Place:Cemais Rural, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Watchers
NameCemais Rural
TypeRural district
Located inPembrokeshire, Wales     (1934 - 1974)
See alsoLlanfyrnach Rural, Pembrokeshire, Walesrural district from which it was formed in 1934
St. Dogmells Rural, Pembrokeshire, Walesrural district from which it was formed in 1934
Cemais Rural District was a rural district in the northeast corner of the administrative county of Pembrokeshire, Wales from 1934 to 1974. It replaced the smaller rural districts of Llanfyrnach and St. Dogmells Rural which had both existed since 1894.

There are no urban districts within the area but Fishguard and Goodwick is marked (in orange) just to give a general idea of the location. The parish of Nevern (18) is much larger than the others and extends into the space between Bayvil (1) and Eglwyswrw (8).

Image:CemaisRD 1934-1974.png

Parishes

Map NumberParish NameType of ParishDurationNotes
1 Bayvil Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
2 Bridell Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
3 Capel Colman Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
4 Castellan Chapelry, Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
5 Cilgerran Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
6 Clydaï Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
7 Dinas Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
8 Eglwyswrw Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
9 Llanfair Nant Gwyn Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
10 Llanfihangel Penbedw Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
11 Llanfyrnach Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
12 Llantwyd Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
13 Llanychlwydog Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
14 Maenordeifi Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
15 Meline Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
16 Monington Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
17 Moylgrove Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
18 Nevern Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
19 Newport Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
20 Penrhydd Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
21 St. Dogmaels Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District
22 West Cilrhedyn Civil parish 1934-1974 from Llanfyrnach Rural District
23 Whitechurch Parish (ancient), Civil parish 1934-1974 from St. Dogmells Rural District

Research Tips

  • A 1900 Ordnance Survey map of the historic county of Pembrokeshire 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. On the Cemais Rural District page there is a sketchmap indicating the civil parishes of Cemais Rural District as of 1935. Cemais was a rural district formed in 1934 from the earlier Llanfyrnach and St. Dogmells Rural Districts.
  • GENUKI has a page on each of the old counties of Wales and, under these counties, pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes within the county. Information is gathered under a number of headings and the amount of information varies from parish to parish. Parish descriptions are based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and thus the emphasis is on ecclesiastical parishes. (Civil parishes were not yet established.) The submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
  • The GENUKI Pembrokeshire pages include, under Description and Travel close to the bottom of the page, a link "parish map" to a map website showing boundaries and settlements before 1850. On the linked page will be maps of several parishes located close to each other.
  • GENUKI also provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area, but there is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date for every county.
  • FreeBMD provides a link to a list of the civil registration districts for each Welsh county from 1837 to 1996. Civil registration districts changed with varying densities of population and improvements in communication. Most counties and unitary authorities now have only one district. The list helps with providing names for the registration districts listed in the FreeBMD index and also as a guide for where to look for census entries.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI and these have been prepared at a later date. The Wiki may look like Wikipedia but the information has been provided for family historians. There are tables of links between the parishes in the historic counties of Wales and their post-1996 counterparts. This is the only genealogical website found that provides this information universally; others are not as thorough.
  • Some words in Welsh come up time and time again and you may want to know what they mean or how to pronounce them. For example,
    "Eglwys" is a church and the prefix "Llan" is a parish.
    "w" and "y" are used as vowels in Welsh.
    "Ll" is pronounced either "cl" or "hl" or somewhere in between. "dd" sounds like "th".
    The single letter "Y" is "the" and "Yn" means "in".
    "uwch" means "above"; "isod" is "below" or "under";
    "gwch" is "great", "ychydig" is "little";
    "cwm" is a "valley".
In both Welsh and English all these words are commonly used in place names in the UK. Place names are often hyphenated, or two words are combined into one. Entering your problem phrase into Google Search, including the term "meaning in Welsh", will lead you to Google's quick translation guide. I'm no authority; these are just things I have picked up while building up this gazetteer for WeRelate.