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& Parishes

CARDIGANSHIRE [CEREDIGION]

"The County of CARDIGAN is 94 Miles in Circumference, contains about 520,000 Acres, divided into 5 Hundreds or Cantres, in which are above 3163 Houses, 73 Parishes, & 4 Market Towns, one of which Cardigan sends a Member to Parliament. The Air is Pleasanter and Milder here than in some parts of Wales, being advantaged by its bordering upon ye Sea, and ye Low & Level Ground; not much exposed to ye Winds & Storms. The Southern & Western parts are Plain & Fruitful producing much Corn but ye Northern & Eastern parts are more Hilly and Barren, yet here also are many Fruitfull Valleys. This County is noted for its Lead & Silver Mines. " [Emanuel Bowen, Britannia Depicta, 1720]

 

INFORMATION RELATED TO ALL OF CARDIGANSHIRE

Small map of Cardiganshire

Click here for 1821 Map

 

 

 

 

Archives and Libraries

The National Library of Wales. Aberystwyth. The major repository of information relevant to Welsh genealogy, such as Bishop's Transcripts of Parish Registers, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, Nonconformist Records, Probate Records, Tithe Maps and Apportionment Schedules, Legal and Administrative Records, Estate Records and Personal Papers, Pedigree Books, Newspapers, etc.

Ceredigion Archives. Aberystwyth. E-mail Ceredigion Archives . Full details of their holdings on their site.

Local History Resources at Ceredigion Library

Ceredigion Museum

The National Archives has details of many archive repositories in the UK with links to their web sites, if any.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
Apart from their online Archive Catalogue there is the ;
Chapels database; The computerised database will eventually list all known nonconformist chapels in Wales. This initial list covers the pre-1974 county of Cardiganshire; further counties will be added as and when the database for these areas is completed. The record lists basic information about each chapel together with key dates.

Bibliography

A Cardiganshire Bibliography - Books of General Interest for Family Historians

It is acknowledged that the principal source of the details of books etc included  on these pages is the online catalogues of the National Library of Wales

There is a bibliography for Cardiganshire on the Ceredigion.gov.uk site -  also a section styled  Authors and Characters

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Biography

Held at the NLW ;

Business and Commerce Records

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Held at the NLW ;

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

Cemeteries

Graveyard Welsh - a guide to interpreting Memorial Inscriptions.

M.I. Surveys of a number of burial grounds are available on microfiche from Dyfed FHS

Dyfed FHS  have started [Feb 2001] to produce new pages on their site which will provide access to name indexes for the Monumental Inscriptions at the Burial Grounds where transcripts are already available from the Society .

Dyfed FHS  have started [Feb 2001] to produce new pages on their site which will provide access to name indexes for the nonconformist chapel records and monumental inscriptions where transcripts are already available from the Society .

Cardiganshire FHS have MI survey indexes (Anglican churches) for sale on microfiche. All the Cardiganshire hundreds are covered for two separate periods, i.e 1813-1837 and 1838-1865. They also have an Index (10,000 + entries) to deaths and burials from non-conformist records, various dates which are detailed on the relevant parish pages here.

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Census

The UK BMD web site offers links to over 400 web sites that provide on-line information for UK births, marriages and deaths and censuses.

Cardiganshire FHS have various censuses included in their research service

The 1881 census index is online on LDS Family Search

1891 census for the  whole of Cardiganshire.  Dave Wilson has produced a cd which consists of the images of the original pages, an alphabetical index of the people in the census, and a parish map for the county with a list of the parishes, etc. The cds are available for purchase via the  Stone Science site

Church History

Cardiganshire Chapels Database project - a parish based database (with a single county index)

You may also find it worthwhile searching in the GENUKI church database.

The Union of Welsh Independents

The Presbyterian Church of Wales site  has a pdf file showing lists of CM chapels still open (with addresses) in each county (under Documents/General Info/Churches and Secretaries). This data has been noted on each chapel entry within these parish pages so it is implied that a chapel is closed if not said to be open in 2006

Various church and chapel photographs can be viewed on Dyfed FHS

Parishes of Dyfed. This section of the Dyfed FHS site lists the parishes, churches, and chapels, within the three counties of Dyfed. It contains all those currently identified, by the National Library of Wales, where the location of registers is known. Each entry gives the OS National Grid Reference and name of the church or chapel, if known, (religious denomination), parish, county code and (page name).

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

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Church Records

Notes re parish pages. Explanatory details of abbreviations used on the parish pages under Church Records.

