Glamorgan

Investigating the Welsh migration to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, which attracted hundreds of Welsh colliers as it grew as a mining town.

The talk will introduce the development of the coal resources in Nanaimo, and trace the subsequent growth of the mining industry, which attracted hundreds of skilled Welsh workers, especially in the 1880s and 1890s. The Welsh community here fitted in with the wider network of Welsh settlements across the North American continent, with a lot of movement to and from other centres. 

Dr Gethin Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Heritage and Classics at Swansea University. His recent research has been focused on Wales and the First World War, but his doctoral thesis was about the Welsh in the Gold Rushes to British Columbia. He also has expertise in the history of Welsh communities overseas in a variety of locations and in this talk he will be returning to a story that he began researching decades ago, for family history reasons.