Llan. . . .

      From Llanaber (p.57) to Llan-y-wern (p.71), Welsh place-names, starting with the letters "Llan", are identified by their geographic locations in Wales. More than 550 sites are located on the National Grid references in the text A Gazetteer of Welsh Place-Names.  The first edition was first published 1957, Second edition 1958, Third edition 1967, and it was reprinted in 1975. Paperback editions were reprinted in 1989 and 1996, and my copy edited by, Elwyn Davies 1967, and its cover is shown.

           Now how did all these names of the villages and towns first get started? This was the question in my mind, especially since "Llan" means "church, enclosure" (glossary p. xxxiv). Also, my Celtic ancestors became involved in the Monistic movement spreading throughout the land 400 A.D.-800 A.D. and, I asked what the connection might be. My conclusions are coming.

Significant

      Recognizing the impact that the monastic movement had upon my Celtic ancestors was an important step in understanding my own Jones surname that was many centuries yet to come. However, it was during the several hundred years after the Roman Empire disappeared from the Island, that my ancestors needed to regroup and collect their family belongings as they were before the Romans arrived. Solitary places and small family groups descending from a common ancestor (kin) were the usual social construct. Indomitable local independence was assumed, and the traditional legends and heroes then returned. Groups of villages with the "sameness of blood" lived on the land that their common ancestors had settled generations before their existence. 

      The Celtic tribes from Hibernia (Ireland) did not get to enjoy a Roman military occupation like most of the other Celtic tribes. It seems that their form of monasticism flourished in a hundred or more convents, and their enthusiasm helped to spread monastic settlements all over the place, including my Celtic families' land. Columba (Colum Cille) founded Iona [563 A.D.] and, his disciple Aidan, founded Lindisfarne 653 A.D., a century later.  All told, this monastic movement had significant impact on the growth and continual survival of my Celtic ancestors. Needless to say, each Celtic group to join this new attitude of life had their own account of this activity. These accounts can be found:

      For the tautha (Ireland) A History of Ireland, by Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, Barnes & Noble, N.Y. 1988. Chap. 2 Celts and Christians pp. 22-43 and Monastic Community p. 39.  St Patrick, St. Colum Cille (Columba)-

      For the clan (Scotland) The Lion In The North - One Thousand Years Of Scotland's History, by John Prebble, Dorset Press, N.Y., 1971, reprinted 1983, my edition, 1986. Celtic Church pp.22-31. St. Nynia taught Southern Picts p. 22, and St. Andrew-

      For the kindred (Wales) A History of Wales by John Davies, Penguin Books, London, 1994 first published in Welsh Hanes Cymru 1990. Celtic Church pp.72-79. St Dyfed (David) The figure on page 74 shows the geographic location of my Celtic family's connection Llanynys! The cover of my copy is shown.

            A significant understand it is.

     

    

To Memory

       Why did my Celtic ancestors not write anything down? This was a question I would often ask my thought processes as I climbed through my ancestor's branches. My American education tried to teach me that this was the "Dark Ages", and no one here could find a light switch. These folks just stumbled around in this darkness and could never figure-out how to write since it was pretty dark. Now, one who was there [Julius Caesar] wrote down his own observations regarding this observation:

      "They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses, accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the peoples, nor those who learn, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing, since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory".

Book VI 11-28 where Caesar provides a brief ethnographic essay on the religion, customs and political structures of the peoples of Gaul and Germany. [p. 141 of Mellor: presented post of April 30th]

      To memory it is.