I'm trying to digest and document the genealogical data I gathered during my recent visit to the NEHGS Library in Boston. There's much too much to handle all at once—and too many other duties calling—but I am focussing at the moment on getting into publishable form some significant progress I made on one of Porter's lines.
This line includes the first set of Welsh ancestors I've found for Porter. He's happy with them, even though he worries that Wales is uncomfortably close to Ireland. He's afraid I'll eventually find Irish ancestors in his tree—not that he has anything in particular against Ireland, but because he will no longer be able to blame my quirks on my Irish blood. :)
These Welsh ancestors are making my head spin. I have Welsh lines, too, but haven't yet tried to carry them back beyond the immigrants. This line of Porter's goes much further into the past, well into the time—which actually isn't all that far back—when Welsh names followed a patronymic system rather than having fixed family surnames. So I am struggling with names like Gruffyd ap Einion of Gwyddelwern ap Gruffyd ap Llewellyn ap Cynrig ap Osbern Wyddel of Cora y Gedol. Granted, one gets a lot of genealogy worked into a name that way, but entering it into standard genealogy software is a bit of a challenge.
I think I'll go clean the house.