Dyfed FHS  have started [Feb 2001] to produce new pages on their site which will provide access to male name indexes for their Marriages Indexes (1813-1837) where transcripts are already available from the Society .

Dyfed FHS  have started [Feb 2001] to produce new pages on their site which will provide access to name indexes for the nonconformist chapel records and monumental inscriptions where transcripts are already available from the Society .

National Library of Wales  Manuscripts and Records. An online searchable index of Marriage Bonds and Allegations.It contains details of some 90,000 marriages by licence which took place in Wales between 1616 and 1837.

Listings of (present-day) Clerics, Benefices, and parishes  of the Diocese of St Davids.

Indexes to Burials for 1813-1837 for all the Cardiganshire hundreds are available for purchase on microfiche from Cardiganshire FHS, and also available within their Research Service, as are now the burials indexes for the period 1838-65 for Genau'r Glyn, Ilar(Upper) and Ilar(Lower) hundreds.

Cardiganshire pre 1813 Marriages.  The following are available within  their Research Service from Cardiganshire FHS

Monumental Inscriptions.   MIs for various cemeteries are available within their Research Service from Cardiganshire FHS, check with the site to see what exactly is covered.

Many Parish register indexes, and indexes of baptisms, marriages and burials are available for purchase on microfiche from Dyfed FHS.

The Dyfed FHS has indexed all marriages for the period 1812-1837. Published copies of the index, in sets of parishes grouped by hundreds, are available for purchase.

IGI and Familysearch  Here is the searchable LDS website
IGI Batch Numbers-British Isles
It is not always easy to locate your ancestors on the IGI using the search mechanisms provided at the above LDS site. Manually typing the batch numbers into the IGI search screen can be tedious. Hugh Wallis  has made an exhaustive search of the likely ranges of batch numbers and created a database of those numbers and the source records that they apply to. A very powerful feature included is a hotlink from each batch number to the actual search engine provided at the Family Search site, including the ability to enter the surname you are looking for. This makes it very easy to search all the batches for a particular geographic location using just the last name you are searching for - something that is not possible directly from the LDS site without doing a lot of typing. This is Hugh Wallis's site

Here are Parish Register Copies for Cardiganshire in the Library of the Society of Genealogists.

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Civil Registration

North Wales BMD  Births, Marriages and Deaths on the internet. Clwyd and Gwynedd Family History Societies, and Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society are collaborating with the local Registration Services to make the indexes to these records freely searchable via the Internet. Although the indexes are not yet complete for all years and districts, it is hoped that the database will eventually cover all North Wales births, marriages and deaths for the years 1837 to 1950.
The database includes
Machynlleth Registration District: Civil marriages 1838 to 1918 (3490 marriages) and this RD includes the following parishes; Machynlleth, Penegoes, Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn (part), Tywyn, Llanwrin, Cemmaes, Darowen, Llanbrynmair

The UK BMD web site offers links to over 400 web sites that provide on-line information for UK births, marriages and deaths and censuses.

Detailed listing, by Brett Langston, of the places covered by the old and current Cardiganshire Registration districts.

A list of places in Cardiganshire  by Dyfed FHS showing which parish, hundred and Registration District they are in.

Certificates of birth, death and marriage can be obtained from the Superintendent Registrar at the following District Register Offices:

If ordering from a District Office, please note the following: (a) the cost of a certificate is currently (2003) £7.00 - send a Sterling cheque payable to the Superintendent Registrar plus return postage or two International Reply Coupons; (b) the General Register Office (or "St Catherine's") Index references are of no value; (c) for marriage certificates, the precise place of marriage must be given; (d) Civil Registration in England and Wales began on July 1st 1837.

Court Records

Cardiganshire Constabulary Register of Criminals, 1897-1933 - on the NLW's Digital Mirror site.  Here is a name finding aid compiled by Joan Sims.

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

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Description and Travel

Dyfed FHS has an online database of towns in Dyfed, includes trade directory descriptions and photographs

A Vision of Britain Through Time. "This site contains information about your home area from the 2001 census -- and from every earlier British census back to 1801. It can present this information both as maps of the whole country and as graphs showing change over time in your area. It truly offers a Vision of Britain through time"

Principal Markets and Fairs in South Wales. Extracted from Kelly's Directory South Wales 1910

Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516. The Gazetteer compiled by Dr Samantha Letters is a catalogue of markets and fairs in medieval England and Wales. This is the first comprehensive national survey.

UK Villages     A site for each UK village with a Post Office, local links, maps  and much else

A Description of the county of Cardiganshire from A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833) by Samuel Lewis.

