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Whatever you asked, I don't think so.... :>)

I just discovered my Welsh roots a couple of years ago, thanks in part to meeting a distant cousin at FR on another thread about Wales. I then went to one of the online genealogy sites and within fifteen minutes discovered a second cousin who has done an enormous amount of work on the family tree who had been looking for me for twenty years. Imagine that! I learned that we have a huge clan here in the western states and met about 50 relatives at a reunion. One of my closer cousins, who bears the Kidwell name (I do not), is Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho, though we have yet to meet.

I plan to visit Wales, perhaps next year, and take a look at Kidwelly, from whence the Thomas and Kidwell ancestors departed in 1621. I'd love to learn to at least pronounce the language.

I did fall madly in love with the first Welsh Corgi I met, bought a pair and raised two lovely litters long before I realized my Welsh connection. Funny what clings to the DNA.

I ejoyed reading through your posts on this thread. If you have a Welsh ping list, please add my name.

O ble rydychi yn dod? (From where do you come?). Mae fyn heulu dod o Aberystwyth yn Cymru. (My family comes from Aberystwyth in Wales). There is an organization in North America is offers courses in Welsh. Their website can be found here. I corresponded via e-mail for months with Mark Nodine as he crafted a Welsh lexicon. My contribution was to help him make a great tool run lightning fast.

Welsh geneology that goes back further than 1754 becomes challenging. It was in that year that the English forced the Welsh to take surnames. Prior to that time, you needed about 4 generations of patronymic association and typically the name of the house where the family resided.

Welsh is totally phonetic. What you see is what you say. The rules are very simple. The single most difficult sound for native English speakers to master is the "ll" in Welsh. The closest approximation is to run together the sounds of "th" in "think" followed by the letter "L". Pronounce "llan" as "thlan" with a strong aspiration. The Welsh letter "NG" is pronounced just as in the trailing letters of the English word "song". It is nasal. It also makes for interesting search in the dictionary collating order. The Welsh letter "ch" is pronounced in a more gutteral fashion than the German or Scottish (Bach or loch). English speakers get tripped up on words that begin with "ch" as in "chimod". It's pretty easy on a trailing syllable.

Good luck in your linguistic travels.