llyfrenfys - Tumblr blog

[llyfrenfys]

Good point! Completely forgot to add this - but the National Library of Wales has free access to Findmypast and the 1921 Census. I've used that resource so many times myself. Well worth checking with your library for any help they can provide.

hey hope yr good! was wondering if u have any tips on researching yr ancestry? diolch!

Thank you for the ask! I go about my ancestry research in a very specific way, but I'm happy to describe what I tend to do.

Researching your ancestry (or the ancestry of historical people etc.):

My number one tip for researching ancestry is having perseverance and patience in spades. It's important to know going in that you will get led up blind alleys, dead ends and amass plenty of non-starters, but don't get put off by this! In my experience, the information you're looking for is there, but you have to get real creative about how you go about finding it. Subscriptions to genealogy sites can be helpful too, but aren't a necessity if you're only interested in going a few generations back.

My number two tip is that in general, you will have more information starting out than you think you do. To use myself as an example, when I sat down to research my ancestry, all I knew about my biological family was my birth mother's name, birth city and date of birth - my grandparent's names and dates of birth and a few patchy bits of information about aunts etc. That was 3 years ago. Since then, I've been able to trace ancestors to the second half of the 17th Century. I don't know anything about my biological father's side, so my research was all matrilineal. Starting with my grandparents, I was able to cross-reference entries in the register of births to confirm I had the right people. Once you successfully do this, you can then start on locating your grandparent's parents. In my case, I went from knowing about 2 ancestors to 6 - adding in the 4 which are my matrilineal grandparent's parents. Then repeat the process as far back as evidence and records will allow.

My number three tip concerns the how of researching ancestors. It's all well and good saying 'confirm if X is the parent of Y' but how that's done is another matter.

Taking my own ancestors, lately I've been looking into my Irish ancestors. My matrilineal grandmother's maiden name begins with B [full name redacted for privacy] (naturally you'll need to acquire maiden names of female ancestors for certain bits - this can be done by speaking to family members if that's possible, or by ordering a copy of their marriage certificate. General Register Office index records in the UK will also display maiden names and appear on mainstream subscription genealogy sites). Having ordered my grandmother's marriage certificate and found her GRO index record, I was able to find her maiden name B. as well as her father's name. So then the next step is to find records of that name which match known details (e.g. the marriage certificate usually lists a profession, in the case of my great-grandfather, he worked in sheet metal). In order to identify my great-grandfather with 100% certainty, context like my grandmother's place of birth (Stockport) and year of birth (1950) theoretically places him in Stockport around that year (given 9 months leeway at least) - there's exceptions such as if a male ancestor died before their child was born or if they were never in the picture, but generally this is a rule of thumb. The next thing to do is find records of my great-grandfather in Stockport around 1950 - give or take ~10 years (this is more difficult with more recent ancestors due to census data not being available for most of the 20th Century yet). If one were to look at the 1939 Register (accessible via mainstream genealogy sites and in-person at Kew for free) a person matching my grandmother's father's first name, middle name and surname and who is married and worked in sheet metal is recorded in the same district my grandmother would be born in in 1950. A good start - but as with any good research, you gotta corroborate. In most cases, it would be fine to presume at this point that the woman my great-grandfather is married to in the 1939 Register is my grandmother's mother. However, upon checking the GRO Index of births, my great-grandfather and his wife's name do not come up when searching for my grandmother's birth record. Instead, my great-grandfather's name comes up with a different name. To be brief, the actual situation is that he separated from his first spouse before my grandmother who was born. Thus why his wife in 1939 *isn't* my great-grandmother. Upon checking the second spouse's name against the GRO index, my great-grandfather married her in the 1980s (thus legitimising my grandmother - one can only assume the law and taboo around divorce led to the delay in marrying his new spouse). Great-grandmother's name confirmed. So that gives me both my great-grandparent's names. But sticking with my great-grandfather, lets say I want to trace his father. Knowing more detail about my great-grandfather's later life means I can double check details of his early life. After having ordered his marriage certificate with his second wife (most certificates on the GRO are about £11 with second class post) I find out his father's name. Through that, I repeat the process above to verify and corroborate his father's details to match him 100%. Assuming by now I have my great-grandfather's parent's names through this method, I can locate his birth record on the GRO index and find my great-grandfather was born in 1912 in Liverpool.

