Chicago's Welsh Societies

The Welsh

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 have a long and proud history in the state of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, so in many ways it is unsurprising that Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 is home to three separate Welsh societies that cater to various aspects of Welsh culture past and present:

The Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago

The Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago (CBS) is the oldest Welsh society in Chicago. It was founded in 1853 to 'afford pecuniary relief to Welsh people and their descendants...in indigent circumstances...and also for the purpose of effecting the social improvement of its members' (CBS by-laws 1906). Relief was provided to individuals and families who fell on hard times and every Welsh man, woman or child who died in the city or surrounding area without sufficient funds for a funeral was properly and respectfully buried. Money was raised through annual dues, tickets to concerts and picnics and from generous donations of members. It is one the oldest cultural societies in Illinois. Officers and members of the society helped to organize an international eisteddfod(Welsh cultural festival) in Chicago in September 1893 on the grounds of the 'White City' at the World's Fair and Columbian Exposition.

The society holds an annual St. David's Day banquet around March 1st, organizes a summer picnic, and mans a booth at Celtic Fest in Grant Park, Chicago in September to promote Wales and to educate Chicagoans about Wales and the Welsh. In November members of the society decorate the Welsh tree at the Museum of Science & Industry's annual 'Christmas Around the World' exhibition with symbols of Wales e.g. harps, red dragons, lovespoons, daffodils, and in the spring they hold a traditional Gymanfa Ganu (Singing Festival) in a local church to celebrate their love of singing. Board members are currently working on a project to catalogue Welsh graves in local cemeteries.

The Women’s Welsh Club of Illinois

The Women's Welsh Clubs of America originated in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914.
Plans for the Illinois Club began in early spring of 1955 when a committee met at the home of Estelle Roberts Schubert. It was then called the Welsh Women's Club. The first open meeting was held on June 20, 1955 at the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park. There were 63 women present. Within a short time 61 of them became charter members and many more joined that first year. The first President of the Women's Welsh Club of Illinois was Miss Myra Thomas. The Illinois Club is one of only a handful remaining in the country and continues to meet regularly.

The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society

The Chicago Tafia

Chicago Tafia

- The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society :The Tafia is an expatriate Welsh group that was formed in Chicago in 1999. As one of the youngest and consequently the most contemporary Welsh groups in North America, they are well-known to provide a real link to the present culture of Wales to the Chicago...

 is an expatriate Welsh group that was formed in Chicago in 1999.
As one of the youngest and consequently the most contemporary Welsh groups in North America, they are well-known to provide a real link to the present culture of Wales to the Chicago
area.

The group’s activities are varied with social get-together s to watch Welsh sporting events and musicians in addition to the typical cultural events such as St. David’s Day.
That is not to say that the traditional elements of Welsh culture are taken for granted by the group, over the years they have been involved with over a dozen concerts for Welsh male voice choirs in the Chicago area, including the Pendyrus, Penrhyn, Bangor, Black Mountain, Burlington and CF1 choirs at prominent Chicago venues.

In 2007 the group scored a double hit by attracting the former lead singer of Catatonia

Catatonia

Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....

, Cerys Matthews

Cerys Matthews

Cerys Elizabeth Matthews is a Welsh singer and songwriter. She is known as the lead singer of the Welsh rock band Catatonia, her more recent bilingual solo career, and for a 1998 Christmas duet with Tom Jones.-Biography:...

 to entertain the group at their annual St. David’s Day party and also the passing of Illinois General Assembly

Illinois General Assembly

The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Illinois has 59 legislative districts, with two...

 signing into law Bill HR0149 that proclaimed March 1, 2007, and each year thereafter, as St. David's Day in the State of Illinois and recognizing the Welsh contribution to the state.

In 2009, 2010 & 2011 The Chicago Tafia partnered with the British Consulate-General in Chicago and Colliers B&K to illuminate the iconic Wrigley Building

Wrigley Building

The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower on the Magnificent Mile...

 red, white, and green (the colours of the Welsh flag) on Saint Davids Day on Sunday, March 1.

Other Welsh Societies in the region

• The Cambrian Heritage Society of Madison
• Welsh Club of the Milwaukee Area
• The Welsh Gymanfa Ganu Association of Wisconsin
• Saint David's Society of Greater St. Louis
• St. David’s Welsh Society of Michigan
• The Welsh Society of Greater Cincinnati
• Welsh Society of Central Ohio
• Madog Center for Welsh Studies

External links

• The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society
• The Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago
• The Welsh Womens Club of Illinois
• The Encyclopedia of Chicago - Welsh
• AmeriCymru The Welsh-American Social Network

Newspaper, Magazine & Internet Articles about Chicago Welsh Societies

• The Loyola Phoenix - Closer Look gets a glimpse of the 13th annual Chicago Celtic Fest (September 22, 2009)
• Annual kilt contest skirts the issue - The Chicago Tafia in the Chicago Sun Times (September 11 2009)
• British Consulate Press Release - Chicago marks St. David's Day with Welsh colors atop iconic Wrigley Building (March 02, 2009)
• BBC March 1, 2009 - Wales and world honour St David
• The Encyclopedia of Chicago - Welsh
• Xiles Magazine - May 2007
• BBC Wales - 28 February 2007 - St. David's Day - Chicago Style!
• The Western Mail - October 6 2003 - Chicago Tafia beats Welsh groups' decline
• The Western Mail - September 24 2003 - Chicago is now the Tafia's kinda town
• BBC Wales - September 24 2003 - Marchnata canu'r Cymry yn Chicago (article in Welsh)

See also

• Wales
  Wales
  Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
  
  

• Welsh American
  Welsh American
  Welsh Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Wales. In the 2008 U.S. Census community survey, an estimated 1.98 million Americans had Welsh ancestry, 0.6% of the total U.S. population. This compares with a population of 3 million in Wales. However,...
  
  

• Welsh Canadian
  Welsh Canadian
  As of 2006 440,965 Canadian identify themselves as having some Welsh descent, with 27,115 of these identifying as exclusively Welsh.-The Welsh in Canada:...
  
  

• Welsh Australian

• Welsh language
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
  

• Welsh people
  Welsh people
  The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
  
  

• History of Wales
  History of Wales
  The history of Wales begins with the arrival of human beings in the region thousands of years ago. Neanderthals lived in what is now Wales, or Cymru in Welsh, at least 230,000 years ago, while Homo sapiens arrived by about 29,000 years ago...
  
  

• Welsh mythology
  Welsh mythology
  Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
  
  

• Welsh placenames
  Welsh placenames
  The placenames of Wales derive in most cases from the Welsh language, but have also been influenced by linguistic contact with the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Anglo-Normans and modern English...
  
  

• Welsh cuisine
  Welsh cuisine
  Welsh cuisine is the cuisine of Wales. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine. Beef and dairy cattle are raised widely. Sheep farming is extensive in the country and lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, particularly in dishes such as roast lamb...
  
  

• Music of Wales
  Music of Wales
  Wales has a strong and distinctive link with music. The country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song". This is a modern stereotype based on 19th century conceptions of Nonconformist choral music and 20th century male voice choirs, Eisteddfodau and arena singing, such as sporting...
  
  

• Welsh films

• Welsh History in Chicago
  Welsh history in Chicago
  Over the years Chicago has been called home by many immigrant groups and cultures, the Welsh included.-The Welsh in the early history of Chicago:Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen, whose grandparents were from Wales, is considered “The True Founder of Chicago”. He became the first president of the town...