The Welsh Connection Y Cysylltiad Cymreig Journal # 53 ISSN 1171-5596 October 2004 The Welsh Interest Group of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (Inc) Table of Contents DIARY DATES ................................................................................................................................................ 1 CONVENOR RAMBLES ..................................................................................................................................... 2 A.K.A WIG ................................................................................................................................................... 3 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ......................................................................................................................... 4 GONE TO THE BIRDS ....................................................................................................................................... 5 BRICK WALLS A WAY THROUGH ..................................................................................................................... 9 MEMBERS ’ D ETAILS .................................................................................................................................... 10 DONATIONS TO OUR LIBRARY RESOURCES ..................................................................................................... 10 MISCELLANEOUS .......................................................................................................................................... 12 NEW IN TO THE LIBRARY .............................................................................................................................. 13 FROM THE JOURNALS ................................................................................................................................... 15 CHECK OUT THESE WEB SITES ....................................................................................................................... 16 Diary Dates Month Date Day Time Notes November 13 th Saturday 10:30 – 4:30 AGM 1:30pm February 5th Saturday 10:30 – 4:30 Venue to be confirmed March 5th Saturday 10:30 – 3pm Hamilton – venue to be confirmed Venue: Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held at: 26 Stanley Road, Glenfield. Val C Gregory. A donation to the library fund of $2 is appreciated. A young barrister travels with a judge on a Welch Circuit. (source: E.B. A Trip to North Wales – London 1701) 18 th Century English Collections 12 Welch miles = 36 English Miles, for every one of them was a complete Dutch league. The Welsh Interest Group of the NZSG 1 Convenor rambles As we emerge from a winter of extreme weather, the warmer days are fast approaching and spring is in the air, perhaps this is reflected in the feature article. We have had two good meetings at Hamilton, the first in March was specifically for Welsh research and the second in July, a combined Celtic groups research day. The Diary dates for 2005 include another visit to Hamilton. We look forward to meeting up with members from the Waikato and Bay of Plenty region. Saturday March 5th is scheduled to be the Hamilton Welsh day. If there are items from the library which you would like to see, let us know two weeks prior to the 5 th of March 2005. The combined experience of our members is awesome, and for those who have not been able to make it to a meeting in 2004, we do hope to see you at a future meeting in 2005. Everyone has so much to contribute, a new feature in this journal is ‘Brick Walls – a way through’. Identifying the problem and the steps which were followed to come to a successful resolution. If you have found a way through a ‘brick wall’, don’t think that ‘everyone’ else already knows how to go about succeeding when faced with a seemingly insurmountable block, share it with us, then ‘everyone’ will know. The Gale Group listed a world wide web, trial site which gave access to The Times of London 1748 onto late 1900’s, 18 th Century English Collections just two that I spent some considerable time viewing. Some of the larger libraries and universities could possibly have subscribed to these databases, as a member you may have free access. The Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington does have a subscription to The Times of London database. I am not quite sure just what is going to appear in this journal, the past 6 months have been spent webpaging, and I am just plumb webpaged out!!! So when my fingers hit the keyboard to add pages to the journal you may just find I have literally Gone to the Birds!!! Enjoy it and forgive me the transgression into light relief. The website has gone live, so visit it and let us know of any problems. Also, we would like to keep adding more databases of Welshmen and women found elsewhere other than at home. Let us know if there is a source somewhere, which is just begging to be transcribed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An anecdote of king James 1, has been handed down in this neighbourhood with much pleasantry, and is regarded as authentic. King James 1, with the bishop of Durham, paid a visit to Lord Lumley at Scarborough Castle, when his lordship entertained his majesty with shewing him a very beautiful, long, and uninterrupted, pedigree of his family; his majesty, somewhat wearied with its length, desired his lordship to allow him to digest what knowledge he had got; “for by my saul (exclaims his majesty) I did no ken that Adam’s name was Lumley.” (source: 1791 British Directory – Chester le street, Durham) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Welshman who, half-way up his genealogical tree, had made the interesting note: ‘ About this time Adam was born.’ (Source: English Surnames Their Source and Significance) The Welsh Interest Group of the NZSG 2 Welsh Interest Group of the NZSG a.k.a WIG Welcome to our web site http://www.worldzone.net/social/wig Sharing and encouraging our Welsh Ancestry This web site has been produced by members’ of the Welsh Interest Group and we acknowledge the generosity of: • The Clwyd Family History Society for permission to publish a list of Brides from Clwyd Marriages #1 & #2. Brides who came from Clwyd and married elsewhere. • Derek Griffis – for permission to publish the 1992 publication of: They Came to New Zealand • The Merthyr Tydfil Library – for permission to publish the database we produced, from transcriptions (held in the Merthyr Tydfil Library) of Immigrants to New South Wales, Australia. As with the majority of genealogy / family history groups, the Welsh Interest Group is entirely run by volunteers. We will endeavour to respond within a reasonable time, to emails requesting further information on the databases published on the web site. The information on the web site is willingly shared with others who have an interest in Welsh genealogy and history in general. On the About Us page you will find • The WIG membership form • A selection of articles from our quarterly journal. • Drovers, Mail 1512, Woollen – where is it?, Life in Mines • Guidelines to researching in Wales The Search page has databases which includes lists of Welsh born people who have been ‘found’ elsewhere. • Ireland, Cheshire, Shropshire, Australia, New Zealand • WIG Member’s interests as published July 2003 with additions received to Sept. 2004. • Missing Surnames from GRO indexes to marriages 1846 • Extractions of Welsh born from NZ Police Gazette 1878-1880 We politely request that the information contained on the web site be for personal use only. Links are included to each of the Welsh Family History Societies in Wales and USA Any problems you encounter when using the web site please email: [email protected] Val C Gregory, Convenor, Welsh Interest Group of the NZSG The Welsh Interest Group of the NZSG 3 Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting will held on Saturday, November 13 th , 1:30pm. The research day begins at 10:30am and breaks for the AGM at 1:30pm. Then resumes after the AGM until 4:30pm. The venue is: 26 Stanley Road, Glenfield, North Shore, Auckland. As always a call goes out for members to do a stint on the committee. We need a total of five committee members, included are the positions of Convenor, Secretary and Treasurer. The committee meets about 3 times a year, and this year we have had two committee members who live outside of Auckland. Email contact with them prior to the meeting has worked successfully. It really is time for a change and I personally put out a plea for someone to take on the role of Convenor. The position of Convenor I have held since our beginning in 1991. I am willing to continue on in the non executive position as Editor, Webmaster and distributor of the Library. It is not an onerous task, just one of coordinating the meetings and attendance at open days. If you would like to talk with me or one of the present committee about the role of Convenor, please contact us prior to November 13 th . Interim accounts as at 25 th September 2004 Bank balance as at 25 th September 04 $1,030.00 ASB NZ$ account ( includes $ 644.00 prepaid subscriptions for 04-05) Lloyds Bank PLC (approx) £106.00 UK GBP$ account Purchases Oct 03 – Sept 04: $1,214.00 Resources for the library. There are no invoices unpaid or cheques unpresented as at 25 th September 2004. The amount spent on purchasing resources for the library, was made possible mainly by the generous donations from members and donations from our attendance at open days. To each and everyone of our members, we thank you for your generosity. The resources are available to be borrowed by members