For the genealogist, an item recorded during the corridor of time that is being researched is paramount to the reliability and accuracy of the information being collected. My families' time frame, Iorweth Fychan (JI-1), is 1175 A.D. +/- 10 years, when they moved to a new geographic location that was to begin a new era for those yet to come. [see last post "Of Llwyn-Onn"]. A fellow named Giraldus Cambrensis [better known as Gerald of Wales] recorded his personal trip around Wales taken during the year 1188 A.D. A text from the Latin was published by Penguin Classics, translated with an introduction by Lewis Thrope, in 2004. Thorpe first wrote his text in 1978. The cover of my copy follows.
Gerald's own genealogy is given on page 11, and it would seem he was 75% Norman. How abouut that? On page 251 under ancient genealogy he writes: "The Welsh esteem noble birth and generous descent above all things, and are therefore, more desirous of marrying into noble than rich families. Even the common people retain their genealogy, and can not only readily recount the names of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, but even refer back to the sixth or seventh generation, or beyond them..."
Sounds a lot like my post of August 18, 2023 which was taken from a Welsh genealogist, Nicholas, Vol. I, p. 355, written some 690 years later [see last post]. But hey, here is an eyewitness account.
No comments:
Post a Comment