Welsh Journals

COFRESTRI ANGHYDFFURFIOL CYMRU/NONCONFORMIST REGISTERS OF WALES. Edited by Dafydd Ifans. National Library of Wales and Welsh Country Archivists' Group, Aberystwyth, 1994. Pp. 195. £ 14.50. The editor will forgive me for saying that this book is not what most people would consider to be ideal bedtime reading, nor is it the sort of book that is avidly devoured from cover to cover! What it is, however, is a convenient, labour-saving and practical work of reference for researchers into both religious and local history. It is a sister volume to the National Library's previous publication, Cofrestri Plwyf CymrulParish Registers of Wales, which appeared in 1986. As someone who has had almost constant recourse to that invaluable volume, I was prepared to welcome this new addition with open arms. It must be said that the staff of the National Library have once again produced a clear and concise list which will prove to be a most useful aid to research. The editor, Dafydd Ifans, and his colleagues must be praised for their care and diligence in preparing the work. The earliest surviving nonconformist register is that of the Baptists of Ilston in Gower, which dates from the year 1649. Dissenting causes gained ground gradually in Wales from that time onwards, but their records were kept in a sporadic and haphazard way. There were, of course, fundamental differences between the records of the nonconformist denominations and those of the Established Church. The registers of the latter were supposed to be maintained in a uniform fashion, and were concerned with a clearly defined geographical area. Nonconformist causes drew on what were frequently very wide catchment areas and their members often lived at a considerable distance from the meeting place. In addition, there was no set pattern for their registers. Not only did information recorded vary greatly between the different denominations, there were also glaring inconsist- encies in the practice adopted by various churches within the same denomination. These were some of the difficulties facing those who set about preparing the database which formed the basis of this volume. That the finished article presents such a coherent list is testimony to their painstaking efforts. The volume notes which records have survived for each church and over what period. As in the Parish Registers of Wales, the entries are listed alphabetically under the old Welsh counties. All the major denominations are included, along with their more exotic offshoots, such as the Moravians and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. The previous volume included very useful maps of each county with the locations of each parish. A similar provision would have been most welcome for the nonconformist registers, but might well have been more problematic to produce. It would