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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Topic started by: dcbnwh on Friday 05 March 10 08:48 GMT (UK)
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I would be very grateful for help with this inscription from Llanaber, Merionethshire. I think I can work out the first part but not the final two words after the name:
"Yma y mae yn gorwedd gorff HUGH NANNEY, ERYD IO'CH 1683"
Regards,
David
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Hi there David,
The first bit I would have as the "here is the final/last resting place of". However, the Eryd Io'ch has me beat. I've tried splitting it up and assuming, with the age of it, there may be an error but what I have managed to come up with doesn't really make sense ......... "er ydi och" or even "er y dio(l)ch".
There must be someone out there ........ I'll try my Welsh translator friend when I can get hold of her, if not solved before.
Pob lwc.
:)
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Hi David,
Yeah that last bit is confusing. Could that be the name of his house? Is that last bit in upper case letters on the gravestone like his name is? Have you got a photo of the gravestone that you could post?
Eryd can mean plough I think.
Cheers,
Gwyn
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Thank you for the replies so far. The inscription was passed on to me and came from a book which may have been written some time ago. It is not a grave that I had noticed when I visited Llanaber and so may have faded.
The suggestion that it could be a place name is interesting, although he is mentioned in a will of a couple of years earlier and it doesn't match. However, it could be a house or farm in that locality, but I can't make out the name. It looks a bit like Llanucouse - image attached.
Regards,
David
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dcbnwh
Are they your Capitals (...HUGH NANNEY, ERYD IO'CH 1683) or is this how they appear on the headstone?
This has got a lot of us scratching our heads!
I'm aware of a place Nant y Eryd and I've seen Eryd in an ancient Welsh poem.
regards
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Don't know what the conventions of gravestone inscriptions of the age were, but is this a possibility: ER(since) Y(the) D(dydd/diwrnod=day) 10'(10th) (of)CH(wefror=February)? If so it mght refer to the date of interment rather than death. Can't make out the manuscript placename, and have failed to find any information on this Hugh (a favoured family name, apparently).
Pinot
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Thank you for the suggestion that it could be a date. This seems plausible, given the position of the words.
Hugh was the son of Lewis Nanney and Jane Hughes, born in Talyllyn c1635, and so had moved away from home.
I will visit the church again in the summer, to see if the inscription is still legible. I didn't notice it on previous visits and, because it is on a cliff overlooking the sea, suspect that the weather has now rendered it illegible.
Many thanks for your help,
David
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Here lies the body of HUGH NANNEY
ERYDU = to erode
Could be the date abbreviated 10 CH CHWEFROR = February
alism
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Thanks alism.
That seems to make sense if Eryd is used as a euphemism for dying in the same way that we use "past away" today.
Unfortunately, there are no parish records for that period to confirm it but, putting all of the suggestions together, the inscription could mean:
Here is the final/last resting place of
Hugh Nanney
(Who) past away on 10th February 1683
Regards,
David
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From the beginning I've been puzzling about the apostrophe (OI'CH). An apostrophe is used to indicate missing letters at the end of a word in Welsh (amongst other things).
In full the date wd be "10 fed o Chwefror = 10 th of February". The apostrophe could well refer to the missing "fed".
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Eryd Io'ch
Try Taken from us.
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Long shot....but could it be "Eryd Ior", i.e. the Lord's Plough?
Maybe meaning that he ploughed the way for the Lord's word???
Was he a minister or something?
Lee
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Thank you for the recent replies,
"The Lord's Plough" is an interesting suggestion.
I am not sure what he did but other relatives were ministers and so this is a possibility.
Many thanks,
David
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I have now seen the grave and the transcription was incorrect
ERYD IO'CH is actually ERY 21 O'CH
Taken from us/Past away on 21st February
Many thanks fro the help and suggestions.
David
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David, is there anything on the next line? I've noticed on some very old stones that they split words up as soon as they reached the end of a line and just carried on from the beginning of the next.
It looks to me like 'ER Y' then the date, which does indeed refer to the date of death.
I have now seen the grave and the transcription was incorrect
ERYD IO'CH is actually ERY 21 O'CH
Taken from us/Past away on 21st February
Many thanks fro the help and suggestions.
David
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The next line is simply the year. I imagine that the text has been re-cut at some time and there may have other words after the date. However, there is another grave in a similar condition, with the words in English, which suggests that the inscription is complete.
David
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Hi
The words are seperated by 'dots', but not always, perhaps because of weathering. It starts with 'YMAE.YMMA.' I suspect that this should read, 'Y.MAE.YMMA.', i.e. 'Y mae ymma.' Nowadays 'ymma' would be spelt 'yma'. Translated, 'there is here'.
Moving on to the 'ERY', perhaps this should read 'ER.Y' or 'ER Y', translated 'since the'.
The full translation would then be:
"There is here lying the body of Hugh Nanney since the 21st of February 1683"
(Here lyeth)
EmyrBorth
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Many thanks for the interpretation.
David