Helo bawb - same as usual for this week’s meetups. Do get in touch if you have any questions or would like more information
12:00 Tuesday 22nd November / dydd Mawrth 22ain Tachwedd ( via Zoom - let me know if you need login details for Zoom )
12:00 Friday 25th November / dydd Gwener 25ain Tachwedd ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - inside entrance hall to the right, next to windows on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW)
Helo bawb - just the one meetup this week as on Friday we’ll be having our Cinio Nadolig. However there’s the opportunity to attend the Welsh carol service tomorrow (Monday) in Jesus College Chapel (see previous post by @owen-mcknight):
12:00 Tuesday 29th November / dydd Mawrth 29ain Tachwedd ( via Zoom - let me know if you need login details for Zoom )
Helo bawb - we had a great Cinio Nadolig on Friday (diolch@owen-mcknight for pic below) and this week, as well as the usual Zoom meetup on Tuesday, on Friday there’s a change of venue as we’ll be having mulled wine+mince pies in Stanford Uni’s Montag Centre in the High Street. Do please let me know if you’d like to join us so we can judge demand for +
12:00 Tuesday 6th December / dydd Mawrth 6ed Rhagfyr ( via Zoom - contact me for login details )
12:00-13:30 Friday 9thDecember:mulled wine+mince pies / dydd Gwener 9fedRhagfyr: gwin poeth+mins peis (Stanford House - get in touch for details )
Helo bawb – after mulled wine and mince pies in Stanford House on Friday (a diolch iddyn nhw for use of a room), this Friday we’re back in the Weston Library - newcomers welcome as always Do get in touch if you have any questions/comments
12:00 Tuesday 13th December / dydd Mawrth 13eg Rhagfyr ( via Zoom - contact me for login details )
12:00 Friday 16th December / dydd Gwener 16eg Rhagfyr ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - in entrance hall on the right, next to the windows & on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW from 12 to 1pm ).
We may have a Tuesday Zoom the following week, but that’s likely to be our last meetup before the New Year, so do try and come along on Friday if you can.
Having said that, if the weather’s dry between Christmas and the New Year we could perhaps have a walk+sgwrs to blow the cobwebs away if people are interested (maybe with more gwin poeth+minspeis! ) - let me know if you think you might be
Blwyddyn Newydd dda! Here is a New Year challenge for us all from my colleague the archivist at Jesus College. Most of the documents in the archives are actually in Latin or in English, and this is one of the first he has found with text in Welsh. Please can you help us understand it? It’s part of an early 18th-century dispute about who was eligible to become a Fellow of the college, in particular their pedigree - you can see a family tree at the top.
Can we try to transcribe and translate the lines starting ‘Barchedig Syr …’ and ‘ni chefais …’?
Here’s what I can make out, though there are a couple of things I can’t quite get.
Barchedig Syr, mi a chwiliais y llyfran achau, a chard Bodowryd, nid oes yma neb o henw Rich’d) Dean Honourable Sir, I searched the family book and Bodowryd card, there is not anyone of the name Richard Dean [crossed out text] na neb o henw Grace yn wraig [crossed out text] nor anyone a wife named Grace ni chefais neb o henw Grace yn wraig i Owen Hughes o’r hendref. I had no-one named Grace wife of Owen Hughes of the ancestral home. Tybyceach gan i Elin merch Rowland Bulkeley o dref Moorgoch oedd ei wraig a [???(aeth?)] y gorennydd rhwng ei fab ef Owen Owens a Francis Bulkeley ac a Wm Wynn o’r chwaen ddu I suspect Elin daughter of Rowland Bulkeley of the town of Moorgoch was his wife and the kinship [???(went?)] between his son Owen Owens and Francis Bulkeley and William Wynn of the black chance(?)
The bits I’m not sure of are in [ ] with question marks. I’m not altogether sure of the correct meaning of “chwaen ddu” either.
I hope it helps a little anyway. (and hope you don’t mind me gatecrashing the Oxford group thread!)
