Welsh Place Names In The USA Spreadsheet

For all you place name providers and hunters, there IS some action being taken on the 'compilation' front.

I got press-ganged (thanks, Ceri!) into working on the spreadsheet - and am starting to make a dent in it - (from all the head banging, I think!.

What I plan to do is:

1. List all suggestions - provided they can be located by Google Earth 2. Highlight those derived from actual towns in Wales. 3. Insert links that may give insight to the derivation of the US town names. 4. Show which (US and Welsh towns) have been visited by Group members 5. Compile a map (Google Earth) that will show where ALL of them are.located.

- and whatever else I can think of - or Ceri thinks of for me to do!

As noted by others (notably Dave at Chicago Tafia - who is a constant fount of information) there are many US places on the list(s) that may have had little to no (known) connection to the motherland - other than bearing someone's name (Jones, Griffiths, etc.) - often with a *ville, *town, *boro appendage. Others are may be slightly misspelled - we'll forgive the Yanks on that count! However, they will still be listed - maybe somebody will be able to produce a documentation of the naming basis. Dave (Tafia) had a good one for CARDIFF, IL - a place that when I went there 30 years ago had no plaques, and just two piles of what once MAY have been a 'hamlet'; it was, however, shown, at that time, on the USGS map as a single dot!

On that note, the most prominent name on the US list, MILFORD, is itself a tiny 'hole on the road' in Central Wales. I doubt that it was the impetus for the many MILFORDs in the US. If any of them owe their origin to Wales, it is most likely with an affinity to MILFORD HAVEN, in Pembrokeshire - a deep-water seaport. Maybe many Taffs shoved out to sea from there in ocean-going coracles many years ago?

As this 'work in progress' proceeds, more will be disclosed. Bugs will be stepped on (er . . . I mean, worked out) and it is hoped that we can produce a useful compendium for Cymrophiles - and the natives of Cymru.

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Comment by Swansea Jack on December 1, 2011 at 10:33am

Only one month left to get that travelling done and rack up Gulliver points. At this stage, mona is in the lead. Check it out - see the spreadsheet and map - to see which US Towns with Welsh Place Names may be on your itinery for the Christmas holiday travels. Take your camera - earn extra points. I sense mona's gwiwer gwych is getting restless and may want to travel too.  

Comment by Swansea Jack on September 8, 2011 at 4:56pm

Looks like it - I may take the 60 mile round trip across the river to visit my home-town's namesake - just to make you feel more at ease!    

Comment by mona everett on September 8, 2011 at 4:36pm

Am I the only one traveling this year????

Comment by Swansea Jack on September 8, 2011 at 5:07am

Overlooked no more!  Flint, IN shall be added - especially now that it has been visited by a green squirrel.

Comment by mona everett on September 7, 2011 at 5:40pm
Hey--Flint, IN, wasn't even on your spreadsheet--how'd you miss that metropolis???? :)
Comment by Ceri Shaw on April 10, 2011 at 8:32pm
Quite!  Well I'll just sit back and carry on sipping the rather jolly Campari & Soda that the maid just brought me...toodle pip
Comment by Swansea Jack on April 10, 2011 at 7:00pm
I'll get on top of it first thing in the morning, mona!   You DO realize that Ceri is just a figure-head here don't you? All the sweat behind the scenes is off Swansea Jacks's broad back!  I do the grunt-work, he gets the glory!   That's why we Swansea folk look askance at Cardiff folk.     LOL      Well - they ARE closer to England! -   hee-hee
Comment by mona everett on April 10, 2011 at 4:51pm

Need you to add:

Middleton, WI & Wales

Newton, Iowa & Wales

and, possibly--Mt. Horeb, WI and Horeb, Wales

Photos of our visits to those places in the US forthcoming, along with a photo from our detour to Hopkinton, Iowa, which is already on your spreadsheet.

Diolch!

Mona and Dewi

Comment by Swansea Jack on April 6, 2011 at 11:52am

Thanks, Emyr.

Apologies for not having had a link to Lampeter in there before this!  It is now in the spreadsheet - on the Lampeter- PA line.

 

Must be 45 years or so since I was there!    The one in Wales, I mean; never been to the one in PA.

 

Thanks

Comment by Emyr on April 6, 2011 at 10:43am
Link for Lampeter http://www.lampeter-tc.gov.uk/
Comment by mona everett on April 6, 2011 at 9:29am

OK on Avon--my bad.

Milton, WI is about 20 miles south of where I live. I will stop by and get a photo with Dewi. I guess the Milton near Tenby would be the one I'd be most likely to visit.

 

Looking (in vain) for Avon in Wales, I realized I went past a bunch of other towns with Welsh names--will make a list when I go back to Cleveland in August! :)

 

Thanks,

 

Mona

Comment by Swansea Jack on April 6, 2011 at 7:25am
Added MILTON, WI (including link - and 1 point for you) - and in the process realized that I had not already included MILTON, WV (and its link) - I had spent many hours in that one over the years.
Comment by Swansea Jack on April 5, 2011 at 6:19pm

OK, mona  - I'll add MILTON, WI - which MILTON in Wales would you like added?   Send photo and will give the bonus points. Did you go there on this trip? If so, will give the 1 point.

 

No can do on the AVON - can't find any such place in Wales. I'm not allowing ABERAVON as a basis. Sorry.  

Comment by mona everett on April 5, 2011 at 5:56pm

Add Milton, WI and Milton, Wales--will send a photo from Milton, WI next time I go by there.

 

Add Avon, OH, and Avon, WI and Avon, Wales. Will send a photo of Avon, OH next time--I was there, but didn't take a photo. If I get to Avon, WI this year, will send a photo, too.

 

Mona

Comment by Swansea Jack on February 15, 2011 at 8:25am

Thanks for the listings, John. -

 

Here's the case I make for exclusion or inclusion of each:

 

Jenkintown - no place in Wales named Jenkin(s) 

Wynnewood - no place in Wales with that name - or Wynne

Haverford - probably should have been included - though as a variant of Haverfordwest

Merion and Lower Merion - though no place in Wales called Merion, I suppose they could be attributed to Meirioneth - much as the PA town of Radnor is included.

 

As for Montgomery - if it is a town, it can be included, but as a county - no, sorry!

 

Now - just visit any this yera, and reap the points. 

 

BTW - I had decided (before seeing your posting) that photos should warrant point doubling - so get your camera out before making the visits. 

Comment by John Berry on February 14, 2011 at 8:50pm

Swansea boyo - someone's missed Jenkintown, PA (north of the city) as well as Haverford (next to Bryn Mawr), Merion (next to Narberth), Wynnewood and Lower Merion, all on the Main Line.  I've been to the all many times, but I have no pics.   What about all the Montgomery Counties in the US (PA, MD, TX, etc)? Do they count?

Speaking of pink bunnies, one American dictionary in my possession gives the etymology of Montgomery as being derived from some, I think fictitious, Norman seat in France, whereas I am sure that it is really an Anglicisation of Mynydd Gymry, and the fact that it is everywhere pronounced Muntgumry rather than Montgomry to me proves it!

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