Travelling to Wales to trace family roots has become more popular as the amount of genealogical information online is growing every day.

However, there are challenges peculiar to Wales that you need to consider if you are visiting for this purpose. Firstly, some source documentation is in Welsh and translations into English may not be readily available. Secondly, if you have a common Welsh surname like Jones or Davies, you might find that you have difficulty identifying your ancestors from people who share the same surname.

A Professor Hartman of Suffolk University in Boston is quoted as saying in his book Americans from Wales, (1967) that "Some thirty-nine surnames include about 95 per cent of the Welsh, wherever they are found". Nonetheless, researching your family tree is rewarding and entirely possible. A good place to start would be the Census records for England and Wales via the National Archives at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census/

Help with your ancestry research

If you would like to research your family history, we would be delighted to provide a service for you as part of an personalized tour. Please contact us with as much information as possible.

Alternatively, you may wish to hire an independent researcher directly - you can find a list of researchers at the National Library of Wales.