Thursday 24 May 2007

"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.


Pictured to the right, Salvation Army Cadet Wilma Jean Poorman, the 'Heralds' class.

As the third day of January snow silently fell on the grey steel mill stacks in the valley below our wood-frame house in Youngstown, Ohio, out of my bedside transistor radio roared the rock band, Three Dog Night singing, ‘Joy to the World, All the boys and girls!’

It was 1971. I was a pimply and awkward adolescent with a high IQ and thick, industrial-strength geek glasses. Can you say ‘bully-target?’

My mother, the stern, under-nourished Salvation Army Officer, showed up at PTA meetings in a red cape and heels, looking like a character out of Guys and Dolls.

My older brother traded in his uniform and trumpet for leadership of the ghetto gang, the same year I decided it was safer in my family and neighbourhood to stay ‘in the closet’ for a few more years.

My plan was simple: I would wear nothing but hippie ‘Earth Shoes’ and blue jeans and get a macho, racing bike, to prove I was not a piano-playing, slide rule pushing gay-boy freak. I dropped subtle hints to my Mom, who was scrubbing floors by day and going to college by night, when she wasn’t leading prayer meetings.

The wintry day had arrived, my 12th birthday — I was sure I would get my bike. My Mom lead me into the tattered but immaculate, lace-covered living room, where my Welsh Grandma sat, next to the matriarchal sewing machine and family Bibles, to unveil my gift.

What’s this? Not an athletic, pump me up and make me butch bike? There, beside Grandma’s cane sat the Polish neighbour lady, Mrs. Szlowkowsky, sipping my Mom’s strong coffee, while smiling and extending her hand.

My church lady Mom and Mrs. Szlowkowsky waved their pasty white hands, like angels guarding the Biblical Arc of the Covenant, over a large, scratched case with broken brass snaps.

Barely breathing, I popped the snaps and caught a vivid vision of my inevitable years of coming persecution: A refurbished, 12-Bass ‘Festival’ Accordion.

The smell of musty billows and mouldy leather made me choke.

“Mrs. Szlowkowsky has agreed to give you lessons, if you agree to help her clean the choir loft at Saint Stanislaw’s Catholic Church on the corner of our street, once a week,” my mother said.

Mrs. Szlowkowsky smiled and offered me a plate of sliced walnut ‘placek’ (Polish coffee cake).

“It’s a ‘festival’ accordion; you’ll like that!” my Grandma said, as I thought to myself, “Whatever ‘festival’ means . . .”
"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.

“Thank you, Mrs. Szlowkowsky,” I heard myself saying, as I drifted away, not knowing this quirky, portable polka-playing keyboard was about to doom me to an adult life suspended somewhere between John Candy’s Rustbelt humour and Liberace’s Las Vegas tastes.

And since I mentioned ‘Candy’, have I told how I once knew this girl . . .

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

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© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Monday 7 May 2007

Singled-handedly Arizonan Raises Worldwide Welsh Visability


Everyone is talking about how successful Carwyn Edwards has been, raising the visibility of the Welsh worldwide!

Have you read the latest newsletter from Carwyn?

'Latest News from Wales and All over the world!'

From the most recent newsletter, Carwyn refers North American Welsh folks to learn more about the Welsh elections and the Welsh Assembly Government:

Wales election, Thursday 3 May 2007

Carwyn's news article is read by 1000s, and appears in many blogs and portals on the worldwide web, including the Celtic Cafe and All Things Welsh

Celtic Cafe

All Things Welsh

If you are a member of the Welsh Diaspora, Welsh-descended, Welsh Ex-Pat, of Welsh Ancestry, or interested in Welsh and Celtic genealogy, heritage studies and modern Welsh culture in Wales and around the globe, then contact Carwyn to learn more:

Carwyn Edwards carwynedwards993@hotmail.com
1109 E Del Rio Street
Gilbert, Arizona 85296 USA

Welsh League of Arizona

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Are Your Ancestors Welsh?


You are Welsh, your ancestors were Welsh, you are interested in Wales, you live in Wales or you wish you did - whatever your reason, join the community today.

Forum Wales

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Sunday 6 May 2007

Cymdeithas Olrhain Achau Cymry America / Welsh-American Genealogical Society

Cymdeithas Olrhain Achau Cymry America / Welsh-American Genealogical Society

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Teulu Williams Ohio Cymreig o Ddowlais / Ohio Welsh Williams Family of Dowlais

Pictured above: Grace Blanche Poorman (nee Lute), Chauncey Lute, and Grandma Charlotte Williams 'Lottie Lute' (26 August 1886-Sept. 1984).

Our Family History: Grandma Lottie’s Mother: Amelia “Minnie” Peacock-Williams, Born 1860 in Staffordshire, England; Died in Youngstown, Ohio, 1956.

Minnie Peacock married William J. Williams, Sr. an Iron Puddler from Dowlais, Wales (the place where iron-working was invented and booming in the early 1800s, near the industrial center of Merthyr Tydfil, in the mountain valleys north of Cardiff, in the Shire of Glamorgan.)

William J. Williams, Sr.’s Mother, Great-great Grandma Williams, was a monoglot Welsh-speaker, and refused to learn to speak English, even after she was settled in Youngstown. This was no problem in the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, as Mahoning County was home to one of the largest Welsh colonies in North America.

Every kind of daily business could be carried on in the language of Welsh in Youngstown, which even had Welsh language newspapers. Welshmen migrating from Wales in the 1800s found similar work to their jobs in Wales, where a majority of them worked in coal mines or iron foundries, and on small farms.

