Making ancestors into a mental sculpture

Connecting the ancestors.
Like connecting the dots...do you remember those exercises? Each dot had a number by it, and you'd follow along, and eventually you will have a drawing of something or another.  What form do my ancestors make, if I bring all the dots together?

I will use my own imagination here, and hope that I don't offend anyone (ancestors are sometimes pretty silent on what they are thinking.)

While my grandmother Swasey's ancestors were in New England, Long Island, and then the South, my grandfather Rogers' English roots spread from generations in the Virginia colonies to Tennessee.  And my mother's kin came from Ireland (after leaving Scotland mainly) or England, to western New York state, Kentucky and then to Texas.  My grandmother and grandfather's families also came to Texas.  So I'd say that's the focal point of all these immigrants.

I see a form coming into being, with that great big map of Texas as the base, and lots of settlers arriving from all over the eastern states.  These people are wearing bonnets and long skirts, buckles on shoes or boots for working in fields, wearing hats of cowboys or pickers of cotton, and working daily to bring up their families.  They arrived in wagons or under sails.

 These are men wielding axes to build homes, to clear fields, then plowing and planting.  These are women making stews and soap, serving food and cleaning children, weaving cloth and giving birth. 

These ancestors were all children, running through woods and grass, down paths of rock and muck.  Some learned to read and write, many didn't.  Some children laughed at their simple hiding games, some children cried when they were hurt. And they hauled water from many streams and ponds to where their families gathered.

Only in the last hundred years did they have indoor plumbing, and then electricity, and then telephones.  Now we mostly have internet and speak through these satellites hanging in the sky invisible.

I won't have enough time in this lifetime to talk about them all.  The many uncles and aunts and cousins who shared similar DNA...we're all connected but not all in touch with each other.  Let's say each of us knows about a thousand people, friends and aquaintances...maybe on the high side for most of us.  And each of us knows maybe 50 relatives...again a high estimate.  So when I consider my three family trees, with over 3000 people listed in totality...I know I'll not learn much about many of them, and will have to skip any mention of most of them here.  I am sorry about that.  I hope someone else is tending to their ancestors...giving some respect for those who gave our lives the existences we have.

Thank you, grandmothers and grandfathers!

Thomas Brinley - Part 2 and will

To continue the discussion of my ancestor's life, Thomas Brinley, as auditor to Kind Charles I, living in Dachet, England (see yesterday's post please.)

"The Auditors of the King's Revenue were officials whom we would now call civil servants. Land and property made up much of the crown's great wealth, but Tudor and Stuart monarchs were constantly short of actual money. The Auditors' primary job had been to visit the king's estates to assess and collect rents, but increasingly they were also required to value land, make contact with buyers and negotiate sales to boost the royal coffers. Thus they combined the skills of a modern accountant, a surveyor and an estate agent, and answered fairly directly to the King although the office was a branch of the Exchequer. This was a closely-knit group, as young men were trained as clerks to one of the seven Auditors before becoming their deputies or partners and eventually taking on an Auditorship themselves.

"The first Auditor living in Datchet was Richard Budd, to whom Thomas Brinley was clerk. We know Budd was here at least by 1625 because in that year he wrote to the tax collector in London to say that he had already paid his dues in Datchet - but of course he didn't give anything so useful as his address! Budd had himself been clerk to Auditor Thomas Hanbury (brother of Richard) in the 1580s and...his sister had married into the Wase family, and that relationship was extended when his clerk Thomas Brinley married Anne Wase in about 1630. Such a dense network of family and business interests is typical of the time, and the above is only a brief outline of a much more complex situation.

Village of Dachet, England map 1833

"We do not know where in the village Richard Budd actually lived, but the current suggestion is that it may have been the Manor House, perhaps followed by the Wases and eventually by Thomas Brinley. It was rented out directly by the crown and then by the Wheelers who bought it as part of the Manor of Datchet in 1631, and is the only high status house with no known occupants during this period. Neither Richard Budd, William Wase nor Thomas Brinley left any property in Datchet by their wills, which strongly suggests that they had rented rather than owned the houses where they lived; this is just one more piece of circumstantial evidence.

Postcard 1910, hand colored, showing Manor House buildings on right.

 From left past Morning Star: two shops; low blacksmith’s building; Jubilee Cross 1897 & Oak Tree 1887; Country Life Club in background; drinking fountain at original site; large elm tree (cut down 1940s); Chemist’s, Bank & Bank House, all about 1907. (Hand-coloured postcard, Royal Windsor Web Site)

"Budd was a wealthy man; in a taxation list he paid an amount second only to William Wheeler of Riding Court, but as the value of his possessions rather than land, which was probably even more impressive to his neighbours. He was godfather to Brinley's son Richard and left him by his will all his 'household stuff' at Datchet, to be used by Richard's mother Anne Brinley during her life. To Thomas Brinley Budd bequeathed his copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of England.

