I’ve been lurking on the forums for a little bit now and thought that it was finally time to come out of the woodwork and say hello.
A little background - I was born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh) but I’ve lived most of my life in Tucson, Arizona. In 1999, I got married and moved to the northeast coast of Scotland where I’ve been ever since.
I have always wanted to learn Welsh. My gg grandparents came from Llanelli and I’m so proud of my Welsh heritage (I’m a bit of a genealogy geek!). Over the years, I’ve managed to gather quite a few Welsh learning resources…the old Catchphrase series (on vinyl!), Now You’re Talking, etc. I would try to start learning it and get through some simple phrases but I wasn’t sticking to any sort of routine.
I was so thrilled when I came across SSIW because I started to actually speak Welsh rather than just wish that I could speak Welsh.
I’ve just finished Lesson 14 (and whoa…that was pretty brutal). I know that i will get the hang of it - there’s a bit of comfort when you know some bits of the sentence. (But, right now, I’m hoping that I’ll never have the need to say that an old man in the pub last night says that he wants to speak with your sister…).
Welcome to the forum Sedona, SSIW was the first forum I joined, and I bench mark my social media usage on the high standards seen here. I hope you are continue to use enjoy the course and the lessons! Croeso!
Croeso! I could say, from a fellow exile’, but you came to Yr Alban by a rather different route! For all of us outside Wales learning our ancient language, the imternet is a huge advance and SSiW a brilliant idea, for which @aran has our thanks! There are a lot of answers to a lot of questions here on the Forum! And, as you have found, if you want a response, just ask! Hwyl fawr from mid-Argyll!
Hi, I did 13 and 14 about a million times, they were a real sticking point for me. The pain is fairly recent but it remains, they aren’t as bad as Lesson 6 old course though, which even split into three parts was worse… Aran is right though, they do seem to be getting easier. I did a lesson in one run through the other day which I know is the recommended but as a perfectionist I find really hard.Genealogy is an amazing hobby. As far as I know, I only have one Welsh line and as it’s a Jones line finding any census records and clues for that one has left it as a bit of a dead end! Good luck with your Welsh journey
Apart from my father’s father’s…who came from Dorset and hewed stone, every other line I followed led to Wales and every one of them was called Williams!! Very frustrating! Oh, there was one stray Scottish lady and a few English, but they would instantly marry a Williams!!
I hear your pain… I have a couple of Williams in England who probably go back to Wales at some point but I know those lines are a world of pain so focus on the rarer surnames
Many thanks for the words of encouragement! Don’t give up on your Jones line. I was stuck on my gggg grandfather’s line and was determined that I would never be able to go back any further than him. Then, I found someone else who was researching the same line and he had a few pieces of the puzzle that I was missing and I had a few that he was missing. We’ve been working for the past couple of months and not only were we able to go back another generation, but we actually went back two. Sometimes you just have to put all the work to one side for a while and look at it with fresh eyes.
Hi @sedona,
Welcome from another genealogy geek. Seven of my great grandparents were Welsh and one was English. Five of them definitely spoke Welsh. Like @onomatopoeicowl, I have a lot of Joneses. Rees isn’t the easiest name to follow in Carmarthenshire either. Yes, hooray for those rarer surnames.
I too struggled with session 14, but it did get better - off and on. Those long sentences are killers, aren’t they? I would start out in Welsh, then realise that I had forgotten the English sentence, so I would either stop, or else say something completely unrelated.
I have the Rees name in Carmarthenshire as well - I haven’t even tackled that line yet. I’m still stuck on the Williams and Thomas branches (which can be oh-so-rough to figure out!).
I had to laugh at your comment because that’s exactly what’s happening with me…I’m losing track of the English sentence! Memory lapse!
That buying resources and never doing anything with them thing is VERY familiar. I’ve had good intentions for years that have fizzled out. But as I said elsewhere in the forum - I am now finally able to have a few hesitant conversations with my mother in her native tongue. It’s so long overdue, but at least i didn’t leave it till it was too late!
