To start off this Blog, I figured I would re-post the introduction post I made when I joined Mastodon. I was very uncertain about what instance to join, since there were so many, and many were closed to new signups at the time. I tried to find some interesting instances, but at the same time, I was assured that in the long run, it didn’t really matter. So, I went back to my heritage.

My father’s parents came to New York in the 1920s from Wales. Grandpa was born in Cymmer or Pyle, he was never clear on it, and Grandma was born in Abergavenny. Parts of the family are from Pontypridd/Six Bells. The family history is heavily into coal mining. Grandpa and his brothers, however, went to sea. They were in the merchant navy, but got pulled into WWI. Three of them earner their Masters certificates. The other brother joined the forestry service and went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

We spent summer with Grandma and Wales was always close at hand. However, shew grew up in a time when the language and other symbols of Welshness were being suppressed. She said she spoke Welsh as a child, but lost it when schooling was done in English.

So, that is why a New York kid ended up joining toot.wales.

Here is the original intro post:

Shwmae, Bore Da. I’m Jennifer, I’m from a bit east of New York City. My grandparents came here from Swansea and Abergavenny and I grew up immersed in Welshness. I support #SwanseaCity and #WelshRugbyUnion. Closer to home, I support the NY Mets, Islanders and Jets.

I’m in my mid-50s. I’m an attorney with a general practice and am active in Civil Rights advocacy. I have a wife and two grown kids, a dog and my son’s tortoise. I’ve tried learning some Welsh in Duolingo but I am useless with languages.

In 1990 my wife and I took our honeymoon in Wales (and a bit of England) and we’ve been back many times. My daughter did a semester at the Univ of Edinburgh which gave me an excuse to visit Scotland and make several trips down to Wales. I am trans, suffering most of my life in denial, only making progress with all this recently. I’ve been on hrt with estrogen and T blockers for only about a year now, but have never felt more at peace. I’m still not public with this and most people don’t know.

I hope you don’t mind me choosing this server, it seemed like a natural fit.