Genealogy Place Names - D

“D” is for . . .

A word about Wikipedia (it is free and needs our support – please donate any time and especially when they are having a fund raiser!) – these alphabetical reports to my family on the locations of our ancestors are best described in words, maps, and pictures using this great resource. These alphabetical reports are a bit skeletal and need to be fleshed out by following the links provided.  I am learning a lot about the lands of our forefather and mothers and how their lives may have been shaped by these distinctive places.

Dacre, Cumberland, England (this small village is now in the Lake District National Park)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacre,_Cumbria  Open this link to see a very interesting history of Dacre.
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5066  This link let’s you easily see where Dacre is located. 

The ancestor:  Sir Randolph de Dacre  1240-1286 – this is my 20^th great grandfather and when the line reaches America it is one of our strong, Quaker lines. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dacre-17   This link shows that our ancestor, Sir Randolph, was the Sheriff of Cumberland and York.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacre_Castle

Photo Dacre Castle by Jim Barton, Wikipedia

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“D” is for . . .

Dyfed, Wales

Ancestor:  Gwenllian verch Gwyn 977-1069

ancestry.com tree said she was born in Dyvet and I see her father is Lord Dyvet. I could not find a mention of “Dyvet” online when looking for that location. Aha! I found it with the spelling “Dyfed” This is the place!

She is my 26^th great grandmother and this is our first look at Wales.  If you look at her husband’s family you will see the early Tewdwr (or Tudor) that eventually produces the kings and queens of England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caernarfonshire  Here is a link to the county in Wales. This county wasn’t created until the 1200s but it shows a map and location.  The place names would have been there in the 900s. It says she was born in Llechwed Ucha, Dyfed, Caernarvonshire, Wales. Each county is divided into ‘hundreds’ (or 100 acres). Llechwed Ucha would be one of these Hundreds, Dyfed is the village (or castle with village).

This line goes back one more generation to her father, Gwyn ap Rhytherich, Lord of Dyvet (Dyfed). In the Welch naming tradition ‘ap Rhytherch’ would mean that he is the son of Rhytherch.  His daughter’s name is “Gwenllian verch”  the word verch indicates 'daughter'. This line, like the de Dacre family, comes down through our Quakers and to my father.

Looking in the history of ‘Dyfed’ this is an interesting article of the  ‘whoa variety’ of historical (or fictional) tales about Irish settling in this region of Wales.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9isi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Dyfed  This article talks of Viking invasion at the time our ancestors were living there.  In the article you’ll see a lot of difficult names – Welch is a very different language. The article mentions Cadell ap Rhodri. He is my 29^th GG.  But, whereas, Gwyn and Gwenllian and Randolph are from my father’s family. Cadell and his kin are from my mother’s family. It happens that their families are in the same areas over and over – no wonder they were attracted to each other and married.  

Post-Roman Welsh petty kingdoms. Dyfed is the promontory on the southwestern coast. The modern Anglo-Welsh border is also shown.

Looking Back, Looking Forward, and the stats

The original plan was to do 18 counties in 18 days – that was overly ambitious and for me a little unrealistic.  I did start in August and ended in September and in that time researched and grew to love 19 of Ohio’s 88 counties. They all have their own peculiar character – all of them representative of Ohio – and yet so different.  Different like siblings or cousins.  If you have more than one child or grandchild you know what it is like to marvel over how related and how different they are.  That is the feeling I have for the 19 counties where my families settled.  

These sibling counties (those split off from each other) and these cousin counties (formed in the same pioneering spirit) are like the children of a family.  

I don’t want to diminish the importance of the remaining 69 counties of Ohio. They are simply not the brothers, sisters, and cousins of my families – but they may be yours.  I encourage my readers to research the history of any of those places and I’m sure they’ll find, as I have, many things of value and of interest to celebrate.  Thanks to all those hard working people in ‘my counties’ who take the time to tell their story on-line – whether it be genealogists, government workers, or volunteers—they all love their home and are most generous in sharing.

I have to put in a plug for Google. When I first started blogging in September 2009 [http://sandyhikes.blogspot.com/] I chose Google’s Blogger for my site. It was clean, simple, easy and attractive. Since then it has gotten a little more sophisticated, but not complicated. It has gotten better and is still clean and easy – free and ad free if I wish it to be.  It is also linked to other Google services like Picasa for my photos.  One day I may learn to use all the other Google services – but at the moment I’m happy and grateful for this outlet where I can express myself and share information. 

There are certain websites that are so useful that I use them over and over.  I’ve done a post on Find A Grave. com and I owe one to Wikipedia.com.

Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki

My blog would be diminished and much more difficult to do if the wiki information wasn’t out there.  Thank you, thank you!  Sprinkled throughout my blog posts you will see wiki links and photos.  I am grateful for the wonderful, free clipart available through mircosoft.com.  I agree with one reviewer who mentioned that her estimation of Microsoft raised several notches when she found their generous sharing of free clipart. 

Google Blogger – thanks for the stats! Part of Google’s blog service is to track how often your blog  is accessed, which posts are read, and where your readers are from. I love this and check often. As of this evening for Aquila’s Orchard Blog I have 41 published posts and they have been accessed 3,502 times. That is amazing and I’m thrilled. Google has graphs showing which days the blog has been accessed. They let me know which posts have been popular that day.  This can be displayed for the day, week, month, or total time. For this week the post on Hamilton County has the most views. That isn’t too hard to understand as Hamilton contains the very large city of Cincinnati. But right next to it in popularity is Knox, a rural country that not only is second in the number of hits but has the most comments. 

One thing that I love about the Google stats is that it has a world map and that shows where your readers are in varying shade of green.  In the world?!  Yes, this is a global site and I have international readers. How cool is that!! I wonder if they are expats, non-English speakers practicing their English, or just interested in things American?  What countries are represented? My second largest audience, by far, is in Russia. The list continues with Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom, Malaysia, France, Norway, Canada, Ireland, China, Indonesia, and Poland.  This is. . .well. . .cool.  Those countries that had one view drop off the list. . . but I find them interesting, too.  Who is that one person in an entire country that read my blog? It’s sort of like having a zillion international pen pals but with only one-way communication. I wish they’d use the comment box and let me know who they are! 

Thanks readers ~ спасибо spasibo, danke, gamsahabnida 감사합니다, Cheers, terima kasih, merci, Tusen takk, Go raibh maith agat, Xièxiè 谢谢, dziękuję !!

 Time to work on that book!

Photos & Clipart:  Wikipedia; Microsoft Clipart, Google Blogger