Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus! Happy St David's Day!

Today, March 1st, is St. David's day, honoring the patron saint of Wales.
St. David (or Dewi Sant in Welsh) was a 6th century monk who helped spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain, eventually becoming the archbishop of Wales.

Many Welsh people wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their lapel to celebrate Saint David: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol which is in season during March) or the leek (Saint David's personal symbol) on this day. The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, Cenhinen (leek) and Cenhinen Bedr (daffodil, literally "Peter's leek"). (from the Wikipedia article on St. David's Day)

Today is a the day to listen to Welsh songs and remember our ancestors who came to America from Wales - and pin a daffodil to your lapel.

Links:
• Rhys James Jones has written an interesting article about St. David and the celebration of this holiday in Wales.
• St. David's Day Quiz (with answers at the end)
• The Wales Week in New York web site has an interesting article "Keeping Up with the Joneses" (pdf) about the Wales and the Welsh in America.

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Tales from the Green Valley

The BBC recently ran a series called Tales from the Green Valley that recreated a 17th century Welsh farm.

It was a time when daily life was a hard grind, intimately connected with the physical environment where routines were dictated by the weather and the seasons.

Our only known Welsh ancestor who was a farmer was Richard Jenkins*, father of Hannah (Jenkins) Lewis. Many of the lessons learned from a 17th century farm would have held true for those farming at the end of the 18th century, and even modern life.

The lessons learned include:
1. Know your neighbors.
2. Share the load.
3. Fewer creature comforts.
4. Eat seasonally.
5. Tasty food comes in small batches.
6. Reuse and recycle.
7. Dress for practicalities.
8. Corsets, not bras. (really!)
9. Biodiversity protects against calamity.
10. Don't rely on any one thing.
11. The greater the variety of insects the better.

Read the whole article.

*As an off-topic aside: It appears that the two oldest sons of David and Hannah (Jenkins) Lewis were named after their grandfathers. The oldest son, Evan, was named after David's father. The second son (and our ancestor), Richard, was named after Hannah's father.

Learn more:
There is a photo gallery from one of the participants, Alex Langlands. He also shares what he learned about thatching.

The producer Peter Sommers also tells about his experiences making the series.

Material from Gathering the Jewels on farming.

GENUKI has several available articles about farming in Glamorgan, including:
• West Glamorgan Farming, 1580-1620
• Glamorgan Agriculture in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

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Where did our Lewis ancestors live?

I've been playing with the Google maps API to generate maps showing where our ancestors on the Lewis side of the family (Lewis, Hopkins, Betts and Metcalfe) lived over the past 150 years.

The advantage of using Google maps is that I can insert "pins" with information at different locations. The viewer can zoom in on any point and see either a standard map or a satellite view. I am still learning how the system works, so comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

The Lewis Family maps page.

At the moment only the most recent web browsers (Firefox/Mozilla, IE 5.5+, and Safari 1.2+) can be used to view the maps. I've found that Firefox works the best.

Download Firefox for free.

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Scenes from the Vale of Neath

The Lewis family lived in the Neath Valley (or Vale of Neath - Cwm Nedd) in South Wales from the 18th century until at least the mid 19th century.

Our earliest known Lewis ancestors, David and Ruth, lived near Crynant in the late 1700s. Their son, Evan Lewis and his wife Anne lived in Aberpergwm, in the upper Neath valley, near Glyn Neath in the 1820s and 1830s.
Evan's son, David,lived in Pwllfaron at the time of his marriage in 1838. He and his wife Hannah eventually settled in Resolven. David's son, Richard Lewis, was born and grew up in Resolven, until the Lewis family emigrated to Pennsylvania in the early 1850s.

All of these generations of the Lewis family belonged to the parish church of St. Catwg in Cadoxton-juxta-Neath.

•Parish of Cadoxton Juxta Neath - St.Catwg`s

The Vale of Neath is very scenic, and has long been the subject of paintings and photographs.

•Tours through the Vales of Glamorgan, paintings by Thomas Horner, 1819. Pictures 1-16 are a tour up the Neath Valley from the sea to Pont Neath Vaughan (Pont Nedd Fychan).
•Landscapes of Wales, Glamorganshire Images 12-17 show the Vale of Neath. (from the National Library of Wales Welsh Landscape Collection - see link for waterfalls of the Vale of Neath)
•Waterfalls of the Neath Valley
•Waterfall walks in the Vale of Neath

A prominent feature of the Neath Valley is the Neath Canal, completed in 1795. Today only two miles of the canal, near Resolven, are open to traffic.

