Place:Carmarthenshire, Wales

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

:the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Carmarthenshire (Welsh: Sir Gaerfyrddin) is now a unitary authority in the southwest of Wales and is the largest of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre of Carmarthenshire, but the most populous settlement is Llanelli.

Carmarthenshire is mainly an agricultural county, apart from the southeastern part which at one time was heavily industrialised with coal mining, steel-making and tin-plating. In the north of the county the woollen industry was very important in the 18th century. Nowadays the economy of the county depends on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. With the decline in its industrial base and the low profitability of the livestock sector, Carmarthenshire is economically one of the worst-performing regions in the United Kingdom.

Carmarthenshire became an administrative county with a county council taking over functions from the Quarter Sessions under the Local Government Act 1888. This paved the way for the setting up of urban districts and rural districts six years later under the Local Government Act 1894.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county of Carmarthenshire was abolished on 1 April 1974 and the area of Carmarthenshire became three "districts" (district municipalities) within the new county of Dyfed: Carmarthen, Dinefwr and Llanelli.

With the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Dyfed was abolished on 1 April 1996 and Carmarthenshire was re-established as a county (this time described as a Principal Area which was also a unitary authority. The three districts in Dyfed were disbanded. In 2003, the Clynderwen community (or parish) council area was transferred to the neighbouring administrative county of Pembrokeshire.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Carmarthenshire.

Research Tips

• County Site Online
• The National Library of Wales has just uploaded (Feb 2018) a website covering the tithe maps of Wales with accompanying apportionment documents using original and present-day maps. There are over 300,000 entries. Landowners and small villages are included. The presentation looks very good.
• GENUKI
• A 1900 Ordnance Survey map of the historic county of Carmarthenshire is available on the A Vision of Britain through Time website. This shows all the old parishes within their urban and rural districts. Large farms and estates are also marked.