And so on and so forth. If you're not in the UK you'll have to look up what resources (paid and free) are available in your country - but some records are possible to find online. My ancestors above were Catholic, so this resource was no use to me. But the Church of England Parish Clerk records for Lancashire are available online here, for example - with similar sites existing for other counties. Another thing is to make use of Boolean commands on Google. Typing "ancestor name" "[year]" "[city or town]" can bring up results - e.g. digitised books, records and newspapers in the public domain are indexed by Google and if you ancestor is mentioned in any of them, they will come up. This happened for me with an ancestor on my grandfather's side - some County Councils keep some historical records online and it turned out one of my ancestors had had sex with two men in 1769 (I guess it must have been the Summer of 69 tbqh!) who were both possibly the father of her child - the court decided they both had to pay child support to the parish (who actually raised the child ).

But remember that you can easily be led up blind alleys, so my biggest tip is still to corroborate and check your work as you go along. Like with my example, if I assumed my great-grandfather's first wife was my great-grandmother, I would have gone completely in the wrong direction. Historical records have a habit of being slippery fish so it's good practice to be critical of sources and make sure you're clear on the timeline of things. If you're using a paid genealogy site, getting things wrong or assuming things can affect other users (if they see your family tree and it has wrong information in it, that can mislead people down the wrong path as well). I've seen this mostly with North American users who might get a fact wrong about a European ancestor and will not notice, causing a lot of headache in setting the record straight. Carelessness from other users pollutes the timeline and can make it difficult for others to research an ancestor you have in common with them if you get it wrong. If you're researching an ancestor who is only a theory or a hypothesis, there are tags you can put on that ancestor's page which show they're a hypothesis/theory - which can really help others know so they don't take the information you have on the ancestor as fact. Despite this, still have fun with it and enjoy finding out more about your relatives - I hope that you're able to find this answer somewhat useful.

If you (or anyone else reading this) has any more questions, you are very welcome to make a comment or send another ask.

Good luck! Pob lwc!

[llyfrenfys]

hey hope yr good! was wondering if u have any tips on researching yr ancestry? diolch!

Thank you for the ask! I go about my ancestry research in a very specific way, but I'm happy to describe what I tend to do.

Researching your ancestry (or the ancestry of historical people etc.):

My number one tip for researching ancestry is having perseverance and patience in spades. It's important to know going in that you will get led up blind alleys, dead ends and amass plenty of non-starters, but don't get put off by this! In my experience, the information you're looking for is there, but you have to get real creative about how you go about finding it. Subscriptions to genealogy sites can be helpful too, but aren't a necessity if you're only interested in going a few generations back.

My number two tip is that in general, you will have more information starting out than you think you do. To use myself as an example, when I sat down to research my ancestry, all I knew about my biological family was my birth mother's name, birth city and date of birth - my grandparent's names and dates of birth and a few patchy bits of information about aunts etc. That was 3 years ago. Since then, I've been able to trace ancestors to the second half of the 17th Century. I don't know anything about my biological father's side, so my research was all matrilineal. Starting with my grandparents, I was able to cross-reference entries in the register of births to confirm I had the right people. Once you successfully do this, you can then start on locating your grandparent's parents. In my case, I went from knowing about 2 ancestors to 6 - adding in the 4 which are my matrilineal grandparent's parents. Then repeat the process as far back as evidence and records will allow.

My number three tip concerns the how of researching ancestors. It's all well and good saying 'confirm if X is the parent of Y' but how that's done is another matter.