•The Neath Valley and the Neath & Tennant Canals (map and photo tour)
•Neath and Tennant Canals (history)
•Photos of Neath Canal (photo tour)
•Photos along the lower Neath Canal

Legend has it that King Arthur sleeps beneath Craig y Ddinas (Dinas Rock) near Glyn Neath at the head of the Neath Valley.

•Engraving of Craig-y-Dinas, 1830
•Dinas Bridge, by Thomas Horner, early 19th century.
•The Treasure of Craig-y-Ddinas (story)

Other Vale of Neath Links
•Official Neath-Port Talbot web site
•Neath, Glamorgan images and history (Brian Wagstaffe's site)
•Items from the Neath Museum (Gathering the Jewels)
•Vale of Neath Railway
•Images of Wales (John Ball's site)
•Cadoxton-juxta-Neath GENUKI page

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Mini bio: David & Hannah (Jenkins) Lewis

Brief biography of David Lewis (1815-1888) and his wife Hannah Jenkins (1813-1888). Position in the family tree.

David Lewis:
Born: March 20, 1815 in parish of Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
Baptized: April 9, 1815 in Cadoxton juxta Neath
Parents: Evan & Anne Lewis
Known Residences:
--- May 1838 in Pwllfa-yr-on, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
--- December 1838 in Tyr-Y-Wenallt, Hamlet of Resolven, Llantwit juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
--- 1841 in Tyr-Y-Wenallt, Hamlet of Resolven, Llantwit juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
--- 1851 in Pant-Y-Geifr, Hamlet of Resolven, Llantwit juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
--- about 1851-1852 emigrated to America
--- 1860 in Trevorton, Zerbe Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
--- 1870 in Trevorton, Zerbe Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
--- 1880 in Trevorton, Zerbe Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Occupation: miner or collier
Death: April 15, 1888; buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Trevorton, Pennsylvania

Hannah Jenkins
Birth: June 21, 1813, parish of Llansamlet, Glamorgan, Wales
Baptism: unknown
Parents: Richard Jenkins, farmer
Known residences:
--- May 1838 Abernant Hir, Neath Middle, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glmorgan Wales
--- all others the same as husband David
Death: March 11, 1888, buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Trevorton, Pennsylvania

Marriage & Children:

Marriage date: David Lewis and Hannah Jenkins married May 16, 1838 in the parish of Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales. Witnesses: Rees Jones, Henry Jenkins

Children:
-- Evan Lewis born about 1838
** Richard Lewis born 1840, married Sarah Betts
-- Thomas Lewis born about 1843, married Margaret Rees
-- Anne Virginia Lewis born 1848, married Evan W. Lewis
-- John Lewis born about 1850

Posts about David & Hannah (Jenkins) Lewis
•Scenes from the Vale of Neath
•Where did our Lewis ancestors live?
•Tales of the Green Valley

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Mini bio: Evan & Ann (Thomas?) Lewis

Brief biography of Evan Lewis (~1779 - <1841) style="font-style: italic;">Anne Thomas? (~1780->1861). Position in the family tree.

Evan Lewis:
Born: about 1779, Dulais Isaf, Parish of Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
Baptized: 22 July 1779 in Cadoxton juxta Neath
Parents: David & Ruth Lewis
Known Residences:
--- 1815 in Neath Upper, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
--- 1820 in Aberpergwn, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
Occupation: miner or collier
Death: before the 1841 census, but probably after the marriage of son David in 1838

Anne (probable surname Thomas):
Birth: about 1780 in the parish of Aberavon, Glamorgan, Wales
Baptism: an Anne, daughter of Jenkin Thomas & Anne was baptized in the parish of Aberavon on 17 January 1779
Parents: possibly Jenkin & Anne Thomas
Known residences:
--- 1841 Pwllfarn, Neath Middle, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales (widow)
--- 1851 Green Llyna, Neath Middle, Cadoxton juxta Neath, Glamorgan, Wales (widow)
--- 1861 Cwmaman, Fforchaman Hamlet, Aberdare, Glamorgan, Wales (widow)
Death: after 1861

Marriage & Children:

Marriage date: an Evan Lewis married Ann Thomas in Cadoxton Juxta Neath on 28 May 1803, witnessed by David Lewis & Mary Jenkin

Children:
-- Margaret "Peggy" Lewis born about 1804
-- Catherine Lewis born about 1809
-- Ann "Nancy" Lewis born about 181,2 married John Rosser Jenkins, Noah Evans
** David Lewis born 1815, married Hannah Jenkins
-- William Lewis born about 1820, married Eleanor ?
-- John D. Lewis born about 1824, married Esther Richards

Posts about Evan & Ann Lewis
•Scenes from the Vale of Neath

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