Hanes teulu a hanes lleol

 

Local and family history

Tu fas i'r swyddfa, rydw i wedi bod yn brysur dros y blynyddoedd diwethaf yn astudio hanes lleol a hanes teuluol - ar wahân i ddysgu'r Gymraeg a Gwyddeleg, tipyn o ddawnsio werin, cerdded yn y mynyddoedd, gweithio yn yr ardd ac yn y blaen.

Hanes lleol

OS mapDechreuais ar yr hanes lleol sawl blynedd yn ôl. 'Roedd diddordeb gennyf ddysgu pa mor hen yw fy mwthyn, a pwy a fu'n byw ynddi cyn i mi gyrraedd. Yn sgil hynny es i i lawr i'r archifau lleol, sef Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru ac Archifdy Ceredigion, a chyn bo hir, dysgais gryn dipyn am y pwnc. Wedyn, drwy siarad wrth gyfaill a diddordeb ganddo hefyd yn hanes plwyf Llangynfelyn, penderfynom ni y byddai'n ddiddorol gweld cymaint o wybodaeth sydd ar gael yn yr archifdai am ein plwyf bach diymffrost ni, ac wedyn i gyhoeddi'n manylion ar y We er mwyn i bobl eraill cael lles ein hymchwil. Dechreuodd fel prosiect bach, ond mae fe wedi tyfu'n sylweddol. Erbyn hyn mae dros 300 tudalen ar y safle ac nid oes diwedd i'w gweld! I weld cynnyrch ein gwaith, ewch i www.llangynfelyn.org.

Hanes teulu

Sawl blynedd cyn i mi ddechrau ar y waith ymchwil hanes lleol, yr oeddwn i'n wrthi'n hel f'achau. Mae hi wedi bod yn araf iawn, gyda chyfnodau o waith egnïol sy'n dod i ben gyda wal bricsen arall! family photosMae cyhoeddiad y Cyfrifiad 1901 yn ddiweddar wedi agor cwpl o gatiau newydd, ac rwyf yn brysur dilyn y llwybrau oddi wrthynt. Prif broblem gyda hobi fel hyn yw dod i hyd i'r cofnodion. Mae'n eithaf syml gyda ochr Gymreig y teulu, gan fy mod i'n byw ar stepen drws yr LlGC, ond mae'n taith hir i Gaer Hirfryn a Sir Forgannwg. Rhywbryd bydd rhaid i mi fynd i Fanceinion a Chaerdydd am ddiwrnod neu ddwy. Dyma'r cyfle i ni ddysgu gwerth y We - fel modd i bobl ym mhedwar ban y byd rhannu eu gwybodaeth a sgiliau - ac rwyf wedi derbyn cymorth o bobl o bobman, gormod ohonynt i'w henwi, ond diolch yn fawr iawn iddynt. Rydw i wedi paratoi adroddiad rhannol o ganlyniad f'ymchwil hyd yn hyn gan ddefnyddio meddalwedd PAF (o'r LDS) i gadw'r manylion ac i greu siart llinach syml. Dim ond wyth cenhedlaeth sydd yma ym y tro!

 

My main interest outside work in recent years has been studying local and family history - in between learning Welsh and Irish, doing a bit of dancing and hill-walking, pottering in the garden and so on.

Local history

I started on the local history some years ago, when I got curious about how old my cottage was, and who had lived here before me. That got me digging around in the local archives, particularly the National Library of Wales, and I soon discovered quite a bit about the subject. postcardFrom talking to a friend who was also interested in the history of the parish of Llangynfelyn, we decided that it would be interesting to see just how much information is available in the archives about our fairly non-descript little parish, and then publish the results on the Internet so that other people could benefit from our research. It started as a fairly small project and has grown somewhat in the subsequent years - at the time of writing it's over 300 pages and there is no end in sight! To see the fruits of our labours visit www.llangynfelyn.org.

Family history

Even before getting into local history I started trying to trace my family tree. It's been a slow job, and tends to go in spurts before hitting another dead end! Callaghan crestThe recent release of the 1901 Census has opened up a few more lines of enquiry which I am now following. The difficulty with this hobby is access to the records: with the Welsh side of the family it's not too difficult, with the NLW almost on the doorstep, but it's much harder when the records you want are a couple of hundred miles away. Somewhere on my 'To Do' list are visits to several distant record offices. This is where the Internet really shows its worth - as a medium for people all over the world to share their knowledge and skills - and I have received help from people all over the planet, too many to name here, but thanks to them all. I have prepared a partial view of my results to date using the PAF software from the LDS to store the research, and to prepare a basic ancestor chart. I've limited it to eight generations for now!


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