Parish of Meifod

[Griffl]

Hi all,
At the moment it seems my mams paternal line originated from
Meifod in Montgomeryshire
The earliest known ancestors is said to have bern born circa 1793 in Meifod
This mans grandson was a speaker of both Welsh and english... But lived in the heavily anglicised parish of Guilsfield/Cegidfa and thus didnt pass on the language to his children (wife spoke both too)

Their surname was Lloyd or as I have read origniates as Llwyd aka grey

Anyways,

Does anyone have any information on the parish of Meifod?
Was this one of Montgomeryshires anglicised parishes in this period?
Or was it as Welsh as the parish of Hirnant further north west in the county

Any onformation on the parish will be greatly appreciated to help ke try and build a picture of what kind of people they were
Thanks

Lewys Griffiths

[wrjones]

As ever with these Parishes the first port of call should be Genuki;
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MGY/Meifod/index.html

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Griffl]

Diolch William,
I have read through Genuki before this post..
I find it a very useful website

[david64]

The parish registers for Meifod are on FindMyPast, both transcripts by the Mont. Gen. Soc. and indexed images (see: http://forebears.co.uk/wales/montgomeryshire/meifod - also two histories at the bottom.)

As to the Welshness of Meifod, I would say it is was much less Welsh than Hirnant, but more Welsh than Guilsfield. I am basing that on the use of patronymics in the area. I have ancestors in Meifod, who adopted fixed surnames in around 1660, Hirnant in the 1750s, but used a triple patronym as late as the early 19th century. Guilsfield on the other hand I have ancestors who had fixed surnames in the late 1500s.

I live in this area, and today I would say that Meifod has more of a Welsh 'feel' to it, whereas places like Guilsfield and Buttington are little different from places on the other side of the border. As you may be aware this is due to the settlement of English people in certain parishes after the union between England and Wales.

[Griffl]

Hello David and thank you for such a great reply crammed with information!
I was quite hoping somebody of local origins would be able to give me some infomartion and youve just done that!

I recently visted montgomeryshire and a very nice county it was, but stayed right on the border where I noticed people would be more likely to "aligin" themselves to Shrewsbury rather than Welshpool etc

I visited Guilsfield and I suppose I was a little dissapointed with the welshness hehe
Although it has a fabulous well kept church...found a gravestone realting to me tree:)
At that time I hadnt traced the family back to Meifod so didnt stop off there..

I also took a visit to Hirnant which I thought was wonderful! Although a little out of the way

I can also agree with you on your point of the use of triple patrynomics as I have also had a few there around 1800!
 
I have yet to trace all the branches of my Lloyd line as I have only recently found the big mistake in my tree... But now thankfully im on right track So I can see myself finding more places to visit..

Interesting you say of English settlers, as I had wondered why there was such an abundance of "english" surnames in the parish registers

On my journey for building up a picture of the areas my ancestors lived I read George Borrows wild wales... Which has a few good extracts on the north of the county near Hirnant etc
It does seem to be 100% Welsh in that time

Thank you for the link

I would think that my Lloyds moving to Guilsfield resulted in their Anglicisation

I wonder when your ancestors from these parishes becane anglicised if they did at all
Or had they moved from the areas before then?