able to find him in the US records yet. It can be really hard to make that connection across the ocean.
@@GenealCymru yes its more of a fading of knowledge tthan a sinister plot.
As you well know , even today Wales is not a household name the way Scotland and Ireland are.
The house I lived in in Clinton was the 1st residential house built in that town , next door to the original pig farmers .
Two families from Wales Davis and Reese were joined by a marriage and went on to donate land for the library which they did again in the late 1990s to expand , in fact they donated or sold extremely cheaply the house and land next door to tgr library , ( in other words prime real estare) .
My uncle is a Davis and his son is Reese , carrying on the old tradition. My great uncle waz an architectural Historian and professor and when he grew up in that house during the 30s up to the 60s it was a Welsh speaking houshold.
I waz very surprised to be greeted by him in fluent Welsh 🙂
It was very nice to see this video and history. Fortunately my family has a extensive record of ancestry and surnames, and combined with the internet websites available, and lineage from other cousins and distant relatives, the lineage connects and makes such a vast record. I’m able to combine from a 3rd cousin in the family search, which has the Mormon records too.
Going back much further than I’d ever dreamed. I subscribed and will follow your videos.
My dads family were from England, Scotland and Wales, (Wallace, Glenn, Hughes, Baty, Winston, Burton, Woodson, Marshall, Vaughn, with a few others from the German, Austrian, France and Italy. Stumpf, Zimmerman,
Very cool. Glad that you've found so many resources for your research!
I was hoping you'd give a specific example of Jones, since it was displayed right in the center. My 2x Greats immigrated from Wales in 1850 and we're Jones', Thomas,' and Davies. They settled in Emporia KS, which was a big Welsh area. I've found their farm and other landmarks in Cardiganshire, and LOVED it!
There's not really anything to say about Jones beyond what is already in the video. It's a patronymic surname like the ones I explain in the video and it originates from the name John. Beyond that it's like any other Welsh surname.
@@GenealCymru But you don't touch on why it is so common.
My grandfather William John was a Hughes from Brynsiencyn, Angelsey. He came to this country in 1917. He was the son of Owen and Ann Hughes.. My great grandfather was William Jones from Llangevney Anglesey. He came to the USA in 1888. He was born to Ellen Williams and Roland Jones. His wife was Catherine was born to Margaret and Owen Jones. She was born July 1869. She was a servant before leaving Angelsey. They married in 1894.My grandmother was Fanny Catherine Jones born March 1897.
Thanks for sharing! I've not done much research in Anglesey yet. I had 2 ancestors leave their home in Cardiganshire in the mid-1800s to live with an Uncle who was a Reverend in Anglesey. I suspect it was because they didn't get along with their father and cut all ties to him.
I'm a Williams. I lived in brynsiencyn Anglesey. It's a very small village right on the Menai. I'm Born in Rhodesia but my family is Welsh.
@@Sinar-c my Taid talked about the coalmime he had to work in as a youngster. His mother died young. I was 17 when he died but never thought as a kid to ask him stories. He loved his pipe and had a special way to drink his tea.He would pour some in his saucer and drink that first. I love watching "How Green is My Valley".
@@GenealCymru It's a unique Island . One part gets grants from the EU or did because its so poor, another part has immensely rich English owned second or third homes and another part is a classic port with all the associated problems. It also has some beautiful landscape and in the North they film movies about Mars because its indistinguishable from Mars the planet. The views from Brynsiencyn in the winter across the Menai of Snownonia national part are stunning. I now live in Galicia northern Spain. Also a Celtic nation with a similar type of people.
I'm a good part Welsh. Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English. One of the firefighters in my department (I'm retired, not quite 15 years) is the great grandfather of one of the VC recipients in the 1879 Zulu War. It doesn't matter anything in America but, we trace to last Welsh Prince of Wales.
He must be very old indeed if he's the great grandfather of one of a man who fought at Rorkes Drift.
if you work it out, the last true Prince of Wales (most of us consider that be be Owain Glyndwr, a national hero, but in this case lets say Llewelyn ap Gruffud) was killed by the English about 750 years ago. That's roughly 30 generations, which mathematically means you could have about 1 billion ancestors from then, that's an impossibility as there weren't anywhere near that population, but very likely it means anybody with ancestry from the uk could find any ancestor from the 13th century. So almost certainly you also share the genes of the man who killed him.
