This past Christmas, I was visiting with my sister and her family. She showed me a book on the history of a very small town in eastern ohio, where our mother grew up and some relatives still live. The town is known as Piney Fork. It is located in Jefferson County, Ohio. Now mother's family were Polish, in fact first generation immigrants. It was always my understanding that the vast majority of people in Piney Fork were of eastern european extraction. But from reading this book, there was a very large Welsh contingent there. Piney Fork was a coal mining town. In fact, the only job outside of the home that my mother ever had was at the "company store". I found it fascinating that there was a Welsh connection right under my nose. You just never heard about it when I was growing up. I know the Cleveland Plain Dealer did an article on the town, but I cannot find it online.
|