On 30 September, 2009, Brian Swann gave a talk at the National Library of Wales on "DNA and Welsh Family History - Past, Present and Future." Brian is the Regional Director of ISOGG for England and Wales and he asked if we would like to provide some Power Point slides of our Phillips DNA project to include in his presentation. Naturally we said yes! We hope this exposure will gain us another Welsh Phillips participant or two. Click here to view our Power Point slide show. Here is Brian's report on his presentation:
Dear All
I have just come back from a short break in Wales - which included a DNA presentation at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. The talk was a mid-week lunch-time talk (1.15 pm) and was an all-ticket affair. So you were most likely to get retired people attending.
The NLW Lecture Theatre has the best facility I have ever spoken in. A huge screen, very modern facilities and seating for about 100 in the main forum and a gallery upstairs for about 25 extra people. That was not enough seating for this talk. All tickets were taken and there was a video-link to about 30 more people outside watching on a large TV screen in one of the exhibition galleries.
All was very well received. I did ask whether any of the audience had come to WDYTYA at London in February. Not one person had - apart from Beryl Evans, who is the external liaison member of staff at the NLW. This is worth remembering - WDYTYA and London Olympia may be perceived as a "long way" to come for folk in Wales and "expensive" (about 250 miles from Aberystwyth) - and perhaps not particularly relevant for their Welsh interests. You probably have to stand up locally and say "This DNA stuff is important". One couple who came about 100 miles to hear me were John and Sheila Rowlands. They were the editors of the two best books on doing Welsh Family History, published in the 1990s.
So this was as successful as I could possibly have hoped and showed there is an appreciable amount of latent interest in Mid-Wales. If I had had more time in the run-up I would have done some ISOGG Flyer leaflets as well. But this will have been the first time that DNA and Family History will have been spoken about at the National Library of Wales, or in Mid-Wales at all as far as I am aware. Beryl Evans asked if I would write an article for the Ceredigion Magazine (formerly Cardiganshire); she is a native of that County.
Best regards
Brian