Hi,
I have been wandering through some of the Ancestry family Trees, particularly those of Cantref Selyf in Breconshire. A Y-DNA colleague is convinced that he has found a group of FTDNA kits (including mine) that indicate a common ancestor of Bleddyn ap Maenarch who was killed at Battle Breconshire in the 11th Century by Bernard Neufmarch, an Norman invader. Bleddyn had a brother Drymbenog ap Maenarch, who was granted "Lordship" over Cantref Selyf after the defeat. As Cantref Selyf includes the Eppynt as well as Llanfihangel Nant Bran (where my family came from) I decided to check some lineages, starting with Drynbenog, published by Ancestry.
To my enormous surprise I found a line from him to Dafydd ap Rhys son of Rhys ap Owen, about 1500 AD (where the Ancestry line stops) who was living in Llanfihangel Nant Bran. Another one, Dafydd ap Rhys, son of Rhys ap Gruffydd was living in "Garth" Llandeilo'r fan, the adjacent Parish.
I have done a lot of research on my family in Llanfihangel Nant Bran, and found absolutely no connections to Bleddyn ap Maenarch, except for this Y-DNA evidence.
There are a lot of other references to people living in Llywel, Devynnock, Trallong, etc.
However, they all stop short around 1500, and the Welsh patronymic naming conventions don't help tracing any families to the modern age.
Does anyone on Rootschat know of anyone who claims a family descended from Bleddyn ap Maenarch?
Or a Rhys (Price) living in Llafihangel Nant Bran in the 1500s (careful.. the parish included Merthyr Cynog at that time!) Or in Llandeilo'r Fan?
Also, I would really like to hear from anyone who has the haplotype R-S27900 or its descendent branch R-FGC39559
Thanks again!
Stay safe and Stay well!
Llanfi