Saturday, August 5, 2017

Welsh Surnames and the Surname Welsh - Amusement of the Day

Problem
I went into wikipedia looking for the word CROESO, welcome, in Welsh, typed in Welsh surname and up pops ar article not on all Welsh surnames but the single surname Welsh.

Ironically the word Welsh is not Welsh but Anglo Saxon for somebody who is not Anglo Saxon and means foreigner.

Answers
Wikipedia is always a great source of information on things you want to know and things you 'didn't know you didn't know'. (To modify and minimalise a famous quotation about American military intelligence.)

People With the Surname Welsh
At the end of the article on the surname Welsh is a list of people with the surname Welsh. Yes, there is a footballer called Welsh who is Welsh. But most of the people listed are not Welsh but across the border in nearby countries such as England and Scotland and Ireland and over the pond from America,  and even New Zealand - which is miles away.

Welsh Surnames
Frequently heard and seen Welsh surnames include:
Davies
Evans
Jones
Thomas

Story
I was enjoying the irony of this, then reflected that perhaps these people had Welsh ancestors. I remembered that when I went to research an ancestor at a genealogical group, I was told that in the 1880s people would not be given the name of the city where they lived when they lived there, because everybody in the city was from there, only when they reached London, England and had to be distinguished from locals and other immigrants and identified by their previous town or origin or language.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_(surname)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_surnames

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on Welsh language and Wales as well as travel worldwide and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

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