Dictionary of Welsh Biography (DWB): getting cited, and the free correction route (GATE)

Harvested 2026-10-31. Status: GATE / low-yield for sales, useful for credibility and the book search. Contact is owner-GO only, as a draft.

What the DWB is (read today)

• About 5,000 short biographies in Welsh and English, each "fully researched and written by a named specialist author". The National Library of Wales runs the technical side and the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) the editorial side, since 2014. Editor: Emeritus Prof. Dafydd Johnston. (wales.ac.uk page, read)
• The site is frozen. biography.wales states that, "for reasons regarding cyber security", the site "is now static". New articles are published provisionally on the CAWCS site. So any change is slow: expect months, not weeks. (biography.wales home, read)
• It is actively asking for authors: "We need new authors to write articles about individuals who deserve a place in The Dictionary of Welsh Biography". It keeps a public list of articles that need writing. (home page, read)
• The Diversity Project (2023-25) was funded through the Welsh Government's Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan. (CAWCS page, read)

The rules that decide whether we can use it (Guidelines for Authors, read via the Web Archive copy of 14 Jun 2026; the live library.wales page shows a bot check)

• Who gets an article: people whose "importance to the life of Wales" can be shown. Articles must be "honest assessments ... recognising weaknesses and failures as well as achievements", "fully researched and the facts substantiated as far as possible", and the author's original work.
• Every article ends with Sources: "obituaries, biographies and authoritative treatments ... collections of archives and papers". This is the only place a heritage book gets cited. The DWB does not link to shops and does not list a subject's own books.
• Contributors license articles under Creative Commons Attribution.
• After publication: "If any significant new information or bibliographical references become available ... please let the Editor of DWB know".

The free routes (FAQ, read via the Web Archive copy of 10 Oct 2026)

1. Corrections and additions: "Please contact us to let us know about corrections, additions or errors." This goes through the NLW contact page (library.wales). Corrected articles show a "Corrections" button, and substantially revised ones keep an "Archived article" beside them.
2. Nominate a subject: first check the list of articles that need to be created, then contact them.
3. Suggest an author (for yourself or someone else) by the same route.
4. Cite button: every article has an official citation you can copy. Use it when Cedwyn pages quote the DWB.

No numbers on traffic

I found no case study showing that a DWB source line sends readers or sales. The value is credibility (a national reference work lists the record) and AI and search engines trusting a source cited by a standard reference. Treat it as authority, not traffic.

Do / don't

• DO send only a correction backed by a primary record (catalogue reference, date, repository), in the same neutral register the DWB uses. One item per message.
• DO ask for the record to be added to Sources, not the e-book. If the e-book is the only place the record is transcribed, offer the e-book as a bibliographical reference with the archive reference first.
• DON'T pitch, link a shop, or ask for a "mention". The guidelines rule out panegyric, and editors will drop promotional mail.
• DON'T nominate anyone who has no case for "importance to the life of Wales". A farming family at Great House will not pass that test, and trying spends our credibility.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

1. Use the DWB on our own pages now (no contact needed). Where Cedwyn mentions the Bute marquesses, the Windsor/Herbert line or Cardiff Castle, quote the DWB line verbatim with its official citation as a source line, in text and without an outbound link (house rule). The DWB article "BUTE, marquesses of Bute, Cardiff Castle, etc." (biography.wales, read) traces the Glamorgan estates from the Herberts to Viscount Windsor to Charlotte Jane and Lord Mountstuart (married 1766). It is a neutral, authoritative context line for the Vaughan > Bute chronology pages.
2. Correction route, only on owner GO. If the evidence catalogue holds a primary record that corrects or adds a dated fact to an existing DWB article (e.g. a Bute-estate transaction touching Leckwith/Cogan), draft ONE neutral correction as a HubSpot task for the project lead to review: the article title, the sentence, the record (repository + reference + date), a suggested wording, and one bibliographical line. Never send it ourselves.
3. No new-article bid. No Cedwyn subject meets the "importance to the life of Wales" test on current evidence; revisit only if a record links the Williams family to public office or a nationally significant role.
4. Kill test: if no correction is accepted within 6 months of any submission, stop. The DWB is a credibility route, not a growth channel.

Sources

• biography.wales (read 2026-10-31: static site notice, call for authors)
• wales.ac.uk (read: ~5,000 articles, NLW + CAWCS since 2014, editors, Diversity Project 2023-25)
• web.archive.org (read: article standards, Sources section, CC-BY, updates to the Editor)
• web.archive.org (read: corrections/nominations via contact, Corrections button, Cite button)
• biography.wales (read: Herbert > Windsor > Bute descent of the Glamorgan estates)
• biography.wales (search preview only: rector of Llandough near Cardiff)

Raw Markdown: dictionary-welsh-biography-citation-correction-route-gate.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json