There are lots of transcription errors in the 1911 census index no doubt due to the fact that all the returns were completed in the occupiers hand. Thus, I have had to trawl through whole districts looking for relatives as simple surnames were wrongly transcribed. Whilst doing this have seen a few returns written in Welsh but not as many as I would have expected. It was an interesting exercise even noted some entries for families of gypsies living in caravans and tents parked next to a school, but no adult males in occupation! I definitely got the flavour that the vast majority of households were more than familiar with English or had had neighbours to help them with it rather than use Welsh. Rhod On 07/08/2012 12:02, John Ball wrote: > Roy Davies <roydavies@gmail.com> wrote: > "Cadw ty" means keeping the house, i.e. she was either a house keeper > or a house wife, depending on her relationship to the head of the > household. > "Morwyn" means "maid" (or maiden) and "cyffredin" means common so she > would have been someone who did general domestic duties. Off hand I > can't think what how we would normally describe that occupation in > English, "general maid," I suppose. > ================ > > > Dear Listers, > > What an interesting answer from Roy Davies. Many thanks, Roy. > > I must say this is the first time I've encountered an example of a > householder responding in Welsh to a census question. Perhaps Georgina could > tell us whether the householder filled in the Welsh language version of the > census form? > Has anyone else seen similar examples while studying census returns? > > I suppose the 1911 is the most likely source, because in that census we can > see the answers as written by the head of the household, rather than the > census enumerator's transcription that we see in all the other censuses. > > Kind regards, > > > John > -------------------- > John Ball, Brecon, Mid-Wales, UK > E-mail: john@jlb2011.co.uk > Personal Homepage: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk > Images of Wales: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/ > Welsh Family History Archive: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/wales/ > > Joint Webmaster, Breconshire Local & Family History Society > http://www.blfhs.co.uk/ > GENUKI Breconshire Maintainer: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/BRE/ > Joint Administrator - Powys (& BRE/MGY/RAD) RootsWeb mailing lists > > =================== > Visit the Powys Mailing List webpage at: www.jlb2011.co.uk/powyslist.htm > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POWYS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virus Database: 2437/5182 - Release Date: 08/06/12 >

I think the main reason why so many Welsh speakers filled in the census form in English was simply that they regarded English as the language of officialdom. My grandparents were completely fluent in both languages and were proud of being Welsh but my grandfather filled in the form in English. Roy On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 12:35 PM, brychdyn <brychdyn@rhod.co.uk> wrote: > There are lots of transcription errors in the 1911 census index no doubt > due to the fact that all the returns were completed in the occupiers > hand. Thus, I have had to trawl through whole districts looking for > relatives as simple surnames were wrongly transcribed. Whilst doing this > have seen a few returns written in Welsh but not as many as I would have > expected. It was an interesting exercise even noted some entries for > families of gypsies living in caravans and tents parked next to a > school, but no adult males in occupation! > I definitely got the flavour that the vast majority of households were > more than familiar with English or had had neighbours to help them with > it rather than use Welsh. > Rhod