Discover your Welsh ancestors who were baptised in Merionethshire. The records may reveal where and when your relative was baptised, and their parents’ names, which would allow you to delve further back into your family tree.
Discover your Welsh ancestors who were baptised in Merionethshire. The records may reveal where and when your relative was baptised, and their parents’ names, which would allow you to delve further back into your family tree.
Transcript
Each record comprises a transcript and black and white image of the original register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:
First name(s)
Last name
Birth year
Baptism year
Baptism date
Father’s first name(s)
Mother’s first name(s)
Place
County
Country
Image
The image may provide additional details, including:
Birth date
Father’s occupation
Residence
Officiating minister
Details (including “illegitimate”)
Please note that some of the earlier records are in Latin.
Merionethshire
Merionethshire is one of 13 historic Welsh counties, a vice county (a geographical division used for biological recording and other scientific data-collecting), and a former administrative county. Merionethshire is bordered by Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, Montgomeryshire, and Cardiganshire. The county was established in 1284.
The administrative county of Merioneth was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 in 1889 and abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974. Most of the former county became part of the newly created county of Gwynedd. Dolgellau is the former county town and administrative centre.
Baptism Records
Baptism records state the date and place an individual was baptised into a church, and are an essential part of researching your family history. In most records, the parents of the individual being baptised are included, and these are often the key to finding out the names of the previous generation. Children were generally baptized within a few weeks of birth.
Children Born Outside Marriage
In England, the 1235 Statute of Merton states that “He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents.” The use of the word “bastard” continued through the 16th century, with the Poor Law of 1576 forming the basis of English bastardy law. It aimed to punish the child’s unmarried mother and putative father and to relieve the parish from the cost of supporting the mother and child.
The language changed in the 20th century, with the introduction of the Legitimacy Act 1926, which legitimized the birth of a child in England and Wales if the parents later married each other. The act refers to the child of unmarried parents as “the illegitimate person.”
Spurious is an archaic term for illegitimate.