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Montgomeryshire

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"The County of MONTGOMERY is 94 Miles in Circumference, contains about 500000 Acres, is divided into 7 Hundreds, in which are 6 Market Towns, and only Montgomery sends a Member to Parliament, which is the County Town, 47 Parishes and about 5660 Houses. The air is sharp and cold by reason of its high situation, the Valleys are very fertile, breeding very good Horses and plenty of Goats. The soil is stony, mountainous and rocky, intermixed with pleasant Bottoms. Its chief Commodities are Flesh, Fish, Fowl and all manner of Grain for the use of Man &c." [Emanuel Bowen, Britannia Depicta, 1720]

"MONTGOMERYSHIRE, an inland county of North Wales, bounded on the N. by Denbighshire, on the S. by Radnorshire, on the E. by Shropshire, and on the W. by Merionethshire. It is in the form of an irregular parallelogram, being 37 miles in its greatest length, and 29 miles in its greatest breadth. It has a circuit of 135 miles, and an area of about 840 square miles, or 483,323 statute acres, of which nearly one-half is waste or common, and the remainder pasture and arable. It is divided into nine hundreds, viz: Llanfyllin, Mathrafell, Deythur, Welshpool, Cawrse, Machynlleth, Montgomery, Llanidloes, and Newtown, which are again divided into 48 parishes, besides parts of some others... More" [Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

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Archives & Libraries

Powys Archives
Provide a series of  Local Studies Notes with Sources for Family History and a  Guide to Holdings

The National Library of Wales. Aberystwyth. The major repository of information relevant to Welsh genealogy, such as Bishop's Transcripts of Parish Registers, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, Nonconformist Records, Probate Records, Tithe Maps and Apportionment Schedules, Legal and Administrative Records, Estate Records and Personal Papers, Pedigree Books, Newspapers, etc.

Newtown Area Library
Park Lane
Newtown
Powys
SY16 1EJ
Telephone: +44 (0) 1686 626934
The library hold copies of Montgomeryshire Census Returns 1841 to 1901.

Hereford Archive Services

Shropshire Archives (details of )

Powys Museum

The National Archives has details of many archive repositories in the UK with links to their web sites, if any.

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Bibliography

A Montgomeryshire Bibliography - Books of General Interest for Family Historians

Search library catalogue  at Powys Archives

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Cemeteries

MIs held at Powys Archives - Montgomeryshire

Graveyard Welsh - a guide to interpreting Memorial Inscriptions

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Census

Newtown Area Library have copies of 1841 - 1901 census returns for all of Montgomeryshire, as have Powys Archives

The UK BMD web site provides 2556 links to websites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses. A wide range of other indexes and transcriptions are also available for most counties, these may include parish records

Carry out initial searches on all censuses 1841-1911  on  LDS Family Search  - using basic data supplied by Find My Past (subscription site) and all follow up searches are directed there

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Church History

Church Plans Online - the Lambeth Palace Library holds a database of the Incorporated Church Building Society's images of the plans of various churches (use the onsite search facility)

Welsh Chapels & Churches  

Montgomeryshire Churches Survey  on the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust site

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Church Records

Detailed information on deposited registers and transcripts is given on the Powys Archives page Montgomeryshire Parish Registers

See here for a breakdown of Montgomeryshire hundreds into parishes

National Library of Wales An online searchable index of Marriage Bonds and Allegations. It contains details of some 90,000 marriages by licence which took place in Wales between 1616 and 1837. In early 2016 the NLW made changes in its online catalogue and now the only apparent method of finding these bonds is to search the main catalogue

Listings of (present-day) Clerics, Benefices, and parishes of the Dioceses of St Asaph, Bangor and St David's
Also the Diocese of Hereford and Diocese of Lichfield

Family Search UK/Ireland - Historical Record Collections
IGI Batch Numbers - Hugh Wallis's site and Archer Software's site

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Civil Registration

Brett Langston has provided details of the Registration Districts in Montgomeryshire for the period 1837 to 1930.

The UK BMD web site provides 2556 links to websites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses. A wide range of other indexes and transcriptions are also available for most counties, these may include parish records.

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Court Records

The Act of 1543 established the courts of Great Sessions in Wales, equivalent to the English Assizes, which continued until 1830 when they were abolished. Records for the Great Sessions are held at the National Library of Wales.

Powys Archives hold records pertaining to Radnorshire Quarter Sessions which were established by the same Act although records do not begin until the late seventeenth century. See also their Petty Sessions listing

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Description & Travel

A Vision of Britain Through Time. "This site contains information about your home area from the 2001 census -- and from every earlier British census back to 1801. It can present this information both as maps of the whole country and as graphs showing change over time in your area. It truly offers a Vision of Britain through time"

Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516. The Gazetteer compiled by Dr Samantha Letters is a catalogue of markets and fairs in medieval England and Wales. This is the first comprehensive national survey.

Photographs of Mid-Wales  on Simon Evans Photography

Powys County Council

A Castle Wales site - Montgomeryshire Mottes

Montgomeryshire - on wikipedia

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Directories

Here is a listing of trade directories held at Powys Archives

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Gazetteers

The section of The National Gazetteer (1868) relating to Montgomeryshire - transcribed by Colin Hinson.

