Neil Reynolds
10-10-2004, 7:03 PM
Cross posted from the ACDB Success Stories and Fascinating Snippets (http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48) forum as I felt, having posted it there that it may be of interest to people on this forum...
Whilst reading through the ACDB copy of Theophillus Jones' A History of the County of Brecknock (originally published in 1809 but reprinted - the version on ACDB - in 1909) I came across the following reference to a tombstone of one of my ancestors in Llangammarch:
Near these tombs was another with the following inscription, since effaced : "Here lieth the body of Thomas Meredith Penry, paternally descended from Elystan Glodrydd, prince of Ferlix, who married Gwenllian, daughter of Howel David Thomas, they had issue Meredith, Hugh, Rebecca, Rees, Elizabeth and Nest, he died the 10th day of March, Anno Domini, 1620."
A key point here is that, while it is a secondary or even tertiary source, the book was the only place that I had access to that inscription. By 1809 it says it was already gone, but remembered (possibly by the author himself as he was from Llangammarch). By now, of course, it will have been long forgotten.
Thomas Meredith Penry was my 10 times great grandfather (a lucky run in with a local historian had got me that link, and I'm still working on it!) He was already interesting as his brother John Penry had been executed for treason in 1593 as a result of speaking (and printing) against the Church. But here I had more information on his immediate family; his wife's father for a start, and the four younger children that I didn't know of.
But in addition there was that "paternally descended from Elystan Glodrydd" bit! I looked up my Welsh history books and found him... Prince of Ferlix, a part of the old Welsh kingdom of Powys born about 982!
Now I know I've got a lot of leg work to do proving one or two links, but that's a mighty big step back in my family history search, and I'd have never found it without the copy of the history from ACDB. It's no wonder my bank balance has shrunk so much since I discovered I could get access to all these old books.
Regards, Neil Reynolds
Whilst reading through the ACDB copy of Theophillus Jones' A History of the County of Brecknock (originally published in 1809 but reprinted - the version on ACDB - in 1909) I came across the following reference to a tombstone of one of my ancestors in Llangammarch:
Near these tombs was another with the following inscription, since effaced : "Here lieth the body of Thomas Meredith Penry, paternally descended from Elystan Glodrydd, prince of Ferlix, who married Gwenllian, daughter of Howel David Thomas, they had issue Meredith, Hugh, Rebecca, Rees, Elizabeth and Nest, he died the 10th day of March, Anno Domini, 1620."
A key point here is that, while it is a secondary or even tertiary source, the book was the only place that I had access to that inscription. By 1809 it says it was already gone, but remembered (possibly by the author himself as he was from Llangammarch). By now, of course, it will have been long forgotten.
Thomas Meredith Penry was my 10 times great grandfather (a lucky run in with a local historian had got me that link, and I'm still working on it!) He was already interesting as his brother John Penry had been executed for treason in 1593 as a result of speaking (and printing) against the Church. But here I had more information on his immediate family; his wife's father for a start, and the four younger children that I didn't know of.
But in addition there was that "paternally descended from Elystan Glodrydd" bit! I looked up my Welsh history books and found him... Prince of Ferlix, a part of the old Welsh kingdom of Powys born about 982!
Now I know I've got a lot of leg work to do proving one or two links, but that's a mighty big step back in my family history search, and I'd have never found it without the copy of the history from ACDB. It's no wonder my bank balance has shrunk so much since I discovered I could get access to all these old books.
Regards, Neil Reynolds