Wales History

You will need to understand the historical events that affected your ancestors and the records about them. Knowledge concerning wars, local events, laws, migrations, settlement patterns, and economic or religious trends will help you find records, such as settlement certificates or military records, where your ancestors are mentioned.

Prior to 1536 isolated regions of Wales were occupied and the land held by the 'gwely,' closely-knit kinship groups. The importance of kinship was firmly embedded in the Welsh culture and affects relationships, inheritance and social attitudes to present. It is important to keep the "kinship" mind set when researching in Wales, to assure you are following the correct family.

Some key dates and events in Welsh history are:

For dates and records of wars, and key dates relating to church records, see Wales Military Records and Wales Church History. For dates of the reigns of British rulers, see:


 * Cheney, C.R., ed. Handbook of Dates for Students of English History.London, England: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1978. (FHL 942 C4rg no. 4.)

Two of the many available historical sources are:


 * Tomas, Hugh, E.D. Evans, and A.H. Dodd. eds.A History of Wales. 3 vol. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press. (Family History Library book .) The volumes are organized by time period, 1465–1906.
 * Williams, David. A History of Modern Wales. London, England: John Murray, 1977. (Family History Library book .) This history covers from 1485 to the twentieth century.

You can find other histories in the FamilySearch Catalog under:

GREAT BRITAIN - HISTORY

WALES - HISTORY

Many bibliographies of histories are available. A helpful one is:


 * Annual Bibliography of British and Irish History. Annual vols. Brighton, England: Harvester Press, 1976–. (Family History Library book 942 A3e.)

Others are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

GREAT BRITAIN - HISTORY - BIBLIOGRAPHY

WALES - HISTORY - BIBLIOGRAPHY

Local Histories
A local history describes the economy; prominent families; and the founding of churches, hospitals, schools, and businesses in an area. Even if a local history does not mention your ancestor, you may find important clues that suggest other records to search.

For some localities there may be several histories. There are many histories of Welsh parishes. Local and parish histories are available at the Family History Library and often at major public and academic libraries and archives. Those at the Family History Library are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

WALES, [COUNTY] - HISTORY

WALES, [COUNTY], [PARISH] - HISTORY

Calendar Changes
The Gregorian calendar, the one commonly used today, is a correction of the Julian calendar. Because of miscalculated leap years, the Julian calendar was 11 days behind the solar year by 1752.

Great Britain began using the new calendar in 1752. Eleven days were omitted to bring the calendar in line with the solar year. The day after Wednesday, 2 September 1752, became Thursday, 14 September 1752.

Also at that time, the first day of the year changed to 1 January. Before 1752, the first day of the year was 25 March.

Pre-1752 dates may be confusing. Dates between 1 January and 24 March are often recorded using a technique called double dating. For example, the day after 31 December 1696 would be 1 January 1696/7 and the day after 24 March 1565/6 was 25 March 1566.