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BUY 'IF GOD WILL SPARE MY LIFE....' HERE
Pembrokeshire, west Wales 1904: Apprentice solicitor Arthur Nicholas is seeking to trace one William Batine James, who stands to inherit an impressive farm near Fishguard.
Although Arthur knows James emigrated to Canada and then America in the early 1870s, nothing has been heard of him since.
What Arthur cannot know is that, following a series of adventures, James enlisted in the US Seventh Cavalry at Chicago in February 1872 and four years later fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn; better known as Custer's Last Stand, when 210 soldiers were massacred by the largest force of Indians ever assembled on the Great Plains...
As the unsuspecting Seventh depart Fort Abraham Lincoln, bound for their Armageddon, James himself recounts the tortured odyssey he undertook from a tiny north Pembrokeshire village all the way to hostile Indian territory in Montana Territory.
These recollections are interspersed with Arthur's own dogged efforts in following his trail thirty years later. As his investigation unfolds Arthur's motivation to find the elusive James unexpectedly becomes more personal than professional.
James reveals a chain of personal tragedy plus a brutal schooling during the hated 'Welsh Not' era when children such as himself were caned and beaten for using their native tongue.
This has cost him his religious faith; inexplicably, he finds himself unable to recite The Lord's Prayer in Welsh.
While proving himself a proficient soldier, James grows increasingly uncomfortable at what he comes to regard as the US Government's persecution of the Indians; even drawing parallels with Welsh oppression.
On the fateful ride to Little Bighorn, James reflects on his troubled past and gradually comes to the realisation that he is as much a fugitive as the Indians he is pursuing.
But the one thing he has not taken into account is that a man can never escape from himself...
Based on true events, Mike Lewis's novel examines how horrific childhood experiences shape the adults we become.
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I’m slowly working on family genealogy and I got some wonderful family photos recently. Ceri had done his article on a Welshman who was at Little Big Horn and I have an ancestor with a very tangential connection to this. My first (so far) Welsh ancestor in North America was James B. Morgan, Sr. I haven’t got to see much in the way of primary source documents so far, only research other people have done, so I’ve got a ways to go to reach confident certainty on his history. James Morgan was born in Llandaff, which is now part of modern-day Cardiff, in 1607. In about 1635, James...
Read MoreBetween the mid 1840s and late 1860s about 5,000 Welsh people, inspired by the Mormon faith, left Wales to start a new life in the far west of the United States. In Welsh Saints on the Mormon Trail (Y Lolfa), written by Wil Aaron, the story is told of their journey by ox-carts and on foot from the Mississippi and the Missouri to Salt Lake City, and of their subsequent lives in Utah. The book explores a little-known episode of Welsh history. The Welsh Mormons were crossing a continent at a particularly dramatic time in American history. The ‘49ers’ and the Pony Express shared...
Read MoreAn Interview With Jean Blundell, Friends Of Fort Belan Association - North Wales
Ceri Shaw - @ceri-shaw
22 Aug 2017play / ... From the Wikipedia Fort Belan :- "The fort was built in 1775 for a reported cost of £30,000 (£3,451,642 as of 2015), by Thomas Wynn, then MP for Caernarfonshire and later to become Lord Newborough. He was worried about the vulnerability of Britain’s coastline to attack, particularly because of the ongoing American War of Independence. Fort Belan was the only purpose-built fort of the American Revolution on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean." ... Fort Belan, Ynys Mon Photos: 16
Read MoreWales And The American Dream - An Interview with Author Robert Llewellyn Tyler
AmeriCymru - @americymru
30 Dec 2015Robert Llewellyn Tyler was born in Newport, Wales. He received his BA from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, his MA from the Unversity of Pittsburgh, and his PhD from the University of Melbourne. He has taught in Japan and Argentina, and at universities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. For the academic year 2009-2010, he was the Fulbright Professor at Westminster College in Fulton Missouri. He has been widely published and continues to research Welsh communities overseas. AmeriCymru spoke to Robert about his latest book Wales And The American Dream...
Read More"It is a story of conflict and conciliation, of antagonism and integration, of greed and generosity.” This is how Cerys Matthews begins her voice over of the first video in The Dragon and the Eagle / Y Ddraig a’r Eryr, an enhanced eBook on Wales and America. Published digitally by Cardiff based Thud Media, the English language version was launched on August 30 at the North American Festival of Wales in Minneapolis by its author/producer Colin Thomas. The term ‘app’ understates what a breakthrough this is in Welsh publishing. For the first time in Wales, history is being...
Read MorePeregrinations of William Davies Evans During the Later Nineteenth Century Welsh author Margaret Morgan Jones publishes her great-uncles account of his travels in the USA in 1880. AmeriCymru spoke to Margaret about the book and her future plans. Buy Travels of A Welsh Preacher in the U.S.A. here AmeriCymru: Hi Margaret your new book Travels of a Welsh Preacher in the U.S.A is a translation from an 1883 Welsh language original Dros Gyfanfor a Chyfandir. Can you tell us how you became involved with this project? Margaret: I became involved with the...
Read MoreWhen sharp-shooting Annie Oakley and the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody visited Wales at the beginning of the last century, the crowds just couldn’t get enough of them. Pont Books author, Phil Carradice, has always been fascinated by their story and was inspired to write an account of their visit through the eyes of a young street boy. The Wild West Show follows the adventures of a young boy called Sam who finds himself embroiled in a dangerous situation when he witnesses a coldblooded murder… When Buffalo Bill bursts into town with his band of Indian braves and sharp-shooting...
Read MoreTrilby Angharad Busch , is a descendant of Welsh, German, and Lithuanian immigrants. After retiring from teaching college English she devoted herself to writing an historical novel about Welsh immigrants in her hometown of Homestead, PA. AmeriCymru spoke to Trilby about her novel and future plans at the 2012 North American Festival Of Wales in Scranton P.A.Website: Darkness Visible ... ... REVIEW ... This is a book that works on many different levels. With a full complement of credible and well developed characters it is a useful contribution to the...
Read MoreAmeriCymru: Croeso i AmeriCymru Eirug and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What prompted you to write The Welsh of Tennessee ? Eirug: Back in the late 1990's, and when I started to contemplate the possibility of retirement, I found that my life long enthusiasm for micro-electronic research was gradually being replaced by a curiosity over what had been published in Welsh within the United States. One of the things that became immediately apparent was a need to compile a list of such publications, both books and pamphlets, and the fruit of that labor eventually...
Read MoreFamous Americans of Welsh Descent: The Lone Ranger ( Who Was That Masked Man? )'
Ceri Shaw - @ceri-shaw
12 Aug 2009OK so "The Lone Ranger" is a fictional character but the fact remains that he is probably based on John Reynolds Hughes whose life and exploits are recorded in Border Boss . John Reynolds Hughes whose family were of Welsh descent was born in Illinois on February 11th 1855. Dafydd Meirion, writing in Welsh Cowboys and Outlaws observes that.:- "Hughes grandparent had left Wales for America and his father, Thomas Hughes, had visited Wales twice to see his relatives." "Border Boss" is essential reading for anyone wanting a detailed account of Hughes'' adventures. John...
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Welsh American Ghost Towns
Help us to document and record the many 'ghost' towns in the USA with a Welsh historical connection. Please contact us with comments and suggestions below or via email americymru@gmail.com
Check out the locations that we have already featured below:
Swansea (CA)Black Diamond Coal Mining Company Ghost Towns
Nortonville ( Black Diamond 1)
