New project launches dedicated to preserving local history and personal stories across Wales

LOCAL history, personal stories and even past secrets are being recorded and kept for future generations thanks to a new project launched today across Gwynedd and Ynys Môn to coincide with Global Intergenerational Week.

A Menter Môn project, ‘Ein Hanes Ni’ (Our Own History) was first trialled in Llannerchymedd in partnership with the Isle of Anglesey County Council. Local children gathered and recorded stories from the area in conversations with the older generation about their memories of the village. Now, with the help of a £250,000 National Lottery ‘People and Places’ grant, the scheme is being rolled out to communities across both counties.

The new funding will help ‘Ein Hanes Ni’ achieve its aim of connecting different generations – to each other and to their communities, giving residents a platform to share stories and changes they’ve seen over the years. Giving children and young people the opportunity to create new relationships with older generations, the project will also work with communities to create digital and print resources to record local stories that have been gathered.

Aaron Morris is a project officer with Menter Môn and leads on this scheme, he said: “This is a great opportunity for people to own their history and make a digital record of it for future generations – this is content that would not necessarily be found in books, archives, academic work or on the web.

“People are at the heart of what we are trying to achieve with Ein Hanes Ni. We want to preserve and record the stories of individuals – from the landscape to names of buildings, to the streets and local characters, to the language spoken. By filming conversations between older and younger members of a community we hope to create an opportunity for them to learn and develop relationships as well as showing young people the value of the older generation and their surrounding area.”

Across both counties, 24 communities have signed up to take part in the project.

Catrin Jones, Language and Community Manager with Menter Môn added: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Feedback from the original trial project was fantastic, with some quite emotional, and stories shared locally and further afield thanks to social media. With these new funds we can help more people reminisce and learn about what makes their area unique.”

This latest boost comes in time to celebrate Global Intergenerational Week, a worldwide campaign to encourages people to embrace intergenerational practice and relationships Through the scheme Menter Môn will work with the adults to undertake the research, before engaging and filming with the children. As well as recording local history the project hopes to help people develop volunteering skills, share connections, and focus on some of the themes that matter to their community.