Place name

Carole McIntyre

Have run across the name LLanethy , Carmarthen. Is this supposed to be Llanelly or LLanelli?

Shannon Potter Wilcox

@Carole McIntyre I believe it is LLanelli. Llanelli (" St Elli 's Parish "; Welsh: [ɬaˈnɛɬi]) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary 10.5 miles (16.9 km) north-west of Swansea and 12 miles (19 km) south-east of the county town, Carmarthen.

I hope this helps.

Shannon

@Cedar Kedar is there two spellings?

Carole McIntyre

@Cedar Kedar @Shannon Potter Wilcox

Thank you for the information. Yes, there are two spellings and two different places as well. Llanelli, about 11 miles east of Swansea and by the coast, and LLanelly, by Abergavenny , 45 miles west and inland, straight north of Newport.

My problem is that when the birth place is listed as LLanethy, which place does it refer to? It seems to be an old appellation. I think Sharon is right. I have also found a book from 1675 by John Ogilby called

Itinerarium Angliæ: or, a book of roads of ... England and ... Wales. It states:

- ferryd to Llanethy

It would be hard to ferry to LLanelly.

Carole

Cedar Kedar

Hi @Carole McIntyre and @Shannon Potter Wilcox

"Have run across the name LLanethy , Carmarthen. Is this supposed to be Llanelly or LLanelli?"

*****

Just to throw a bit more confusion into the mix. I have two books of Welsh Place name and their meanings.

"Llanelli, Dyfed (Carmarthenshire). 'Church dedicated to St. Ellyw,' a saint of the 5th century. Its proper name is Lannelliw."

From Wikipedia: -

"The anglicised spelling “Llanelly” was used until 1966, when it was changed to Llanelli after a local public campaign. It remains in the name of a local historic building, Llanelly House. It should not be confused with the village and parish of Llanelly, in south-east Wales near Abergavenny."

It does not indicate when they started using the anglicised version.

Now for a bit more fun there is also a village called 'Llanarthney.' (The Church of Arthen, son of Brychan).

"Llanarthney is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales. Situated on the B4300 road 12 km east of Carmarthen and 10 km west of Llandeilo..." so no ferries to Llanarthey, maybe! The River Towy runs right by Llanarthey and if there weren't any bridges there would have been ferries.

And for even more fun there is also a Llanarth, which used to be in Dyfed. "Llanarth is both a small village and a community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is on the A487 road and is about 3 miles from both Aberaeron and New Quay." Even though it sits on a stream/river you can probably rule this one out.

The transliteration of Welsh names into English does not help. Using old maps of the area might be helpful. The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth has a link to old Ordinance Survey maps. There is also a link to Tithe Maps with over 30,000 entries.

Before you come to the conclusion that the place you are looking for is Llanelli I would suggest you have a look at Llanarthney as well and see if you need to definitely rule it out.

Best regards

Cedar

Shannon Potter Wilcox

@Cedar Kedar This is excellent and I am not sure I would know which on of them to travel on, but I think I will come on over and let you take me there. 😉😊

@Carole McIntyre I hope that Cedar has help to aid you in your question. 😊

Cedar Kedar

@Shannon Potter Wilcox

You are welcome any time.