New on the bookshelf: Newsletters; Welsh ancestry

SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE

By MYRA VANDERPOOL GORMLEY

Los Angeles Times Syndicate

"O"Our family members are scattered across the country and around the world," says Jeanne Rundquist Nelson. "We don't get together for Thanksgiving, Christmas or other traditional family holidays anymore. We don't even make it to the family reunion every year. But we still love our extended family and still share many happy memories with them. We want to keep in touch with them, but find it hard to in our busy lives. Voila! The family newsletter."

Nelson, of Kansas City, Mo., is the author of "Absolutely Family! A Guide to Editing and Publishing a Family Newsletter," a 101-page how-to book. In it are ideas for features to use in your newsletter, suggestions for exploring the family's ethnic heritage and ways to use humor in your publication.

There are also questions to stimulate your writers' creativity, ways to use illustrations and strategies for containing costs.

Why publish a family newsletter? Nelson says by doing so you:

- Discover the joys of reconnecting with your extended family.

- Develop a powerful family history tool.

- Create a family keepsake.

- Pass on your family's stories. Get the word out. Give of yourself to the people who mean the most to you.

"Absolutely Family!" is available ($15 postpaid) from Family Times Publishing, P.O. Box 901653, Kansas City, Mo., 64190-1653; http:// absolutely.anthill.com/.

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Researching Welsh ancestry can be difficult because of the high incidence of a small number of surnames. It has been estimated, for example, that by the mid-19th century, fully 90 percent of the Welsh population shared fewer than 100 surnames, while the 10 most common surnames were shared by roughly half the population.

The first large-scale immigration of Welsh to America took place from 1680 to 1720, with many of them settling in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The mass emigration of the 19th century was caused by poor harvests in Wales starting in the 1790s, and the Welsh continue to leave their homeland for the next 80 years or so. Many skilled Welsh workmen came to America to work as iron puddlers and rollers, coal miners, slate quarrymen and tin-platters.

For successful results family historians must sift through the numerous Jones, Williams, Davies, Thomas, Evans, Roberts, Hughes, Lewis, Morgan and Griffiths to find their ancestors. Therefore a grasp of specialized Welsh genealogical methods and sources is needed. Moreover, it is important to have some understanding of the social, cultural, religious and economic background of the communities in which Welsh ancestors lived.

"Second Stages in Researching Welsh Ancestry," edited by John and Sheila Rowlands, is a valuable 362-page contribution by experts in different fields. Apart from chapters dealing with aspects of community life, there are some relating to different occupations, surnames, old documents, maps, estate records and several family histories. The book also includes several case studies. Other chapters pertain to such topics as: Catholics in Wales, Urban Growth and Development, People in Mining and Metals, English Settlement in Montgomeryshire, Religion and Society in 19th-century Wales.

"Second Stages," is available ($25.45 postpaid) from the publisher, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md., 21202-3897; (800) 296-6687; http:// www.genealogybookshop.com/.

Information about Wales on the Web can be found at http:// www.rootsweb.com/~engwales/.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.