Taking my own ancestors, lately I've been looking into my Irish ancestors. My matrilineal grandmother's maiden name begins with B [full name redacted for privacy] (naturally you'll need to acquire maiden names of female ancestors for certain bits - this can be done by speaking to family members if that's possible, or by ordering a copy of their marriage certificate. General Register Office index records in the UK will also display maiden names and appear on mainstream subscription genealogy sites). Having ordered my grandmother's marriage certificate and found her GRO index record, I was able to find her maiden name B. as well as her father's name. So then the next step is to find records of that name which match known details (e.g. the marriage certificate usually lists a profession, in the case of my great-grandfather, he worked in sheet metal). In order to identify my great-grandfather with 100% certainty, context like my grandmother's place of birth (Stockport) and year of birth (1950) theoretically places him in Stockport around that year (given 9 months leeway at least) - there's exceptions such as if a male ancestor died before their child was born or if they were never in the picture, but generally this is a rule of thumb. The next thing to do is find records of my great-grandfather in Stockport around 1950 - give or take ~10 years (this is more difficult with more recent ancestors due to census data not being available for most of the 20th Century yet). If one were to look at the 1939 Register (accessible via mainstream genealogy sites and in-person at Kew for free) a person matching my grandmother's father's first name, middle name and surname and who is married and worked in sheet metal is recorded in the same district my grandmother would be born in in 1950. A good start - but as with any good research, you gotta corroborate. In most cases, it would be fine to presume at this point that the woman my great-grandfather is married to in the 1939 Register is my grandmother's mother. However, upon checking the GRO Index of births, my great-grandfather and his wife's name do not come up when searching for my grandmother's birth record. Instead, my great-grandfather's name comes up with a different name. To be brief, the actual situation is that he separated from his first spouse before my grandmother who was born. Thus why his wife in 1939 *isn't* my great-grandmother. Upon checking the second spouse's name against the GRO index, my great-grandfather married her in the 1980s (thus legitimising my grandmother - one can only assume the law and taboo around divorce led to the delay in marrying his new spouse). Great-grandmother's name confirmed. So that gives me both my great-grandparent's names. But sticking with my great-grandfather, lets say I want to trace his father. Knowing more detail about my great-grandfather's later life means I can double check details of his early life. After having ordered his marriage certificate with his second wife (most certificates on the GRO are about £11 with second class post) I find out his father's name. Through that, I repeat the process above to verify and corroborate his father's details to match him 100%. Assuming by now I have my great-grandfather's parent's names through this method, I can locate his birth record on the GRO index and find my great-grandfather was born in 1912 in Liverpool.

And so on and so forth. If you're not in the UK you'll have to look up what resources (paid and free) are available in your country - but some records are possible to find online. My ancestors above were Catholic, so this resource was no use to me. But the Church of England Parish Clerk records for Lancashire are available online here, for example - with similar sites existing for other counties. Another thing is to make use of Boolean commands on Google. Typing "ancestor name" "[year]" "[city or town]" can bring up results - e.g. digitised books, records and newspapers in the public domain are indexed by Google and if you ancestor is mentioned in any of them, they will come up. This happened for me with an ancestor on my grandfather's side - some County Councils keep some historical records online and it turned out one of my ancestors had had sex with two men in 1769 (I guess it must have been the Summer of 69 tbqh!) who were both possibly the father of her child - the court decided they both had to pay child support to the parish (who actually raised the child ).

But remember that you can easily be led up blind alleys, so my biggest tip is still to corroborate and check your work as you go along. Like with my example, if I assumed my great-grandfather's first wife was my great-grandmother, I would have gone completely in the wrong direction. Historical records have a habit of being slippery fish so it's good practice to be critical of sources and make sure you're clear on the timeline of things. If you're using a paid genealogy site, getting things wrong or assuming things can affect other users (if they see your family tree and it has wrong information in it, that can mislead people down the wrong path as well). I've seen this mostly with North American users who might get a fact wrong about a European ancestor and will not notice, causing a lot of headache in setting the record straight. Carelessness from other users pollutes the timeline and can make it difficult for others to research an ancestor you have in common with them if you get it wrong. If you're researching an ancestor who is only a theory or a hypothesis, there are tags you can put on that ancestor's page which show they're a hypothesis/theory - which can really help others know so they don't take the information you have on the ancestor as fact. Despite this, still have fun with it and enjoy finding out more about your relatives - I hope that you're able to find this answer somewhat useful.

If you (or anyone else reading this) has any more questions, you are very welcome to make a comment or send another ask.

Good luck! Pob lwc!

[llyfrenfys]

Cass Review protest letter coming soon - last responses are awaited and then it'll be ready!

[llyfrenfys]

Jyst gyrraedd Aberystwyth eto ar ôl Llanbedr ac Aberaeron bore 'ma.

Dw i wedi blino iawn iawn

[llyfrenfys]

In which I try not to be That Guy TM when it comes to Irish ancestors: An exploration of ancestry, diaspora and culture

Because of The Horrors TM in my life atm I've been looking into my biological family tree. I'm adopted but estranged from my adoptive family and I never met my biological family since I was adopted just short of my 2nd birthday. I've been tracing my ancestry for about 3 years now and it's genuinely quite stress relieving to me. It's also fun and challenging from a research standpoint - putting together my own family tree gave me the skills to write articles like this one I wrote in 2022 about historical Welsh queer people, for example.

