Parish Pages - Llanelly / Llanelli - Siloam Chapel
NOTE: If you are visiting this section for the first time, please review the background to the chapel records before looking at the
transcribed records. This will provide you with a better understanding of the records and enable you to get maximum information from them.
Siloam Independent Chapel was situated in the Clydach Gorge between Brynmawr and Gilwern; an area originally in Breconshire, but now in Monmouthshire. The scenic Clydach valley was the site of early iron smelting in the late seventeenth century as all the raw materials needed were close together and easily obtainable. Greater development came after the founding of Clydach ironworks in the 1790s and by 1841, 1,350 were employed there in different activities concerned in iron production. The 1851 census shows us that people living around the chapel came from every county in Wales and as far away as Staffordshire and Ireland. The growth in population was such that three chapels were founded in the industrial area of Llanelly parish in 1828 and 1829 and two more were built before 1838.
Siloam was one of the chapels founded in 1829. It has now been demolished but it was in Clydach village, (originally known as Cheltenham). The chapel was right next to an industrial tramway; many chapel members would have had to cross the tracks to get to the chapel. [See John Ball's website for photo of Siloam Chapel]
Chapel Registers
The BLFHS Transcription Group worked from digitised images of the register dating from the establishment of the chapel to the surrender of extant chapel registers before civil registration began in 1837. The chapel community were able to pay for a permanent minister from the start and the register seem to have been consistently kept without signs of copying up. The register was in good condition when scanned and there is no illegibility caused by fading or damage. However the spelling of names is sometimes unusual and occasionally a letter could not be deciphered.
Our Transcriptions
The register has been transcribed as seen except that:
- Surnames have been put in capitals to help searching.
- Dates have been standardised to a simple form and are always at the beginning of an entry.
- Pertinent information has been extracted and information such as the repeated ‘County of Brecknock’ after every mention of Llanelly has not ben transcribed.
- Abbreviated names have always been expanded e.g. W[illia]m and Ben[jami]n.
Spelling errors or variants of place-names, e.g. Keelhawey and Merthir, have been retained.
Abbreviated names have always been expanded e.g. W[illia]m and Eliz[abe]th
Spreadsheets
- In recording the baptism of a child with unmarried parents the surnames of both parents are given in the child’s surname column.
- An extra Notes column has been added to the spreadsheet for extra information provided by the minister, or to give an explanation for the user.
- The penultimate column of the spreadsheet is the page number of the register.
- The final spreadsheet column (shaded pink) gives the identification number of the scanned image from which our transcribers worked.
Transcribers' Marks
- Anything enclosed in square brackets has been added by a transcriber.
- [?] indicates that part of a word or number (more than two letters or digits) was illegible.
- [] indicates that one letter or numeral could not be deciphered.
- A word or number enclosed in square brackets means that it is obvious from the context.
- A word or number in square brackets with a question mark indicates an educated guess.
- [n/e] indicates that the original document has no entry in that column.
View the Transcription
Follow the TRANSCRIPTIONS link on the right to view and/or download the transcription as a PDF document and/or as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The PDF version can be printed on four sheets of A4 paper (landscape), although the text will be quite small.
CAUTION – It is always advisable to verify transcribed data by studying either the original documents, or facsimile images of the original documents.