I would have thought that the huge 2 Volume work of B. G. Charles would have captured much of this sort of information for Pembrokeshire. ----------------- There is a very interesting project for Ireland, run by a company called Irish Origenes, which at first I was rather sceptical about, but I have now moved into the neutral camp. http://www.irishorigenes.com/ Essentially you take a 37 marker Y-DNA test, and then they compare your DNA profile to others within a database called Y-Search, which is in the public domain. Then they select the most uncommon surname in that group to localise your genetic homeland. The detail is explained on his website. He has English and Scottish Origenes but not yet Welsh Origenes. Any serious population geneticist would laugh at this strategy, but when folk did not move around so much, but just around their nearest market town in many cases, it is not so daft. Brian -----Original Message----- From: dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gareth Hicks Sent: 25 October 2013 13:36 To: Dyfed Subject: [Dyfed] Place name project Thanks to a Genuki colleague for drawing this to my attention. http://www.cymru1900wales.org/ Partners in the project include the NLW, the University of Wales and RCAHMW The introductory text includes "We need help in collecting all the names of places and features in Wales from the Ordnance Survey’s six-inch to a mile maps of c. 1900. Why? Because the names of places are a vital key to unlocking the social and linguistic history of the land. ............................... You might think that it was easy to come by a list of all the places in Wales, or Britain, but at this scale it is not – and, of course, the maps from a century ago preserve many historic names now lost. .................................. For one thing, it is intended that the Wales 1900 gazetteer will form the backbone of a national collection of the country’s historic place-names, comprising everything from the earliest medieval records to the field-names still known to modern farming families. In addition, there is here a huge potential to tap into local knowledge and memory. That is why, as well as simply recording the names as they appear on these historic maps, we want you to tell us more: do you know stories about the origin of the name, true or apocryphal? do you want to record other versions of the place-name (especially ones we might not otherwise easily find), such as a form used by your grandparents? or do you remember the same place going by another name altogether? ..................................." There appear to be 126 volunteers already involved. Gareth Hicks Genuki Wales http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/ Gareth's Help Page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks.html Cwmgors a'r Waun http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cwmgors/Waun.html ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

My impression is that the end result of the completed project will be a single (somewhat large) database of every name/word on the 1900 map of Wales. This would include a grid reference presumably, and any additional information added by contributors from their own knowledge/experience. Gareth Hicks Genuki Wales http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/ Gareth's Help Page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks.html Cwmgors a'r Waun http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cwmgors/Waun.html -----Original Message----- From: Brian Swann Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 6:29 PM To: 'Gareth Hicks' ; 'Dyfed' Subject: RE: [Dyfed] Place name project I would have thought that the huge 2 Volume work of B. G. Charles would have captured much of this sort of information for Pembrokeshire. ----------------- snip Brian

A further thought. I think we can assume that the partners supporting this project are completely aware of every book ever published about place names in every corner of Wales. And they have gone ahead anyway. This is the internet era, the most useful databases will be those that are accessible on the net and are searchable. I rather like the way the internet can pull together volunteers in significant numbers to accomplish tasks which are otherwise beyond an individual's capacity to bring about, or too costly if human input has to be paid for. Reminds me of Genuki projects in days gone by ! I hadn't heard of this project until today myself but have no great difficulty in seeing that it has merit. Gareth Hicks On 25 Oct 2013, at 19:17, "Gareth Hicks" <tirbach@clara.co.uk> wrote: My impression is that the end result of the completed project will be a single (somewhat large) database of every name/word on the 1900 map of Wales. This would include a grid reference presumably, and any additional information added by contributors from their own knowledge/experience. Gareth Hicks Genuki Wales http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/ Gareth's Help Page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks.html Cwmgors a'r Waun http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cwmgors/Waun.html -----Original Message----- From: Brian Swann Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 6:29 PM To: 'Gareth Hicks' ; 'Dyfed' Subject: RE: [Dyfed] Place name project I would have thought that the huge 2 Volume work of B. G. Charles would have captured much of this sort of information for Pembrokeshire. ----------------- snip Brian ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I agree Gareth, the internet has a huge potential for good. My best wishes, Jill -----Original Message----- From: dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gareth Sent: 25 October 2013 20:27 To: Dyfed; Gareth Hicks Subject: Re: [Dyfed] Place name project A further thought. I think we can assume that the partners supporting this project are completely aware of every book ever published about place names in every corner of Wales. And they have gone ahead anyway. This is the internet era, the most useful databases will be those that are accessible on the net and are searchable. I rather like the way the internet can pull together volunteers in significant numbers to accomplish tasks which are otherwise beyond an individual's capacity to bring about, or too costly if human input has to be paid for. Reminds me of Genuki projects in days gone by ! I hadn't heard of this project until today myself but have no great difficulty in seeing that it has merit. Gareth Hicks On 25 Oct 2013, at 19:17, "Gareth Hicks" <tirbach@clara.co.uk> wrote: My impression is that the end result of the completed project will be a single (somewhat large) database of every name/word on the 1900 map of Wales. This would include a grid reference presumably, and any additional information added by contributors from their own knowledge/experience. Gareth Hicks Genuki Wales http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/ Gareth's Help Page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks.html Cwmgors a'r Waun http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cwmgors/Waun.html -----Original Message----- From: Brian Swann Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 6:29 PM To: 'Gareth Hicks' ; 'Dyfed' Subject: RE: [Dyfed] Place name project I would have thought that the huge 2 Volume work of B. G. Charles would have captured much of this sort of information for Pembrokeshire.

In the DNA world it is called citizen science and crowdsourcing funding. We have done both in ISOGG. 23andMe do it all the time in relation to human disease. Brian -----Original Message----- From: dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gareth Sent: 25 October 2013 20:27 To: Dyfed; Gareth Hicks Subject: Re: [Dyfed] Place name project A further thought. I think we can assume that the partners supporting this project are completely aware of every book ever published about place names in every corner of Wales. And they have gone ahead anyway. This is the internet era, the most useful databases will be those that are accessible on the net and are searchable. I rather like the way the internet can pull together volunteers in significant numbers to accomplish tasks which are otherwise beyond an individual's capacity to bring about, or too costly if human input has to be paid for. Reminds me of Genuki projects in days gone by ! I hadn't heard of this project until today myself but have no great difficulty in seeing that it has merit. Gareth Hicks On 25 Oct 2013, at 19:17, "Gareth Hicks" <tirbach@clara.co.uk> wrote: My impression is that the end result of the completed project will be a single (somewhat large) database of every name/word on the 1900 map of Wales. This would include a grid reference presumably, and any additional information added by contributors from their own knowledge/experience. Gareth Hicks Genuki Wales http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/ Gareth's Help Page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks.html Cwmgors a'r Waun http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cwmgors/Waun.html -----Original Message----- From: Brian Swann Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 6:29 PM To: 'Gareth Hicks' ; 'Dyfed' Subject: RE: [Dyfed] Place name project I would have thought that the huge 2 Volume work of B. G. Charles would have captured much of this sort of information for Pembrokeshire. ----------------- snip Brian ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message