Standing ovation here! Diolch yn fawr iawn. That works very well in the context of these documents about investigating family connections. I think the word which is hidden in the crease could be ‘wrth’, if that makes sense. And it looks as if there is or was a placename ‘Chwaen Ddu’ on Ynys Môn. When I’m back in work, I’ll ask the archivist how this all fits together!
Helo bawb - having welcomed several newcomers to the group this autumn there are now around 20 of us. I’m conscious, though, that only 10 or so of us have been able to meet up more or less regularly (not all at the same time!). Competing work and other commitments can make it difficult to make weekday lunchtime meetups, so I’m wondering if additional regular meetups might be helpful for those of us who haven’t been able to join in very often. Maybe early or mid-morning, afternoon or evening? A different day of week? At the weekend?Comments/suggestions, please!
Meantime, this week we’ll continue the current pattern of meetups:
12:00 Tuesday 3rd January/ dydd Mawrth 3edd Ionawr ( via Zoom - let me know if you need login details for Zoom )
12:00 Friday 6th January/ dydd Gwener 6ed Ionawr ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - inside entrance hall to the right, next to windows on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW)
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
John
PS Well, I was looking back at last year’s posts, trying to remember what we’d been doing in 2022, and then thought might as well jot it down for the benefit of anyone with equally hazy memories & for any newcomers who might like to get an idea of what we’ve been up to (let me know if I’ve forgotten anything ): Review of Ox SSiW 2022 (ed).pdf (67.1 KB)
The review of the year is a great idea! I probably wouldn’t have persevered with Welsh without the company of and informal support from this group. Thanks in particular to John for keeping the meetups goings and taking the initiative with walks.
I’m happy to continue dropping into the Friday lunchtime meetings when I’m available, and I’ll always have some commitment or other on a different time or day, but interested to hear what will work for other people.
Thanks for the New Year catch-up message, John, also for the review: useful to a relative newcomer! Fridays still gd for me but other times cld be poss too. And Blwyddyn Newydd dda pawb, ofcourse!
The review is great! I am amazed that we have done so much. Thank you everyone for your company and support and especially to John for organising so many different activities. Tuesday and Friday lunchtime work well for me but I am flexible, if other days/ times work better for other people. Looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year. Bethan
Thank you, John. That’s a really interesting review.
Friday 12:00 in Oxford is good for me, though it doesn’t have to be 12:00.
Some Tuesdays 12:00 on Zoom are good if it doesn’t clash with a meeting. This should improve in March when I come off the retirement group committee.
Other days and times could be possible, but I would rather not go to Oxford in the evenings. Zoom would be possible in the evenings, but not 8:30 - 9:30 pm because I talk to my daughter.
Blwyddyn Newydd dda pawb.
Sue
Helo bawb - it’ll be the usual meetup pattern this week:
12:00 Tuesday 10th January/ dydd Mawrth 10ed Ionawr ( via Zoom - contact me for login details )
12:00 Friday 13th January/ dydd Gwener 13eg Ionawr ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - inside entrance hall to the right, next to windows on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW)
Well, it doesn’t seem as if there’s much interest in having additional meetups, so let’s stick with our existing weekly schedule for the time being. This week’s meetups, then, will be :
12:00 Tuesday 17th January/ dydd Mawrth 17eg Ionawr ( via Zoom - contact me for login details )
12:00 Friday 20th January/ dydd Gwener 20fed Ionawr ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - inside entrance hall to the right, next to windows on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW)
Helo bawb - same details as last week for the meetups in this last full week of January (already!).
Do get in touch if you’d like more info or have any questions
12:00 Tuesday 24th January/ dydd Mawrth 24ain Ionawr ( via Zoom - contact me for login details )
12:00 Friday 27th January/ dydd Gwener 27ain Ionawr ( ‘Space for Reading’, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford - inside entrance hall to the right, next to windows on opp. side from the cafe. The coffee table area’s reserved for SSiW)
+ 
walk+sgwrs 
to blow the cobwebs away if people are interested (maybe with more gwin poeth+minspeis! 
) - let me know if you think you might be
):