Welsh Journals

MAPS. Plan of Llanishen parish, c. 1800. PICTORIAL. Photographs of Cardiff Corporation Fire Boat, c. 1897. Ecclesiastical parish records have dominated accessions received during the past year. 500 parish registers have been deposited, and more await collection. The preparation of facsimile copies for presentation to the parishes is proceeding. Work has begun on transcribing and indexing parish registers in order to speed searches and to open up sources for demographic research. The transcription of the nineteenth-century burial register for Dowlais is complete, its indexing will follow. The Glamorgan Archive Service has received copies of, or has been allowed to copy, several transcriptions prepared by local historians. We would be glad to hear from anyone who has already made transcriptions or indexes, so that effort is not duplicated. In addition to parish registers, some local historians have copied bishop's transcripts (from the National Library of Wales), or made surveys of graveyards to churches and chapels. At least one Local History Society and one local parish community have started to survey their church and churchyard memorials tombstones often add additional information not recorded in registers. The Archive Service would be glad to hear from anyone planning such work, especially if a parish contemplates the landscaping of a churchyard and the re-siting of stones, many of which could be destroyed or damaged in the upheaval. JCP staff who worked for the past year on the collection of archives now coming into our care from the former Cardiff City Library successfully listed over 9,000 items. The re-association of these documents into their original collections continues. Work is at present in progress upon the important Bute collection, which contains both title deeds and correspondence on official, estate and family subjects. The industrial survey undertaken with JCP staff has ended. Almost a thousand firms now know of the Record Office's concern for the preservation of documents, and the services it offers.