Lately, I've been finding out more about my Irish ancestors while an adoptee (and thus not knowing any of my biological family) - but also doing this as a Celticist and tired of people doing the 'my sister's friend's cousin's father's mother was Irish' thing. This has created an almost unbearable tension between curiosity at my own ancestry while trying not to be That Guy who finds out about one (1) Irish ancestor hundreds of years ago and is weird about it.

Especially since mine are quite distant ancestors - my great, great, great grandparents were born in Dublin and in a tiny village in County Down called Dunnaman (near Kilkeel). However, they were Irish Catholics and emigrated to Liverpool in the 1870s - all of their subsequent children and grandchildren were born in Liverpool and all of the above + great grandchildren were raised Catholic - including my grandmother (who died before I was born). So there was an obvious attempt to maintain that heritage. There's even evidence my great, great, great grandmother at least spoke Irish (which, as she was born in County Down, would have been Ulster Irish).

The problems with uncritically throwing oneself at an ancestor's nationality:

Now, not all North Americans of Irish (or Welsh, Scottish, Italian, Scandinavian, German etc.) descent do this - but there's a very vocal set of North Americans of Irish descent who find awe and interest in their ancestry - which is actually quite a positive thing! - however, due to either temporal or cultural disconnect, they may end up doing or saying things (and not necessarily with bad intentions) which can have a negative impact on the Irish and the Irish language (or [nationality] and [language(s) associated with that nationality].

I'm reminded of the time an American commented on a Welsh language rights post I made in support of Welsh speakers, but they accidentally ended up using a white nationalist slogan by mistake. It can be a minefield - and with regards to Ireland specifically, mistakes like that can be so much worse. To literally give my own (mild) example, today I decided to relearn Irish (since I haven't spoken any in years since being taught basics at undergrad) and picked up a blank notebook I bought at Tesco the other week, while completely forgetting the inside cover of the notebook was orange. I was planning on decorating the notebook anyway and painted it a different colour. While I know that nobody would really hold it against me if I didn't change the colour, I just know that walking around with an orange notebook filled with Irish I'm relearning because of interest in my Catholic ancestors could be a confusing set of messages, at the very least. If you don't understand why this is, look up the meanings of the colours on the flag of Ireland.

Which is to say, even those of us in Northern Europe who have significantly greater physical proximity to Ireland than North America (and therefore should know better) still can and do get things wrong. And not just benignly wrong like in my case.

The tendency for some North Americans of Irish descent (Canada isn't exempt from this) to conflate Irish ancestry with a contemporary connection to the modern countries located on the island of Ireland as a whole can have results ranging from 'a bit weird' to 'jesus fucking christ'. As a Celticist, I've seen far, far too many Americans of Irish descent try to weigh in on modern Irish politics without any background knowledge or tact at all - and naturally they stake their claim on modern Irish politics entirely on the premise of having distant Irish ancestors. Or, even worse, things start to get all phrenological.

'Irish blood' and the nonexistence thereof:

'Irish blood' is continually evoked by some to validate their sense of 'Irishness' and the obsession with '[insert nationality] blood' is a distinctly North American phenomenon- likely related to or an offshoot of the concept of 'blood quantum', in which enrolment into some Native American nations and tribes is determined by how much 'Native blood' a person has. Notably, many people who would ostensibly have been described under this system as 'full blood' were registered by the US as 'half blood'. This is a method of genocide intended to wipe out tribes and nations by imposing strict measures of who does or does not qualify to enrol into a tribe or nation. This concept seems to have been extrapolated over time (in a North American context at least) into the idea of descent from other nationalities' being measured in a similar or adjacent way. This is how you end up with some North Americans declaring they are '1/8 Italian and 1/4 Irish' on their dad's side etc. While in Europe (where these nationalities hail from, crucially) this practice is seen as a really weird way to describe your ancestry. In general, it's simply 'my 4 times grandfather came from Spain' or 'my great great grandfather on my dad's side came from Finland' etc. if it comes up at all. For various political reasons, many Europeans with descent from multiple other European nationalities may choose to omit to mention descent from certain nationalities, especially if in recent history there has been conflict between their birth nation and an ancestor's nation. The most famous example of this is literally the British royal family changing their surname from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more 'British sounding' Windsor in 1917 due to the onset of the First World War.