Tallis's Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales, published in 1860 in six vols, editor E. L. Blanchard.  
See Welsh Family History Archive for all the excellent county maps (showing the hundreds) and the alphabetical gazetteer 
From the preface;
"In the following pages will be found fully described the past history and present aspect of every place of any significance in England and Wales, forming a work of permanent importance to the commercial world, of ready service to the tourist of the day, and of constant interest to the general reader, who may derive from this source a large supply of entertainment, as well as of information for the amusement and instruction of a leisure hour."

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Genealogy

John Ball's Welsh Family History Archive provides some very useful material and links for those with Welsh ancestry.

Timeline of genealogically interesting dates by Gareth Hicks

Here are details of the Genealogy Mailing Lists serving the Welsh counties

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Maps

Map of Montgomeryshire in 1833  - Copied from the original in "A Topographical Dictionary of Wales" by Samuel Lewis 1833

Montgomeryshire Old Maps

Welsh county maps on UK Genealogy Archives

Details of various maps available at Powys Archives

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Military History

People's Collection Wales site - Montgomeryshire Militia

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Newspapers

Local newspapers in Powys - listing at Powys Archives

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Occupations

Victorian Professional Photographers in Wales 1850-1925 - a county based database compiled by Mari Alderman, includes sources and a bibliography

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Periodicals

Montgomeryshire Collections is the journal of the The Powysland Club . Collections Historical & Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire, latterly Montgomeryshire collections, is an annual English-language journal containing scholarly articles on archaeological and historical topics, book reviews, and society notes. For digitisation, the publication has been split into three sequences: Vol 1. (1868)-Vol. 31 (1900) (entitled Collections Historical & Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire); Vol. 32 (1902)-Vol. 47 (1942) (entitled Collections historical & archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders); and Vol. 48 (1944)-present (entitled Montgomeryshire collections : relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders). On Welsh Journals Online

On Welsh Journals Online. Collections Historical & Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire, latterly Montgomeryshire collections, is an annual English-language journal containing scholarly articles on archaeological and historical topics, book reviews, and society notes.

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Poor Houses, Poor Law

The Workhouse  - on Peter Higginbotham's site

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Public Records

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

  • Montgomeryshire County Court Records 1817-1824  
  • Montgomeryshire Hospital and Health Authority Records  1844-1974   
  • Montgomeryshire  Lord Lieutenancy, records  1798-1985
  • Montgomeryshire Petty Sessions, records   1835-1999 (mainly 1878-1999)  
  • Montgomeryshire Highway Boards, records  1874-1895  
  • Montgomeryshire records collected by Newtown Library       "Papers relating to Montgomeryshire, 1583-1976, accumulated by Newtown Library, including deeds relating to the Rhyd-y-gro estate, in Llanerfyl and Llanfair Caereinion, Montgomeryshire, 1723-1856, and papers relating to the sale of the estate, 1920; deeds relating to Darowen, Kerry, Llandysilio, Llangadfan, Llanwyddelan, Llanfair Caereinion, Llandinam and Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, 1603-1897; papers relating to Newtown waterworks, 1865-1899; papers relating to Welshpool Reading Society, 1820-1877; papers of J. B. Willans, including notes relating to Montgomeryshire and extracts from Foster's Alumni Cantabrigenses and Alumni Oxoniensis, [20th century]; papers of A. Stanley Davies, 1809-1969, relating mostly to early banking in mid-Wales; papers of Mrs A. J. Bailey-Williams relating to Llanymynech, [20th century]; papers relating to Powys Eisteddfod, 1952; miscellaneous manuscripts, [c.1870]-1894; copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 1583; map of Montgomeryshire farms, 1788; and notes and photographs relating to Newtown Exhibition, 1976"
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Schools

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

  • Montgomeryshire Primary School Records 1861-1997  
  • Montgomeryshire School Boards, minutes  1871-1903  
  • Montgomeryshire Secondary Schools, records  1890-1989

The Blue Books of 1847.  An inquiry into the state of education in Wales - on the NLW's Digital Mirror site

Day Schools in Montgomeryshire in 1847. This database consists of day schools which existed in 1847 included here within an alphabetical list of parishes 
It contains the names and types of day schools listed in the Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales published in 1847

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Societies

  • Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society was founded in 1994 to provide a forum for people with family history interests in the historical county of Montgomeryshire and its borders. It publishes its journal, Record, three times a year
  • The Powys Family History Society was established in 1980 by a number of enthusiasts interested in tracing their ancestors in the historic counties of Breconshire, Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire. It publishes its journal, Cronicl Powys, three times a year. 
  • The Powysland Club was founded in 1867 and is the senior county historical society in Wales. Among the Club's achievements are the publication of ninety volumes of its journal the Montgomeryshire Collections, the creation of the first public museum in Wales and the establishment and maintenance of one of the finest private historical libraries in Wales.
    Collections Historical & Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire, latterly Montgomeryshire collections, is an annual English-language journal containing scholarly articles on archaeological and historical topics, book reviews, and society notes. On Welsh Journals Online