This Youngstown Welsh community retained their language for a couple generations, with the support of cultural events like Welsh Sunday School Song Fests ‘Gymanfa Ganu’ and a regular music and poetry competitions presented at the Youngstown-regional Eisteddfod, which is an ancient annual festival celebrating the 2,500 year old ‘bardic’ tradition in Wales, going back to the 12th century.

The leaders from the Youngstown Eisteddfod Society (which Grandma Lottie belonged to her entire life), were the founders of what has evolved into the annual North American Festival of Wales). Typical Welsh family surnames are still common in Youngstown, including Williams, Evans, Roberts, Price, etc.

The Williams Family arrived in Youngstown, Ohio, from Wales in 1861, at the beginning of the American Civil War. During the Civil War, immigration into the U.S. was suspended, but Abraham Lincoln made an exception, permitting the Welsh to emigrate into America, because he had heard tales of how the Welsh were gifted are iron-making, which could assist the Union war effort against the rebel Confederate South.

At the time that the Williams Family left the village of Dowlais, industrial migrations were not uncommon. But the South Wales area was experiencing an enormous economic boom at the time, and was second only to America in the number of people immigrating into Wales to find work. So

So William J. Williams, Sr. probably didn’t migrate to Ohio because of economic necessity, since Iron ‘Puddlers’ were in demand worldwide at the time, and they commanded good salaries and ‘foundry supervisor’ positions, wherever they chose to work.

It’s possible that the William J. Williams, Sr. Family was also interested in religious freedom, since they were members of the Dissenters, or Non-Conformists Movement, which was condemned and persecuted with established 'tithes' taxes by the official Church of England.

The Dissenters, or Non-Conformists Movement later evolved into Quaker, Baptist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations. Dowlais was also an area where Welsh Nationalism and independence from English rule had its roots. An uprising of workers in nearby Merthyr Tydfil turned bloody in the 1830s when government troops fired on the crowd and killed many people.

Either way, the William J. Williams, Sr. family decided to move to Ohio, knowing full well they were going into a country in the middle of a bloody Civil War.

But why did they leave the familiar ancestral valleys of South Wales (however troubled by political unrest and violence), at the height of its Industrial Age Boom, and trade it for America? It’s possible that the William J. Williams, Sr. family wanted to leave the political and social turmoil in South Wales, so they migrated to the Mahoning Valley, which resembles the topography of the South Wales Valleys, and which allowed them to enjoy economic, religious, and political freedom.

Grandma Lottie is famous for pointing an index finger in the air, and fiercely exhorting her grandchildren to ‘never forget that you’re a Welshman!’ Did this loyalty to the Welsh homeland trace its roots in the Dowlais and Merthyr Tydfil uprisings and Welsh Nationalism, which was somehow communicated to Grandma Lottie as a family and ethnic pride? It seems plausible, if not likely.

Minnie Peacock’s sister: Ada Weaver of North Lima (had two daughters). Minnie Peacock’s brother: Samuel Peacock (he had a daughter, Mrs. Lily Shale, whose son Donald was father to Dr. Richard Shale, Y.S.U. Film Studies professor, and author of popular book on the history of Idora Park.)

Dr. Richard Shale


Minnie Peacock’s sister Mary Ann (two daughters, Hannah & Sadie). Dr. Rick Shale has researched the Peacock Family in England, and traced our lineage to the Dollinger and Batt Families.

Grandma Lottie, her brothers and parents attended the Welsh Congregation Chapel in downtown Youngstown, now the oldest-standing religious structure within the city limits. An African Episcopal Congregation now preserves the church building, restored after a fire, as their fellowship home.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

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© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Top 40 Welsh Surnames - Find Your Family and Genealogy in Wales


Mike 1024 says, 'I looked some figures up on this a year or two for a school project. These figures are from a study totalling names from the 6 Wales telephone directories.'

Here are the most common 40 surnames:

Jones - 60.57 per thousand
Williams - 37.81 per thousand
Davies - 36.76 per thousand
Evans - 24.66 per thousand
Thomas - 22.97 per thousand
Roberts - 17.14 per thousand
Hughes - 13.38 per thousand
Lewis - 12.96 per thousand
Morgan - 11.7 per thousand
Griffiths - 10.9 per thousand
Edwards - 10.33 per thousand
Owen - 8.85 per thousand
James - 7.66 per thousand
Morris - 7.5 per thousand
Price - 7.5 per thousand
Rees - 7.3 per thousand
Phillips - 6.34 per thousand
Jenkins - 6.23 per thousand
Harris - 5.79 per thousand
Lloyd - 5.64 per thousand
Richards - 5.51 per thousand
Powell - 4.72 per thousand
Parry - 4.49 per thousand
John - 3.65 per thousand
Watkins - 3.39 per thousand
Howells - 3.25 per thousand
Pritchard - 3.14 per thousand
Rogers - 2.71 per thousand
Matthews - 2.37 per thousand
Rowlands - 2.35 per thousand
Humphreys - 2.22 per thousand
Pugh - 2.19 per thousand
Ellis - 2.17 per thousand
Bowen - 2.17 per thousand
Hopkins - 2.14 per thousand
Martin - 1.91 per thousand
Bennett - 1.86 per thousand
Bevan - 1.69 per thousand
Pearse - 1.65 per thousand
Adams - 1.61 per thousand

These top 40 surnames only cover 38% of the welsh population, but this could easily be explained by varying numbers of people per telephone, studies taken from different eras, et cetera. Welsh-American Family Genealogy

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Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

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© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods