A Journey Through Wales Revisited

The record of a fellow touring through Wales during the year 1188 AD has a number of things to offer to the genealogist.  Understanding what this world was like during the Crusade period [3rd Crusade] is why this book is revisited here.

Born around 1145 AD, Gerald of Wales became part of the religious establishment of the day.  From his Benedictine Abbey background, he became a avid writer publishing some 17 books.  His Pembrokeshire birth and upbringing gave him a particular interest in his maternal Welsh heritage. [His father's side was Norman.]  He recorded his journey through Wales with Archbishop Baldwin during the year 1188 AD.  They were trying to drum up business for this 3rd crusade, and preached at the major Cathedrals. [Llandaff, St. David's, Bangor, and St. Asaph] which resulted in some 3,000 men of military age coming out of these hills. 

Gerald of Wales considered himself a historian, and tried to present the Welsh culture as he saw both the good and the bad.  For my own JONES surname tree climbing, it presented the local environment around St. Asaph where my own family was deeply involved.  

Those of Welsh descent will appreciate this cultural travel guide.  I have presented this reference in a previous post of  February 15, 2013, but feel it fits better into this chronology of the Crusade years.  The copy shown is published by Penguin Books, 1978 and reissued in 2004.

Gerald of Wales

Keeping a record of your travels can be fun.   This place, and that place...what I liked, and what I didn't like.  The food, the people, and the scenery are often included.  My impressions written down are a must.  A travel-diary through Wales written in 1188 AD by a priest [usually the only ones who could write at this time], is one of a kind.  Such are the accounts titled "The Journey through Wales" and "The Description of Wales".  Written by Giraldus Cambrensis [Gerald of Wales] during a preaching-tour of Archbishop Baldwin trying to gain support in Wales for the Third Crusade.  It provides a first hand account of the country called Wales during this historic period.  Lewis Thorpe translates [it was first written in Latin] and Penguin Books publishes the texts.  The front of the book is shown.

In "The Description of Wales", chapter 17 [p. 251 in the book above] is written the following impression.  As a genealogist, this has given me a deeper understanding of Welsh genealogy and my family tree.

                             Titled:  "Their respect for noble birth and ancient genealogy."

"The Welsh value distinguished birth and noble descent more than anything else in the world.  They would rather marry into a noble family than into a rich one.  Even the common people know their family-tree by heart and can readily recite from memory the list of their grandfather, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers, back to the sixth or seventh generation, as I did earlier on for the Welsh princes: Rhys son of Gruffydd, Gruffydd son of Rhys, Rhys son of Tewdwr, and so on."

What a story, and what an account of Wales it is for the genealogist who needs to time travel to 1188 AD.