Pen y gwith - Is this a house name or place?

[Hollister]

Hello.  I have been researching the family of Evan Griffith of Capel Curig.  I have looked at the death record of his wife, Margaret Griffith and when she died it states she resided in Pen y gwaith.  I'm confused.  I've looked on the map and I can't tell if this is a house or an area or town...any help would be appreciated.  Also, I have information that when Evan Griffith died he resided at Cwm Uchaf near Capel Curig.

Thanks

[Wendi]

Hi Hollister and a Warm Welcome to Rootschat 

Took me an age to find this, but I would suggest that you make enquiries with the local records office, who I understand are here http://www.gwynedd.gov.uk/gwy_doc.asp?cat=3693&doc=12971 in my experience records offices often have old maps of areas and can identify locations lost today (like Caernarvonshire  ) and isolate place names for you, if they have someone able to do for you.

Hope this helps !

Wendi 

[Hollister]

Thank you Wendi.  Will do.

[Wendi]

Oh do let us know !!!  Fingers crossed !

Wendi 

[Quarryman]

Hi Hollister,

Found an obscure travel website - by typing in pen-y-gwydd - and there is mention (to an american thinking of visiting England) which do say "why not stay at pen-y-gwydd (th is dd in Welsh) snowdonia. There is also mention of the same place "half way up snowdon"

Digging a little deeper locally may come up with answer.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Quarryman

[SS from The Rhondda]

http://www.rootschat.com/links/04fm/

Zooming in on the above, it appears to be a house name.



Using 'Google Maps' to plot a route between Pen y Gwaith, Cwm Uchaf & Capel Curig gives the distance between the three places of 16 miles:
(This may not be the correct Cwm Uchaf)

http://www.rootschat.com/links/04fl/

[Hollister]

Quarryman and SS - you have given me lots to think about.  Thanks for the great ideas of different spellings.  Here are my thoughts - it is possible that Margaret Evans died at Pen y Gwaith - it is close by to where her daughter was living at that time.  And, it is also possible that the place could have been Pen y Gwryd, which I found trying to find Pen y gwaith as Quarryman suggested.  It is at the junction of the A4086 and A498.  This place is just down the road from the family home of Cwm Uchaf. 

Isn't genealogy fun?

Thanks again.

Holly

[brawd houdini]

Hello Hollister,

Before you get even more confused here are a few tips about the Welsh language.Th and Dd are 2 letters in the Welsh alphabet {the Welsh alphabet and the English one are entirely different}and are not inter-changable.Further confusion often arose through the employment in the 1800's of English Census enumerators who could not speak or write Welsh.This means that from 1841 to 1901 a place could be wrongly spelled in 7 different ways,none of which were correct!!This was before you even touched on the Parish names!

'Pen y' before another word means Head of or Top of,so 'Pen y Gwaith' would become Top of the Works{as in quarry workings,etc.}.'Pen y Gwryd' and 'Pen y Gwydd' then are entirely different places,even allowing for English enumerators!If you wish to know whether somewhere is spelled correctly there are several online Welsh dictionaries and this should be your first port of call to establish the correct spelling of the place and to avoid confusion.Also as others have mentioned the local Records Office are very good when it comes to places in their locality and most if not all the staff in the Gwynedd one will speak Welsh and English fluently so should be able to direct you to the right place.

Hope this helps,brawd houdini

[Hollister]

brawd houdini - thank you and yes, this helps me greatly.  I have a question for you - on Margaret's death record in 1833 it states she was from Pen y gwaith.  I was assuming that it  meant that was the last place she lived.  Could it mean that it was where she was born?

I thank you again and everyone else for the help!!