Overview

Short biographies of 150 famous Welsh Americans. Presidents, Hollywood actors, millionaires, frontiersmen and dozens of other professions are captured in this treasure trove for history buffs and laymen alike - and an invaluable reference work for historians, students and researchers. Reprint; first published in 2008.

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9781845240776

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Richard Milhous Nixon was the thirty-seventh president of the United States, taking the oath of office in January 1969. He had been born 56 years previously in California. We learn from Arvon Robertss book that Nixons Welsh ancestry went back some 300 years, with several of his Welsh ancestors arriving in America between 1634 and 1710. The mother of the sixteenth US president, Abraham Lincoln, was the grand-daughter of John Hanks and Sarah Evans, whose father was a Welshman by birth. However, Senator James J. Davis was actually born in Wales in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, in 1873. His grandfather, who was in business in Maryland, encouraged the family to emigrate, and James J. was seven years old when the family moved to Pennsylvania. James Davis was never afraid of hard work. Leaving school at the age of eleven, he became an iron puddlers assistant; by 1893 he was union spokesman in the tin mills of Indiana. His political career took off, and at the same time he became strongly associated with the Eisteddfod, becoming one of only three Archdruids elected by the American Gorsedd in its history. Not every Welshman within the pages of this fascinating work of reference was held in high esteem. Llewelyn Morris Humphreys was the son of Ann and Brian Humphreys and was named after his fathers brother, who was a Justice of the Peace in Wales. There was no similarity of lifestyle between uncle and nephew: Llewelyn Morris became a hit-man for Al Capone, and one of Chicagos most notorious gangsters. Arvon Roberts is a Welsh-American historian and freelance writer; while working for the Post Office, he has contributed to many influential periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic and built up his own personal library relating to the subject. From 1,200 biographical notes on distinguished Welsh-Americans, now indexed and deposited in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the author has selected 150 for inclusion in this edifying work. Norma Penfold It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council

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