Can someone read the name of the town ...

EthanCrenson

On this wedding record the groom John Jones is recorded as living in Boyngwyllan (???), can anyone read that? It really can't be correct as I've typed it because it gets no hits in any search engine. Can anyone tell me what it says and/or tell me anything about the place? I'm stumped.

KevinRobinson

Hi @EthanCrenson ,

At first look I came up with exactly the same transcription as you did, but have since revised this to be BRYNGWYLLAN - I still can't find a place with this name, but then some places have had their name changed a little over the years.

I find it interesting that BWLCH is in South Wales, whereas LLYSFAEN is far in the north on the coast. That is a lot of distance to cover in the 1850's.

I shall have another look later with fresh eyes!

ifyerhappyanduknowit

@EthanCrenson ,

Welsh names are wonderful, aren't they?

Here is what I found when I entered the first 5 letters in the "place" search bar in the FamilySearch Catalog :

Bryngwyn OR Bryn-gwyn, Radnorshire, Wales

Bryngwyn OR Bron-gwyn, Cardiganshire, Wales

Also, the letters -llan or llan- is part of the name of over 630 locations in Wales and nearly all have some connection **** a local patron saint. It can mean "church" or rather the enclosed land around the church. It is not used as often in modern day Welsh language. (Info was found on Wiki and bbc.co.uk)

I have been trying all sorts of variations of the lettering, but I feel that @KevinRobinson is correct with the second letter being an "R". I found no location that did not have the "n" after the second "y" in the name. So, if the suffix is being used, it could easily only be used by dropping the n before adding the llan.

When I entered Bwlch it came up with Bwlch-gwyn OR Bwlchgwyn, Denbighshire, Wales and Bwlch-y-cibau, Montgomeryshire, Wales.

You can look up places using the place feature on the FS catalog here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog

It is sometimes really helpful to start entering letters and seeing what FamilySearch comes up with. I do not live in Wales, so I am unsure of the historical names there, so I am not saying these answers are for sure, but I wanted to let you know what I found!

Cedar Kedar

Hi Ethan,

I have two books of Welsh place names and I can't find the name Bryngwyllan or even a Gwyllan. I have even tried Brynywllan/Bryn-y-wyllan but no luck. I will ask my Welsh neighbours and will try our local library and see what they have. It could also be that the place is a town area or street name rather than a village or town. 

There is a Gwillan Vineyard in Conwy that could possibly be named after a Gwyllan but that is a long shot.

You will find the name 'Bwlch' in many places in Wales, however it is usually the start of the place name as in

Bwlch-coed

Bwlch-y-Garreg

Bwlchtocyn

I live in a Bwlch.... and it actually means gap or pass + the description.

There are over twenty places starting with Bwlch.

There is an actual 'Bwlch’ although it is well outside the Caernarvon jurisdiction area it could mean that the bride came from Bwlch. Given that the priest wrote a full place name for the groom I would think the bride came from Bwlch. 

By the way Bryn = Hill in Welsh.

As ifyerhappy said Welsh names are wonderful, now pronouncing them is a whole different ball game.

Best regards

Cedar