Happy St. David's Day to fellow Welsh DUers

[Siwsan]

Or, in the language of my ancestors, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi!

The first day of March, and my daffodils are already sprouting.

[DonCoquixote]

1. an image for the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Saint_David.svg

[Siwsan]

3. Thanks

It's a good day to be Welsh. But then, EVERY day is a good day to be Welsh.

[REP]

2. Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

I've got a leek and a daffodil going on today.

[xchrom]

4. Indeed! Happy St. David's day! Nt

[BlueToTheBone]

5. I've spent the last week

in 6th century Wales. I found the family crest in some of my mother's papers and have been just drinking in the history and trying to understand whether my family killed the Celts or were the last of the Celts.


As far as I could find, our last/first ancestor was Rhodi Mawr who came from his mother's line. I wish I knew the language. I found a book my great something grandfather wrote to preserve the ancient tales of Wales. It's on layaway. I'll tell more when I find out what's in it.

[frogmarch]

6. Awesome!

Yes, please post more about the book when you can.

[Siwsan]

7. Very interesting

I spent a great deal of time in modern day Wales. Wonderful country - amazing people. The language is pretty difficult to learn but I am picking up phrases when ever I can.

A cousin did our family history, years ago. Unfortunately, he's now dead and I have no idea what he did with the information. I'm going to re-trace it. All I know is the family went from Welsh royalty (ok, most people of Welsh ancestry have some royal somewhere in their family tree) to circus performers, after they arrived in the states.

My father described the family crest as a cross with three ravens.

I'd LOVE to get the information on that book!

[BlueToTheBone]

9. Do you mean you would like to

know the title? or the info in the book?

I won't have the money to outright buy the book for awhile, we'll both have to wait until the final payment.

[csziggy]

8. I'm jealous - I wish I could trace my Welsh ancestors back before 1800.

The father of my Welsh great grandfather apparently wasn't Welsh, he was born in London! His wife was Mary Morgan. Trying to find out which Mary Morgan' parents are the ones belonging to OUR Mary has been impossible.

You'd think tracing a family that lived in Llanfihangel y Creuddin wouldn't be difficult, but it really is!

[BlueToTheBone]

10. That doesn't mean he didn't have

Welsh ancestry. The diaspora seems to have begun in the 16th century and by the 1800's I don't think many Welsh were left as they had been overrun. Also, following the men are easier...most histories say "he married someone"

[csziggy]

12. I know, but so far that's all we have

No parents, just a mention on one of the census that he was born in London City.

I've got to get organized and order their wedding certificate to see if that will have more clues.

My oldest sister visited the village where the lived back in the early 1980s and said the postmistress knew the family and all the genealogy. But my lovely sister, the research physiologist, did not write down anything she was told, the name of the postmistress (though she is likely long gone), or any of the living cousins!

My little sister met a genealogist who offered to help, I emailed all the info I had but have not heard anything back.

Through Ancestry, I've "met" one cousin, but she knew less of the family genealogy than I did.

[BlueToTheBone]

13. It's frustrating, isn't it?

It seems ours was a rather famous family so it gets a bit of attention in the lists. But one thing I think is very interesting is that it appears that the family begins with a female line and ends with my sisters and myself. As a matter of fact, we are the end of 3 family lines. Another thing that I found interesting is that our families began in the same small area of the world. Gwent.

If all is to be believed one brother was a knight at the Round Table (what a massive tree that must have been.) Which in my mind means that my father's side of the family was busy killing off the Goddess culture, even though they came through the linage of Mannau.

Anyway, it certainly has messed with my mind.

[csziggy]

15. That's pretty cool

And isn't it interesting to see how families end up on both sides of conflicts eventually?

I posted in the Genealogy Group about an ancestor who testified against Rebecca Nurse in the Salem Witch Trials. Well, turns out that one of HIS descendants married a woman named Rebecca Nurse, very probably a descendant of the woman who was hanged.

All my life, I've had to deal with the family legacy of Christian fanatics. I come from a long line of Baptist, Quaker, Puritan and other radical religious nuts, something I have had to accept even as I turned away from that heritage.

I no longer have the energy to bother with religion, so these days I simply go with agnostic/atheist.

[DevonRex]

11. Thank you.

And to you, too.

[pinboy3niner]

14. I'm only 1/4 Welsh...

...and my Welsh coal miner grandfather lived in a PA town where, I've been told, most of the headstones in the cemetery bear my Welsh surname.

I've learned a little about my 3/4 Irish side (as a freckle-faced kid I was told, "You have the map of Ireland all over your face." ) , but I know nothing about my Welsh forebears. Still, I can't help feeling a connection to...

Gwalia Deserta XV
by Idris Davies

Oh what can you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney.

Is there hope for the future?
Cry the brown bells of Merthyr.

Who made the mineowner?
Say the black bells of Rhondda.

And who robbed the miner?
Cry the grim bells of Blaina.

They will plunder willy-nilly,
Say the bells of Caerphilly.

They have fangs, they have teeth!
Shout the loud bells of Neath.

To the south things are sullen,
Say the pink bells of Brecon.

Even God is uneasy,
Say the moist bells of Swansea.

Put the vandals in court!
Cry the bells of Newport.

All would be well if-if-if –
Say the green bells of Cardiff.

Why so worried, sisters, why?
Sing the silver bells of Wye.


--From Gwalia Deserta (1938)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells_of_Rhymney

The Bells Of Rhymney - Pete Seeger

The Byrds - The Bells of Rhymney (1965)

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