@@philldavies7940 of course. It's mathematics. In time we all go back to Adam.
Mitchell, Pugh, Hughs, Davies, Lowell, John, Roberts. Studying the language for 5 years, visitited South Wales and both North and South twice. Looking forward to returning to the National Library and continuing my adventures in family history discovery and enjoyment of all facets of Welsh culture, Like MAN and The Fugitives and all your beautiful street poets and book shops, farmers markets, lovely folks, oh Lordy, take me home!!!
Nice! Glad to know you're studying Welsh and good luck on your research. Check out some of the Welsh genealogy-focussed videos on my channel if you're looking for any support! :)
I became aware of patronymics when I started researching my family tree around 1988. I was more than a bit confused at the time. Eventually I got back to Richard ap Gibbon of Trecastle. His first son was Evan ap Richard and his son was Richard ap Evan and this alternated for about 8 more times over 400 years or so until the family settled on Prichard (of Collena) as a permanent surname. That took some sorting out.
It is a very excellent video. I shall recommend it. Thanks.
Very interesting. I've got a line of Evan Davids and David Evans' that's kinda like that. It can be nice when they put their full names on the documents so you get like 4 or 5 generations in a single name. Sometimes it feels like everyone but my ancestors did that haha. Glad you enjoyed :)
One point to note regarding the Anglicization of surnames is the traditional Welsh alphabet does not include the letters V and J which excludes the spelling of surnames Jones and Evans from being Welsh. The letter F in the Welsh alphabet is pronounced as you would the letter V whilst FF would give you the traditional sound of the English letter F.
I have heard that Jones is formed from Yəhôḥānān), Johan to JOHN or JON from the bible but as said here AP was commonly the first bit of the name and as no J was available Si was sometimes used as it is a close approximation to sh as in show,or The sound generated from ‘Si-‘ in Siôn is a Welsh approximation of the English ‘J’ sound that doesn’t exist natively to the language (refer to Irish Seán), equivalent to the English ‘Sh’ such as in “shed.” so Jones was sometimes spelled AP Sion, and son of, added the S. (Bloody Normans) When anglicised again it became JONES after the AP was dropped.
@@SuperSrjonesThanks, this made a lot of sense to me. I husband’s Welsh extended family are all Joneses.
Evans could be the anglicised version of Ifans.
My grandmother was born Jessie John near Swansea and my grandfather was born Sidney Jenkins from Llynathlly now sure of the spelling.
My last name is Lewis, one of the names you mentioned early in the video. My sister and I have tracked it to Glamorganshire Wales.
see that surname in the local Judah///Jew cemetary boyo.
Our family (Davis) first ancestor to come here to America from wales was Rev William Davis changed from Davies at some point. My maiden last name is Davis ☺️ so interesting
That’s great cuz I wasn’t telling you jerk
That's really cool! Do you know what part of Wales Rev. William Davis was from? (also, don't worry about the rude reply you got. They won't be doing any more commenting around here :) )
Mine as well!
I am an English-born Davies, living in Cardiff, Wales. Davies is the most common surname here, surpassing Jones, etc. Interestingly, Davies is often mispronounced in England as Dave-eez, but all the Davies' I've met over my life pronounce it as Davis, as do you. I mostly worked in England, but only met a Davis (spelling) later in life, showing that Davis is not the English spelling and Davies the Welsh. I hadn't realised how late the naming system was adopted in Wales. Kerno Boy's comments are interesting, regarding the Cornish surnames.
I also used to think that Davies was the Welsh spelling and Davis the English/American spelling. But then I found one of my ancestors born in 1754 in rural Cardiganshire was a Davis. I was like hmmm that's interesting. The latest I've seen in my family for adopting the hereditary system was the late 1850s. I mention it briefly in my most recent long-form video on surnames.
I have rarely heard people use Dave-eez in England and the most famous people in the UK with those names such as Alan or Greg are always referred to as Davis.
Ooooooh thank you! As a welshMan I appreciate this! 🏴
Well you're in luck. Everything on my channel is about Wales! :D Glad you enjoyed
I have an ancestor Simon Meredith from Wales. He helped Benjamin Franklin financially to start a printing press business.
Very cool!