Does anyone know what language they spoke?

[california dreamin]

Hi
Does anyone know (or could anyone take an educated guess) if the people living around Aberedw spoke Welsh or English in approx 1800-1850's?  If they community spoke Welsh only how easy would it be to integrate into this community?

PS - The largest nearby town I guess would be Brecon.

[mazi]

The best I can come up with is from Genuki, regarding Aberedw church it says "one service in english"  the other sevices presumably were in welsh.Tthe nearest town is Builth Wells, a market town, with considerable English influence. I would think that in aberedw,welsh may have been the language at home, but most adults would be bi-lingual.

If we are asking how well a non-welsh speaker would be able to integrate into the community I do not think the language would be a barrier, but the welsh had a degree of dislike of the english in general, but this probably would not extend to people from hereford shropshire areas, they would all be welsh marches people first, if that makes sense.

not sure if this is even an educated guess but its the best I can do. 

mike

[california dreamin]

Hi Mike

Thanks for your reply - tricky one isn't it.  I have an ancestor who left a v. small village on the outskirts of Hereford and can be found in Aberedw by the time of the 1841, he married a local girl.  When he actually moved there I really don't know - as a child?, a young man?. ... Certainly no welsh language or family stories of welsh language etc. have filtered down through the years.

Thanks again.

[mazi]

Morgan is a good welsh name. I live only a couple of miles from madley and many around here have welsh origins going back 200 yrs. we ourselves will shop in wales and look to wales for social life as much as we do to hereford.

many welsh sheep from the radnor hills spend their winter in the pastures of west herefordshire.

remember these are just my thoughts

mike

[california dreamin]

Hi Mike

Thanks that's really interesting.  I am trying to figure out why someone who states he is from Herefordshire ended up in Aberedw (especially if he didn't speak Welsh!).  An Ag Lab his whole life, and presumabley while in Herefordshire was working on an estate more agrarian based than in Aberedw where he was sheep farming.  I am beginning to wonder if one of the local Estate owners had  property in both places.  The area I am looking at nr Hereford seems to have been owned by the Brydges family.  I can't yet find if there is a large estate or land owner in Aberedw.  I know the time he left Herefordshire was a dreadful time for Ag Labs as it was during the time of the Corn Laws and Swing Riots.  A move from land based farming into animals would make sense. Have spent the evening looking for the online information at Powys Archives! What fun.

[youngtug]

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/politics_welsh_nationality.shtml

[california dreamin]

Hi youngtug

Thanks for the link.  Will have a good ol' look at it!

[youngtug]

Did you see that it say's that in 1850 at least three quarters of the population spoke Welsh and a great deal of them spoke no other language

[california dreamin]

Hi

Yes, I did.  I thought that very interesting.  I am now thinking well maybe my ancestor came from a family that spoke Welsh and m a y b e even given what Mike has said about Welsh sheep from the Radnor hills spending their summers in the pastures of west Herefordshire his family moved between the two places.  Maybe he was born in west Herefordshire but the family not Herefordian.  It is a conundrum! I would really like to get to Hereford Archives and Powys archives and try to dig a bit further.  I've also been looking for a book or article on this area, or farming in this area, the Welsh Marshes c. 1800's you get the picture.