Where it gets really weird (and also very offensive and rude) is when cultural stereotypes get invoked alongside the whole 'blood' thing in usually quite damaging and/or disparaging ways. I've seen way too many North Americans of Irish descent claim they're alcoholics because they have 'Irish blood' or even worse, claim it's normal to domestically abuse their spouses because of it!! (Genuine thing I have seen btw). Same goes for claiming to be a naturally good chef because of 'Italian blood' and so on. As a general rule, people from the place where your ancestors were from don't generally like to be inherently be considered drunks or prone to violence due to their nationality. Or have weird and inaccurate idealisms projected onto their language or cuisine.

Aren't there any positives?

It wouldn't be fair to make a post like this without mentioning some of the positives that can come from interest in an Irish ancestor. Like I mentioned at the start of this post, I myself felt inspired to relearn Irish because of my own Irish ancestors. I was taught the Connacht dialect at undergrad, however, since my ancestor was from County Down, I'm going to try and learn Ulster Irish instead. One doesn't need Irish ancestors to learn Irish of course - when I learned I wasn't aware I had any Irish ancestors. But being inspired to learn Irish because of an ancestor can't hurt and directly increases the number of Irish speakers in the world (provided you keep at it). This is a net positive for the language as a whole.

Similarly, people who have educated themselves on Irish politics because of their ancestry and genuinely learned something are also a positive thing to come out of discovering Irish ancestors. In my experience, these people are the kind of people I enjoy talking to about being a Celticist because they actively want to learn and respect the cultures being talked about. Which is huge to me!

Conclusion:

As a Welsh speaker whose national identity is more-or-less Jan Morris-esque, my Irish ancestry is an interesting facet of my ancestry I simply didn't know about before. And being an adopted person, I can sympathise with the general sentiment of a lot of white North Americans of feeling disconnected or alienated from any ancestral heritage. The conditions which create That Guy TM as described above rely on that sense of alienation to propagate a very ineffective, tactless and often very insensitive approach to Irish and other European cultures. But the important thing is that that approach can be challenged by people genuinely interested in their ancestry who are also conscientious of the living versions of the cultures their ancestors hailed from.

For me, that means learning Irish in a dialect my ancestors are likely to have spoken. I also visited the library today to check out some books on the Irish emigration to England and the sociopolitical reasons behind that emigration. I know the broad strokes, but the details are desirable to know to get a better idea of the why and how the country of my birth had a hand in creating the conditions which led my ancestors to emigrate in the first place. I think the world would be a better place if people took the time to understand the history and politics of ancestors which don't share their nationality.

As always, reblogs and thoughts are welcomed and encouraged!

Thank you for reading to the end - and if you'd like to support me, please see my pinned post. Diolch!

[llyfrenfys]

since moving here ive noticed europeans have no concept of how few americans ever leave USA. every american tourist youve met is of an economic crust that is vastly unobtainable to the other like. 85% generously. no matter what you have believed i can guarantee this. even getting to canada isnt really a possibility and the mexico-US border is highly controlled and militarized.

to put it into perspective. a ~2 hour flight from london to warsaw is like. 30 to 45 USD?

and a 2 hour flight from one US city to another would be about 130 USD

it was very cheap to fly here. i make over 100k USD now and i dont know if ill ever be able to afford leaving. if that gives you an idea of how prohibitive travel is here. i havent even touched on how the US has Zero guaranteed holidays by the govt. many people here go years without ever having an entire week off of work

this has had a like. massive impact on American Brain and they dont even know it because travel isnt even a consideration economically. they dont even know how much more vacation time european countries have guaranteed

[llyfrenfys]

And after that massive post - I'm off to bed. I'll be out all day tomorrow so will get back to asks when I'm back.

[llyfrenfys]

In which I try not to be That Guy TM when it comes to Irish ancestors: An exploration of ancestry, diaspora and culture

Because of The Horrors TM in my life atm I've been looking into my biological family tree. I'm adopted but estranged from my adoptive family and I never met my biological family since I was adopted just short of my 2nd birthday. I've been tracing my ancestry for about 3 years now and it's genuinely quite stress relieving to me. It's also fun and challenging from a research standpoint - putting together my own family tree gave me the skills to write articles like this one I wrote in 2022 about historical Welsh queer people, for example.

Lately, I've been finding out more about my Irish ancestors while an adoptee (and thus not knowing any of my biological family) - but also doing this as a Celticist and tired of people doing the 'my sister's friend's cousin's father's mother was Irish' thing. This has created an almost unbearable tension between curiosity at my own ancestry while trying not to be That Guy who finds out about one (1) Irish ancestor hundreds of years ago and is weird about it.

