People are regularly directed to the National Library’s enquiries service because they have been told we hold “all the records” for a particular organisation, or of a certain type. But whilst the National Library of Wales does hold a vast amount of manuscript and archival material, well over 4 million items, it is very often the case that records of one kind or another have actually not been deposited with us. There can be a variety of reasons for this – for example many parish registers that were deposited with ourselves, or with the local county records offices in Wales, only date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This is because the early material has simply not survived the ravages of time, having been misplaced or even lost due to fire. Whilst sometimes Bishops’ Transcripts that are held at the Library, amongst the various Welsh Diocesan archives, can occasionally compensate for this loss, sadly in many cases the information in these now lost registers has gone for ever. Information on the surviving Welsh church records may be found in the published volume Parish Registers of Wales. Chapel records too are another case in point, where often the deposited records are of a largely financial nature, such as those relating to contributions towards the ministry.
Frequently it is difficult to know what has become of the registers for a particular chapel, especially where the chapel in question has closed, and in these instances the records may, in fact, remain in private hands with a member of the former congregation. Public Records are an instance where the National Library, even though in effect functioning as a national archive, also holds only a small proportion of the material relating to Wales, with the majority of such records still being held at the United Kingdom’s National Archives in London. However records of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales is one important exception to this, and the National Library of Wales has a valuable searchable database for the Court’s gaol files from 1730 until its abolition in 1830 – accessible under the heading “Crime and Punishment” on our website.
Martin Robson Riley, Senior Enquiries Assistant