With apologies for cross posting


‘Opening the Vaults’: Researching Welsh family archives c. 1500-1850

Gloddaith Hall, (St. David’s College), Llandudno
- Tuesday 23rd August, 2011 -

Hosted at one of the most spectacular gentry houses surviving from
Early-Modern Wales, this one day symposium is a joint enterprise between
Aberystwyth and Bangor universities in association with the Institute for
Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS) and its affiliated ‘Mostyn
Project’ (see: http://www.imems.ac.uk/mostyn.php.en).

Inspired by the publications of the early twentieth-century historian
Thomas Allen Glenn (1864–1948), History of the Family of Mostyn of Mostyn
(1925) and The Family of Griffith of Garn and Plasnewydd (1934), this
event aims to consider developments in approaches towards the study of
Welsh family archives since Glenn carried out his work.

Some questions for consideration are:

•        What are the benefits of utilising Welsh family archives?
•        Are previously discounted items now considered important?
•        How have changes in the ways that we approach historical and literary
studies influenced our approaches to Welsh family archives? (For example,
the developments in women’s writing and history or the use of postcolonial
theory.)
•        How do the nature and form of items relate to the ways we perceive their
usefulness?
•        What are the significances of Welsh, English, Latin or French language
items found in Welsh family archives?
•        Has an increased interest in the role which Wales played in the culture,
politics, literature and economy of British and European history caused us
to look at Welsh archives with new eyes?
•        What are the problems arising from working with Welsh family archives
and how do we address them?

We hope to attract ‘case-study’ presentations from a range of participants
with a broad variety of backgrounds and research interests stretching
across the late medieval and early-modern periods.  Participants will be
welcome from both within and outside academic institutions from Wales and
beyond.

We welcome 250 word abstracts for presentations (not to exceed 20 minutes
in length) to be submitted to both the email addresses below by 22nd May.


For more information contact the organisers:
Shaun Evans – [log in to unmask]
Mary Chadwick – [log in to unmask]