Here is a listing of over 800 Cardiganshire place names with their associated parish pages in Genuki

Ceredigion Heritage  Official county site listing its attractions e.g museums, libraries etc

Cardiganshire - on wikipedia

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Directories

Digital Library of Historical Directories            A Project by the University of Leicester.

Pigot & Co. South Wales directory for 1830. CD published by (Archive CD Books). The Cardiganshire related entries as follows have been extracted and can be seen on the relevant parish pages of Genuki;

Pigot & Co. South Wales directory for 1844. CD published by (Archive CD Books). The Cardiganshire related entries as follows have been extracted and can be seen on the relevant parish pages of Genuki;

Dyfed FHS has an online database of Pigot's 1830 Directory South Wales relating to the Dyfed counties only.

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

Emigration and Immigration

The Mormon Immigration Index is a database of approximately 93,000 immigrants who travelled from various international ports to the United States between the years 1840 and 1890.

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Gazetteers

Search the GENUKI Gazetteer.

Tallis's Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales, published in 1860 in six vols, editor E. L. Blanchard.  See Welsh Family History Archive for all the excellent county maps (showing the hundreds) and those sections of the alphabetical gazetteer that have been uploaded to date.
From the preface;
"In the following pages will be found fully described the past history and present aspect of every place of any significance in England and Wales, forming a work of permanent importance to the commercial world, of ready service to the tourist of the day, and of constant interest to the general reader, who may derive from this source a large supply of entertainment, as well as of information for the amusement and instruction of a leisure hour."

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Genealogy

Wales Lookup Exchange

Cardiganshire Families - a project based on the Dyfed Mailing List

Timeline of genealogically interesting dates by Gareth Hicks

Welsh Surname List - an all Wales surnames list provided by John Ball on his Welsh Family History Archive site.

Online Welsh Names Directory by Graham Jaunay

Searches of these items available  within  their Research Service from  Cardiganshire Family History Society

The Dyfed Mailing List   established in 1998 on Rootsweb is the original list for the county of Cardiganshire.

Held at the NLW ;

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History

Cambria Archaeology    " ..... one of the four Welsh Archaeological Trusts working to help protect, record and interpret all aspects of the historic landscape"

Ceredigion Library have an index to the Ceredigion ' Papurau Bro': a list of historical articles.
Some of the classifications; Public Houses, Houses and farms, Maritime, Towns & villages, Eminent people and many others

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

See Not everyone knows this..  for  random historical snippets on various CGN parishes.

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Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land 1873  for all the Welsh counties on Richard Hopkins' site

Farms and Estates ; owners and occupiers from census and other records. These details have been submitted by members of Dyfed FHS and can be viewed on their site.

Searches of these items available  within  their Research Service from  Cardiganshire Family History Society

Here is a list of records held at the National Library of Wales relating to various Cardiganshire estates

Land Tax Assessments for 1780-1871 for most of the county are in the National Library of Wales. A complete set for 1798 are in the Public Record Office.

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Maps

See here to view a 'sketch map' indicating the position and relative size of each parish within its  hundred

Dyfed FHS has an early 20th century OS map of Dyfed

Map of Cardiganshire in 1821.

Welsh county maps by Samuel Lewis and published in 1833

Interactive mapping on the Ceredigion County Council site

Merchant Marine

Lighthouse Personnel in England and Wales and the Channel Islands 1841-1910. Includes;- Table of  Keepers; Table of Stations by county; Location map of the lighthouse sites.

Pembrokeshire Archives have an index for "Shipping and Ships", they also hold the records for the port of Cardigan

Welsh Mariners  by Dr Reg Davies---includes a searchable database of over 17,000 Welsh born (or Wales resident) Master mariners, mates and engineers who held certificates of competency or service; in practice it is an index of men active from 1850 to 1945 in the merchant navy.

Swansea Mariners by Bryan Richards --- periods 1861 to 1871 and 1890 to 1894, a database of ratings such as un-certificated officers, bosun, able seaman, ordinary seaman, boy, cook, steward, etc in Glamorgan Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, or from around the world. There are 32,000 detailed entries (9/2006).

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

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Names, Geographical

Place Names of Dyfed, provided by the Dyfed FHS, lists the parishes (plus a small number of other places) in Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, giving for each the name of its hundred, an OS map reference, and the civil registration district.

Place names in Cardiganshire that have alternative spellings, or have changed completely

Travellers World. Here is a list of towns and villages in Ceredigion with map references and some links to maps

Here is a listing of Cardiganshire place names with their associated parishes.