Especially since mine are quite distant ancestors - my great, great, great grandparents were born in Dublin and in a tiny village in County Down called Dunnaman (near Kilkeel). However, they were Irish Catholics and emigrated to Liverpool in the 1870s - all of their subsequent children and grandchildren were born in Liverpool and all of the above + great grandchildren were raised Catholic - including my grandmother (who died before I was born). So there was an obvious attempt to maintain that heritage. There's even evidence my great, great, great grandmother at least spoke Irish (which, as she was born in County Down, would have been Ulster Irish).

The problems with uncritically throwing oneself at an ancestor's nationality:

Now, not all North Americans of Irish (or Welsh, Scottish, Italian, Scandinavian, German etc.) descent do this - but there's a very vocal set of North Americans of Irish descent who find awe and interest in their ancestry - which is actually quite a positive thing! - however, due to either temporal or cultural disconnect, they may end up doing or saying things (and not necessarily with bad intentions) which can have a negative impact on the Irish and the Irish language (or [nationality] and [language(s) associated with that nationality].

I'm reminded of the time an American commented on a Welsh language rights post I made in support of Welsh speakers, but they accidentally ended up using a white nationalist slogan by mistake. It can be a minefield - and with regards to Ireland specifically, mistakes like that can be so much worse. To literally give my own (mild) example, today I decided to relearn Irish (since I haven't spoken any in years since being taught basics at undergrad) and picked up a blank notebook I bought at Tesco the other week, while completely forgetting the inside cover of the notebook was orange. I was planning on decorating the notebook anyway and painted it a different colour. While I know that nobody would really hold it against me if I didn't change the colour, I just know that walking around with an orange notebook filled with Irish I'm relearning because of interest in my Catholic ancestors could be a confusing set of messages, at the very least. If you don't understand why this is, look up the meanings of the colours on the flag of Ireland.

Which is to say, even those of us in Northern Europe who have significantly greater physical proximity to Ireland than North America (and therefore should know better) still can and do get things wrong. And not just benignly wrong like in my case.

The tendency for some North Americans of Irish descent (Canada isn't exempt from this) to conflate Irish ancestry with a contemporary connection to the modern countries located on the island of Ireland as a whole can have results ranging from 'a bit weird' to 'jesus fucking christ'. As a Celticist, I've seen far, far too many Americans of Irish descent try to weigh in on modern Irish politics without any background knowledge or tact at all - and naturally they stake their claim on modern Irish politics entirely on the premise of having distant Irish ancestors. Or, even worse, things start to get all phrenological.

'Irish blood' and the nonexistence thereof:

'Irish blood' is continually evoked by some to validate their sense of 'Irishness' and the obsession with '[insert nationality] blood' is a distinctly North American phenomenon- likely related to or an offshoot of the concept of 'blood quantum', in which enrolment into some Native American nations and tribes is determined by how much 'Native blood' a person has. Notably, many people who would ostensibly have been described under this system as 'full blood' were registered by the US as 'half blood'. This is a method of genocide intended to wipe out tribes and nations by imposing strict measures of who does or does not qualify to enrol into a tribe or nation. This concept seems to have been extrapolated over time (in a North American context at least) into the idea of descent from other nationalities' being measured in a similar or adjacent way. This is how you end up with some North Americans declaring they are '1/8 Italian and 1/4 Irish' on their dad's side etc. While in Europe (where these nationalities hail from, crucially) this practice is seen as a really weird way to describe your ancestry. In general, it's simply 'my 4 times grandfather came from Spain' or 'my great great grandfather on my dad's side came from Finland' etc. if it comes up at all. For various political reasons, many Europeans with descent from multiple other European nationalities may choose to omit to mention descent from certain nationalities, especially if in recent history there has been conflict between their birth nation and an ancestor's nation. The most famous example of this is literally the British royal family changing their surname from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more 'British sounding' Windsor in 1917 due to the onset of the First World War.

Where it gets really weird (and also very offensive and rude) is when cultural stereotypes get invoked alongside the whole 'blood' thing in usually quite damaging and/or disparaging ways. I've seen way too many North Americans of Irish descent claim they're alcoholics because they have 'Irish blood' or even worse, claim it's normal to domestically abuse their spouses because of it!! (Genuine thing I have seen btw). Same goes for claiming to be a naturally good chef because of 'Italian blood' and so on. As a general rule, people from the place where your ancestors were from don't generally like to be inherently be considered drunks or prone to violence due to their nationality. Or have weird and inaccurate idealisms projected onto their language or cuisine.

