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Welsh Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in the northwest European nation of Wales (which is part of the United Kingdom).
Number of Welsh Americans
In the 2000 Census, 1.7 million Americans reported Welsh ancestry, 0.6% of the total US population. This compares with a population of 2.9 million in Wales.
However, the name Jones, which is often considered distinctively Welsh, is the fourth most-common surname in America, accounting for over 3% of Americans*, which suggests a higher rate of Welsh ancestry than indicated by self-identification.
Welsh emigration to the United States
The legend of voyages to America and settlement there in the 12th century led by Madog, son of Owain Gwynedd, prince of Gwynedd, is not now generally considered to have a historical basis.
In the late 17th century, there was a large emigration of Welsh Quakers to Pennsylvania, where a Welsh Tract was established. By 1700, the Welsh accounted for about one-third of the colony’s estimated population of twenty thousand. There are a number of Welsh place names in this area. There was a second wave of immigration in the late 18th century, notably a Welsh colony named Cambria established by Morgan John Rhys in what is now Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Mass emigration from Wales to the United States got under way in the 19th century with Ohio being a particularly popular destination. It is also said that around 20% of the population of Utah are of Welsh descent.
In the early nineteenth century most of the Welsh settlers were farmers, but later on there was emigration by coal miners to the coalfields of Ohio and Pennsylvania and by slate quarrymen from North Wales to the "Slate Valley" region of Vermont and New York State.
By the mid-19th century, Malad City, Idaho was established. It began largely as a Welsh Mormon settlement and lays claim to having more people of Welsh descent per capita than anywhere outside of Wales *.
Welsh culture in the United States
One area with a strong Welsh influence is an area in Jackson and Gallia Counties, Ohio, often known as "Little Cardiganshire". The Madog Center for Welsh Studies is located at Rio Grande University here.
List of notable Welsh-Americans
External links
- A timeline of the history of Wales and details of some of the communities in the U.S. where Welsh influence is most important
- Patterns of Welsh settlement in the United States in the first half of the 19th century
- Madog Center for Welsh Studies, Rio Grande University
- The Welsh in Pennsylvania
- BBC Wales: Welsh Comings and Goings: The history of migration in and out of Wales
- data-wales.co.uk: Emigration from Wales to America
- data-wales.co.uk: Why do so many Black Americans have Welsh names?
See also
- List of Welsh Americans
- Celtic music in the United States
- Welsh Tract
- British-American
- English American
- Scottish American
- Maps of American ancestries
- Welsh colonization of the Americas
"Welsh American"