This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Qg.2ADE/218.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi Steve To begin at the beginning, I have lived in Pencader for 25 years and researched its history for 12 years before writing my book. I have indeed walked up the hill and investigated the ruins of Alltfechan. You’ll be pleased to know they are not even a stone’s throw from the terrace but immediately behind the nearest house in your photo (the two houses have been knocked into one). I have also checked census details, which I will include below. There is some disagreement about the exact location of Alltfechan – was it the terrace or the house behind? The evidence is unclear and no building at all is shown on the tithe map of c1840. But if David Phillips Stephens, who was only a poor farm labourer and therefore at the bottom of the social structure, was born there in 1813 it cannot have been the present terrace. It can only have been a single storey stone dwelling with a sleeping loft under a thatched roof. But whatever the actual building, that is certain! ly the spot. Do not remove the photos Steve. They are relevant and show familiar views – and people – and will be of interest to anyone unable to visit – and help those who intend to visit.. I can imagine how exciting and evocative it must have been to look out across the valley and see a landscape that your ancestors would probably have recognised spread out below. You wonder why I’m so interested. My original motive for my research was to learn about the history of the place where I came to settle. I was born in St Leonard, New Brunswick of a wartime romance and marriage between a French-Canadian and a Briton that broke down. My Carmarthenshire grandmother ( born in Llannon, Llanelli to a vicar brought up by the forge in Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth to a family that had been blacksmiths for generations) was instrumental in getting my mother and four kids back to Britain. I’ve learned Welsh well enough to understand it, read it and sort of speak it. I work as a journalist and biographer. So that’s me. As my research progressed I realised that most indigenous inhabitants knew very little about their local history either – plenty of family stories and anecdotes, mostly fairly recent, but not a lot of facts. There was no real education about local, or even Welsh, history in schools until about the 1980s. I was excited to come across Evan Stephens and his family, and also another earlier migrant to America, David Evans, who became the first Presbyterian Minister to be trained and ordained in America – he went there in 1704. His catechism, printed by Benjamin Franklin, is the earliest surviving American catechism, now held by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and his biographical poem Can Drwstan Gwynfan (a clumsy lament) is now preserved in the Rosenbach Library and Museum in Philadelphia. I am currently writing an article about Evan Stephens, your great-great grandmother’s brother, for the magazine of the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society. I enclose a short section: David Phillips Stephens, known as Deio, was a farm labourer who was also born at Alltfechan in December 1811. His mother was Jane, born in 1813 at Llyswen, Carmarthenshire, daughter of Thomas Evans and Elinor Jones, who both came from near Cardigan, according to one account, but the 1851 census records her as born in the parish of Llanarth, Cardiganshire. Evan was the youngest of ten children (although two sisters, Jane and Rachel, died as children) and occasionally referred to himself as the “tithe” of his father's family. Deio listed his occupation in the 1841 census as an agricultural labourer, so we can assume that life was a struggle for meagre reward at a time of deep rural depression. The children were put to work as soon as possible. None of the eldest children listed in the 1841 census - Daniel aged 7, Thomas, 5, and Anne, aged one – were still living at home ten years later. Even Deio was absent from the house on the night of the 1851 census, and none of his older children are recorded anywhere else in the parish. We may assume they had already found work through family contacts or a hiring fair, but the family evidently stayed close as later events testified. Deio was converted by the fiery Mormon leader Captain Dan Jones of Merthyr Tydfil and the first recorded Seion y Mormoniaid in Pencader was held at Alltfechan in July, 1847. Deio was made president of the Pencader branch of the Mormon church and Alltfechan became the regular meeting place for members of the Church of Latter Day Saints in the area. Some of Evan’s earliest memories would have been Mormon meetings with groups of people, heads bowed and arms uplifted as they prayed and sang in his home. He grew up learning about the gospel and the stirring message of the Latter Day Saints. He also went to school, probably to the little schoolroom attached to the Independent Chapel just down the road from his home, but we have no way of knowing how often he was able to go. But by the age of ten he had started work as a shepherd to help support the family. One of his brothers was David, four years older than Evan. David later wrote a short autobiography that helps to shed some light on Evan’s early days in Pencader and their journey to America. [David Stephens Journal, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City.] David Stephens was born at Alltfechan on July 31, 1850. He was the eighth child. He says his father was 22 and his mother 19 when they married and their ancestors were quite noted authors. His father’s forbears were also noted ministers of the Independent Church, and his mother’s ancestors “nearly always took first prise [sic] at the Eisteddfod.” We know from the census returns that Jane was born in the Cardiganshire parish of Llanarth and they must have married in 1831 or 1832. [end of section] David’s journal is recommended reading for anyone interested in the pioneers. Your great-grandmother Ann, written as Anne in the records, was the real pioneer, going out first – and alone! – to America. Tom followed a year later and they worked for two years to send anough money back home for the rest of the family to follow. Welsh patronymics in brief: Genealogy was – is – very important for the Welsh. Whereas English surnames were based on trades – Smith, Taylor, Mason – or nicknames – Keen, Hardy – or topographical features – Hill, Green – or personal names – Jackson, Annis – or just placenames – Clifton, Coleridge, Newton – Welsh people traced their ancestry in their names. So it was John son of Hugh son of William, son of Davy and on back. Kinship was central to Welsh law. The “ap” is “map”, modern Welsh “mab” meaning “son” and the equivalent of the Scottish Mac and the Irish Mc. They all denote “son (of)” – it’s another case of the ‘p’s and ‘q’s of the two branches of the Celtic language; similarly the Welsh “pen” for head is “cen” in Iris! h and Scots Gaelic. Daughters would be known as “verch” – modern Welsh “ferch” for daughter (of) often shortened vch or vz in documents. The “ap” got dropped. For instance, David Evan’s son would be known as William David and his son as John William. When Anglicised surnames became the fashion – and the civil service rule – the William(s) became permanent, a transition that was complete by the first two decades of the 19th century. The “ap” survived in some areas to give Pritchard (ap Richard), Price (ap Rice or Rhys) Probert (ap Robert) etc. There are some exceptions to the rule (of course!) such as Llywelyn and Lloyd (both upper class names) and Morgan (a sailor or sea captain). Most records of Pencader and its people are in two places. The Public Record Office at Parc Myrddin, Carmarthen is useful and the archivists very helpful. The other main source is the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth 40 miles to the north – see their website. The staff there are helpful too, but there’s only so much they can do, and therefore only so much anyone can do without actually going there or engaging a researcher. My book, This Small Corner, A History of Pencader and District, is available from the publishers Carmarthenshire County Council, Parc Myrddin, Carmarthen. A synopsis with chapter headings can be seen on the Carmarthenshire Family History Society website: www.carmarthenshirefhs.co.uk which is a useful site for family historians. Steve Dubé