Newspapers

Dyfed newspapers. On Dyfed FHS  there is a list of the locations that hold copies of known publications

Ceredigion Library have online indexes of biographies from the Cardigan & Tivyside Advertiser 1866-1980

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

Tivy-Side Advertiser  Email;    tivy_newsdesk@gwent-wales.co.uk

The Cambrian News was published from 1860 to date,[copies at the NLW], the Cambrian News group have the following local CGN websites , letters can be emailed offsite for publication;
Aberystwyth Today
Aberaeron Today
Cardigan Today  
Lampeter Today

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Occupations

Spirit of the Miners   - ".... is a community regeneration project that sets out to create an identity for northern Ceredigion using the legacy of metal mining as a theme for regeneration. The project will mainly focus on the human, social and community aspects of mining culture. In short, the very reason why many of these upland villages exist"

Victorian Professional Photographers in Wales 1850-1925 - a county based database compiled by Mari Alderman, includes sources and a bibliography

Mines in Mid Wales . Homepage for Mid Wales section of The British Mining Database; Cardiganshire Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire.Contains a general history and introduction to Welsh Mining and  a list of mines with map references.

A List of Mines in Pembrokeshire and the adjoining parts of Carmarthen and Ceredigion. Introduction.

Mining Landscape in Ceredigion ; A response to the Ceredigion Local Plan on behalf of the Welsh Mines Society. " The council fails to acknowledge the importance of the mining landscape in Special Landscape Areas - Dyfi, Rheidol, Teifi and Ystwyth Valleys, and The Cambrian Mountains........" 

List of Mines in Cardiganshire Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire

Cardiganshire's Mining Industry in 1896 - A List of Metalliferous Mines

Apprentices from Dyfed in Bristol in the C17 & C18. Fiche for sale from Dyfed FHS.

Lists of magistrates and police officials in the county of Cardiganshire  - extracted from Kelly's Directory of South Wales 1923 (published on CD by Archive CD Books)

Held at the NLW ;

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Periodicals

Relevant periodicals include Ceredigion  available at Ceredigion Archives or  NLW or Aberystwyth Library and  Archaeologica Cambrensis available selectively at  Ceredigion Archives and NLW.

Dyfed FHS produce a journal for members  three times yearly which contains many articles of general and specific interest to researchers in Cardiganshire etc. Details of past issues are listed on Dyfed FHS

Cardiganshire FHS produces a journal for members three times yearly which contains many articles of general and specific interest to researchers in Cardiganshire etc

Politics and Government

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

There were seven Poor Law Unions covering Cardiganshire: Mychynlleth (also covering parts of Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire), Aberystwyth, Aberaeron, Tregaron, Cardigan (also covering part of Pembrokeshire), Newcastle Emlyn (also covering parts of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire), and Lampeter (also covering part of Carmarthenshire). The records for all the Poor Law Unions are in the Cardiganshire Record Office, except some for Cardigan in the Pembrokeshire Record office, and those for Mychynlleth, which are in the Montgomeryshire Record Office.
The records of the Cardiganshire Boards of Guardians, from 1837, are at Cardiganshire Archives.

The County Library in Aberystwyth has an index to press cuttings on subjects of local interest including "workhouses" in Cardiganshire.

The Workhouse  - on Peter Higginbotham's site

Poor Law Unions in Cardiganshire - a breakdown by parish etc

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Public Records

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Agricultural Statistics  in 1908 for the counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan as shown in Kelly's Directory for South Wales, 1910

Searches of these items available within  their Research Service from  Cardiganshire Family History Society

Held at the NLW ;

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

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Schools

The Blue Books of 1847.  An inquiry into the state of education in Wales - on the NLW's Digital Mirror site

Dyfed FHS has an online database of Schools and Colleges in the Dyfed counties, many with photographs

Alumni Oxonienses 1715 - 1886. This extract of Dyfed students from a reproduction on CD of the four volumes of Alumni Oxonienses 1715-1886 published by the (Archive CD Books) Project. Extracted and transcribed for the Dyfed FHS by Jonathan Pike. All references to the Dyfed students have been included plus individuals who are known to be connected to Dyfed familes.

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

Held at   Ceredigion Archives ;

Held at the NLW ;

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Social Life and Customs

The Gathering the Jewels site has material for this county, use the onsite search box

Held at Ceredigion Archives;

Societies

 

INDIVIDUAL TOWNS AND PARISHES - See Alphabetical Listing

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This page has been partly compiled from material previously published in their journal
by kind permission of Cardiganshire Family History Society


These county pages are maintained by Gareth Hicks with help and information provided by a number of other volunteers.

(This page was last updated on  12 Nov 2009 -  Gareth Hicks)

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