Tag: Wales
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William Halse Gatty Jones (1825 – 1897): From Gold-Rush Melbourne to the Hills of Merioneth
My first cousin four times removed, William Halse Gatty Jones, lived a life that stretched across two hemispheres and mirrored the restless energy of the nineteenth century. Born in London on 8 March 1825, he began as a City solicitor, made his fortune amid the Australian gold rush, and returned to Wales to become a…
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Yma o Hyd in My Blood: What My DNA Reveals About the Welsh Story
When we explore family history, we often begin with parish registers, gravestones, and sepia photographs. Yet DNA now allows us to go far deeper, reaching back not hundreds but thousands of years. My own paternal line — the Davies men of Montgomeryshire — has recently been confirmed as belonging to a branch called R-L96. This…
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Finding a Home in My Own Country: Why I’m Backing Plaid Cymru
By Antony David Davies FRSA My family is woven into the fabric of modern Wales. One ancestor, John Davies of Tal-y-bont, was known across the 19th century as “Apostol y Plant”—the Children’s Apostle—for his tireless work nurturing the nation’s youth. More recently, my cousin, the Reverend Trevor Owen Davies, was a leader in the Calvinistic…
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Keeping the flame: Why I joined the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion — and why it matters for Wales
Wales is a nation woven together by memory and identity. Its story is told not only through the slate quarries, chapel pulpits, and small farms of our landscape, but also through the societies and institutions that have sustained Welshness far beyond our own borders. One of the most remarkable of these is the Honourable Society…
Antony David Davies FRSA FRAS AFRHistS MCMI MIoL 