Welsh Research
One of the earliest groups to settle in Pennsylvania were the Welsh. In 1682, Welsh Quakers purchased “the Welsh Tract,” 40,000 acres in what is now Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania; by 1700 Welsh immigrants represented approximately 1/3 of Pennsylvania's population. In 1683, Welsh Baptists from central and western Wales bought 30,000 acres along the Delaware River, mostly in what is now Delaware.
From 1698 though 1741, Welsh settlements were established in what is now Montgomery, Bucks, and Berks counties, as well as in Lancaster County and on the Susquehanna frontier, all in Pennsylvania. Welsh Baptists settled in what is now Cambria County, Pennsylvania beginning in 1796 and continued to be the largest ethnic group in parts of that county until 1873. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, south Wales emigrants settled primarily in Pennsylvania, to work in the coal, iron, and steel industries in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Montour, Mercer, Allegheny, and York counties. By 1900, Pennsylvania boasted over 100,000 Welsh --1/3 of all the Welsh in the United States -- while New York had more than 20,000; today, Pennsylvania has more than 200,000 residents of Welsh descent.
Welsh settlement in America, Welsh laws, maps, and photos, and Welsh-American and Welsh church records are only some of the topics on which you will find materials in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's catalog. Stop in at the Free Library of Philadelphia to explore Welsh history, gazeteers, language, music, letters, and literature. Want to explore the Welsh connection to Philadelphia? Saint David's Chapel of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church is the spiritual home of the Welsh in the Philadelphia area, regardless of their religious affiliation.
“Welsh in
Pennsylvania” by Matthew S. Magda
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/welsh/page1.asp?secid=31
Map, “Emigration from
Wales to America”
http://www.data-wales.co.uk/emmap.htm
The Welsh-American
Genealogical Society (FGS member)
http://www.rootsweb.com/~vtwags/
The Welsh Society of
Philadelphia, Places of Interest
http://members.macconnect.com/users/d/dalex/html/beingwelsh-places.html