Aren't there any positives?

It wouldn't be fair to make a post like this without mentioning some of the positives that can come from interest in an Irish ancestor. Like I mentioned at the start of this post, I myself felt inspired to relearn Irish because of my own Irish ancestors. I was taught the Connacht dialect at undergrad, however, since my ancestor was from County Down, I'm going to try and learn Ulster Irish instead. One doesn't need Irish ancestors to learn Irish of course - when I learned I wasn't aware I had any Irish ancestors. But being inspired to learn Irish because of an ancestor can't hurt and directly increases the number of Irish speakers in the world (provided you keep at it). This is a net positive for the language as a whole.

Similarly, people who have educated themselves on Irish politics because of their ancestry and genuinely learned something are also a positive thing to come out of discovering Irish ancestors. In my experience, these people are the kind of people I enjoy talking to about being a Celticist because they actively want to learn and respect the cultures being talked about. Which is huge to me!

Conclusion:

As a Welsh speaker whose national identity is more-or-less Jan Morris-esque, my Irish ancestry is an interesting facet of my ancestry I simply didn't know about before. And being an adopted person, I can sympathise with the general sentiment of a lot of white North Americans of feeling disconnected or alienated from any ancestral heritage. The conditions which create That Guy TM as described above rely on that sense of alienation to propagate a very ineffective, tactless and often very insensitive approach to Irish and other European cultures. But the important thing is that that approach can be challenged by people genuinely interested in their ancestry who are also conscientious of the living versions of the cultures their ancestors hailed from.

For me, that means learning Irish in a dialect my ancestors are likely to have spoken. I also visited the library today to check out some books on the Irish emigration to England and the sociopolitical reasons behind that emigration. I know the broad strokes, but the details are desirable to know to get a better idea of the why and how the country of my birth had a hand in creating the conditions which led my ancestors to emigrate in the first place. I think the world would be a better place if people took the time to understand the history and politics of ancestors which don't share their nationality.

As always, reblogs and thoughts are welcomed and encouraged!

Thank you for reading to the end - and if you'd like to support me, please see my pinned post. Diolch!

[llyfrenfys]

Yo! A mate of mine is doing a survey for their PHD based on Welsh speakers and the contexts in which they feel comfortable speaking Welsh, I figured I'd send it along as it may be of interest to you and some followers? Diolch yn fawr!

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=VUxHxiOpKk2b1OzjcUjbsislyVxFZm9Asu7rF11HsxRURTVSSjM1QVFZV0NONkIzUElPRFFCNE5WUC4u&web=1&wdLOR=cAA1F7410-25D3-44E5-A145-8E1737F31A54

Oh neat! Yeah I can share this. Diolch am rannu!

[llyfrenfys]

[llyfrenfys]

So we all know that Tumblr is US-centric. But to what degree? (and can we skew the results of this poll by posting it at a time where they should be asleep?)

Reblog to increase sample size!

[llyfrenfys]

IG : @emperorofmischief

[llyfrenfys]

My favourite thing about knowing people from mainland Europe is that they're constantly amazed British and Irish robins are so tame and friendly. Apparently in mainland Europe they're very timid and shy. But over here they can be really confident!

[llyfrenfys]

ive been seeing a new wave of transmedicalists lately I think we gotta start being vocal again about how nasty they are. you don't need to take hormones or have surgery to be a trans person. changing your name and pronouns is gender affirming care. wearing new clothes and hair and makeup is part of transitioning too. you dont need to pass to be trans, you don't need to be male or female.

nonbinary, agender, genderfluid, genderqueer people are trans too if that's a label they want to use for themselves. and anyone who says otherwise is a piece of shit. it's not "anti-transitioning" to say so, it's anti-telling other people what to do with their bodies. it's pro-minding your own fucking business and letting people do what they want with their gender and treating them with compassion and enthusiasm

[llyfrenfys]

Waiting on a few responses to be returned for the open letter against the Cass Review - then I'll release it for you all (and hopefully people with the power to change things) to see

[llyfrenfys]

i have decided to do a poll for fun because of a video im watching while im eating

for those curious i started playing during 1.6!! i played the demo worlds of the game on the minecraft.net website before my parents bought it for me

edit: part two for people who started playing post-1.10! edit 2: part three for pre-release players!