GENUKI : Llangernyw, St. Digain

Llangernyw

"A parish in the Union of Llanrwst, partly in the hundred of Isaled, and partly in that of Isdulas, county of Denbigh, 8 miles (W by N) from Denbigh, containing 1036 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the banks of the river Elwy, and comprises a large portion of one of the most rugged and mountainous parts of the county. ..... Several attempts to procure lead and copper-ore have been made, but the quantity found has been considered insufficient to afford an adequate remuneration to the adventurers."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The ancient parish of Llangernyw originally comprised the nine townships of Bodrach, Nannerth, Pantymanus, Pentrewern, Rhanhir, Hafodunos, Dwyafon, Branar, Marchaled and Bodgynwch, with a total area of 7200 acres. In 1867, the first three, and parts of the next three, with an area of 3100 acres, went to create the new parish of Llanddewi.

Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration

Population
Statistics

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SH 875674.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Digain, is believed to date from the thirteenth century. Considerable restoration work took place in 1849, and again in 1881.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civil parish of Llangernyw :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Bethebara	Baptists	70
Bodgynwch	Baptists	50
Cefn Coch	Calvinistic Methodists	100
Not named	Calvinistic Methodists	130
Pandy Tudur	Calvinistic Methodists	246

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Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1570 - 1896	1570 - 1897	1570 - 1897

Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1569 - 1812	1570 - 1812	1570 - 1812

Bishop's Transcripts

Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

Deposited at the National Library of Wales	Microfilmed copies
1667 - 1842	1672 - 1842

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Digain, Llangernyw.

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Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Llangernyw was assigned to the No. 1 ("Llanrwst") sub-district of the Llanrwst Registration District; which was co-extensive with the Llanrwst poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Llangernyw are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Llanrwst XXVII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Llanrwst 11b.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- the population was 1036.
In 1901- the population was 398.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 4100 acres.
[ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 23 Nov 2009 - Gareth Hicks