The Old Language Endures: Cymraeg in North America
In the 1600s and 1700s, thousands left Cymru in search of a better life. Many landed in Pennsylvania, on the east coast of what is today the United States. According to Cymru Pennsylvania , this state retains the distinction of the highest Welsh-American population in the country still today, with about 150,000 claiming Welsh identity. Their early ancestors left their traces in the places they named: Bala Cynwyd, Berwyn, Lower and Upper Gwynedd, Narberth, North Wales, and Radnor. Later immigration, however, moved further into the continental heartland. By the 1800s, Ohio was one of the primary destinations for new arrivals. You find fewer Welsh place names, but they’ve left their trace. Follow Ohio’s Welsh Scenic Byway from Gallipolis to Jackson, and you will come across their old churches—including the Welsh Congregationalist Church in Oak Hill that was home to a Welsh-speaking congregation for more than 100 years, up until the mid-twentieth century. Today, it’s the home o...