CELEBRATING YOUR PROJECTS
Alan Crosby meets the Londoners tracing their roots in Wales
Discovering London’s Welsh population
The London Branch of the Welsh Family History Societies was formed to encourage and support anybody in the London area researching their Welsh roots. It meets four times a year in central London and all with an interest in Welsh family history are welcome. The branch is supported by Cardiganshire, Dyfed, Glamorgan, Gwynedd and Powys Family History Societies.
As well as talks about Welsh history, family history, sources and techniques, the branch visits places of Welsh interest in London and each year runs a week-long trip to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Another objective of the branch is to index material located in London which is of special relevance to Welsh family historians.
There’s been a sizeable Welsh population in London for centuries, but numbers increased rapidly in the Victorian period as railway expansion gave easier access, and many Welsh families migrated to establish dairies which catered for the fast-growing metropolis. Along with their language, the Welsh brought a strong and distinctive culture, where the life of the community was focused on the church or nonconformist chapel.
In 1912 it was said that “established originally to provide a religious service in Welsh for many to whom the English language was strange, the churches have... widely extended the field of their activities [and do] an immense amount of work of a social and national character. They provide for the young man and young woman coming to London from Wales something more than the shadow of a home, for they [offer] a society which in its standards of life and conduct has much in common with the village life of Wales... The particular mission of the Welsh Churches in London is to safeguard the moral character and deepen the spiritual experience of the hundreds of young people entrusted to their care year after year by the parents of Wales”.
The London Branch has previously indexed the Welsh soldiers who served with the East India Company Army, and Welsh debtors in the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors (1804-1862), and produced a CD of the names in the Welsh returns for the “Voluntary Contributions to the Rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral” in the late 1670s. Now it is working on a project to locate the records of the 50 or so Welsh chapels and churches which once existed in London, and to transcribe those of interest to family historians.
The earliest chapels were established in the period after 1770, when migration from Wales began to grow, although the peak years for new chapels were the 1870s and 1880s, and a few were founded in the early 20th century. Some were short-lived (the Cymry Hall Independent Chapel in Hackney survived only from 1870-75) and in many cases their detailed history remains obscure. Only 12 are active today, following a round of closures in the early 21st century.
With many different denominations and places of worship with a brief shadowy existence, the whereabouts of records is often unclear. The London Branch has carried out a comprehensive survey (finding many gaps) and has started publication with the oldest surviving Welsh place of worship in London, Jewin Welsh Chapel ( Calvinistic Methodist) in Fann Street, Moorgate. A CD of baptisms there between 1837 and 1920 has been produced, and further work is under way. The intention is that in due course these resources will be available online. The society’s website has other resources (including adverts for Welsh businesses in the 1930s) and is worth a visit if you have Welsh family connections in the capital. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ wlslbfhs
Along with their language, the Welsh brought a strong and distinctive culture
annee.jones@ntlworld.com.