Charlotte

I’m English and live in the Midlands but have some Welsh heritage. My dad used to talk about spending time in South Wales with his grandmother, but I also found out recently that his dad was born in Newport, so the connection is more recent than I thought. Doing some rudimentary family research, my great-grandmother’s family were all Monmouthshire-based for as far back as the census details will take me.

My granddad died very young so I never met him, and my dad also sadly died this year, so I don’t know very much about the Welsh side of my family. My dad chose to have his ashes scattered on Pen y Fal and one of his few memories of his dad was being taken camping in the Brecon Beacons just the two of them, so he clearly felt a strong pull to Cymru still. All these things have made me want to connect to my Welsh heritage a bit more. Learning the language and the history of it feels like a good way to start exploring and feeling closer to that side of my family – even little things like thinking of my granddad as my tad-cu make me feel a bit more connected already. I’m really enjoying this journey so far