"There is one source which provides a tiny glimpse into the lives of these people: in 1626 Eton College held an inquiry into the will of the vicar of Datchet, because his widow was refusing to hand over a bequest the vicar was said to have made to the College. Richard and Rose Budd, together with Thomas Brinley and several other gentlemen from the village, attested to how the will was found concealed in the vicar's clothes when he died suddenly at the vicarage house. Auditor Budd stated that the vicar had made a will by his advice, sitting in an arbour in the garden of Budd's house in Datchet. All the witnesses had come running to the vicarage when he was taken ill, having been carried there by two men in a chair. Rose said that the other gentlemen found the purported will in his 'bosom' as they unloosed the sick man's cassock while she ran to fetch clean sheets and a warming pan to make up his bed. When she came back the papers were shown to her, laid on the window sill, and she gave them to the vicar's maid to pass onto his wife as she was told they were important. The outcome of the inquiry is unclear, but the circumstances could be seen as suspicious.

"The main interest of this case is to show that by 1626 we have not only Richard Budd living in the village but also his clerk Thomas Brinley at least visiting if not actually living here with him. In 1647 Brinley's youngest child was baptised in the village church, all the others having been baptised in the 1630s and 1640s in London. During the period of the Civil War and Cromwell's Commonwealth, from 1649 to 1660, Thomas and Anne Brinley were in dire trouble; he was seen as a Royalist by the Parliamentary side and stripped of his office and it is possible that all his assets were seized. It has been suggested that he went into hiding, and he certainly kept a very low profile throughout those dangerous years. There is evidence that the couple were trying to maximise their financial investments overseas in order to provide for all their children, the seven daughters and three surviving sons, in case the worst should happen.

"On the restoration of Charles II in 1660 Brinley was given back his original auditorship but died a year later, which explains the tombstone claim of having been an Auditor to Kings Charles I and II. The last, and most convincing, piece of evidence is provided by Brinley's will in 1661. As was usual, two of his neighbours drew up an inventory of the possessions in his house, valuing them for probate purposes and listing items in each room in order as they walked through. It is strange that Brinley's possessions seem hardly sufficient to furnish the house and are of low value; perhaps he had fallen on very hard times or maybe everything of quality had already been passed on to his children for safe-keeping. Such inventories are often used for establishing the number and type of rooms in houses of the past, and the internal layout at various periods. In this case, if the two present tenements of the Manor House are read as one, the appraisors' route exactly fits for the three stories and the sequence of rooms, including some unusual features which are similar to Riding Court. On this basis alone it is highly likely that it was Thomas Brinley's house, at least at the time of his death. As at present there were subsidiary dwellings each side of the big house which may have been occupied simultaneously by this group of families - or by others completely unrelated.

"The reason for American interest in the Brinley tombstone is that several of his children settled on Long Island, having been sent out for their own safety and prosperity during the perilous Civil War years in England...their fortunes at Sylvester Manor, an important and almost unchanged early settlement, [have been mentioned in previous posts, HERE and here.]

 Source:

http://www.datchethistory.org.uk/Link%20Articles/manor_thomas_brinley.htm

-------------------------------------

My own thoughts:

All the kings employees were in the same amount of danger when Charles I was arrested by Cromwellian and Parliamentary revolutionaries.  I think this historian put Thomas Brinley in a more severe situation than necessary. Charles I had had many financial difficulties, and that was part of the basis of Parliament taking over his powers. Unless Brinley was somehow at fault for some of these financial problems, his situation was simply that of being employed by a king who was unpopular to the extent a war was waged against him, and he was executed.  I think it was a wise man to hide from former associates about that time.

Brinley's loyalty was rewarded in that he was reinstated in his position of Auditor when Charles II came to power in 1660, though Brinley only lived until 15 Oct. 1661.  His will (including a codicil) is included below.  I found it most interesting that in the codicil he urged his beneficiaries to sell some land right away.  Perhaps he had some knowledge that made that a good bargain.
------------------------------------------------

Will of Thomas Brinley

"Thomas Brinley, of Datchett, co. Bucks, Esq., 13 September, 1661 with codicil of 16 October, 1661, proved 11 December, 1661.
"My third of tenements in the town of Newcastle upon Tyne, and two thirds of the manor of Burton in Yorkshire, to eldest son, Francis Brinley and his heirs. My half of the township or manor of Wakerfield, heretofore parcell of the Lordship of Raby, and my lands and tenements in Wakerfield, county and Bishoprick of Durham, purchased in the names of William Wase of Durham and of Robert Worrall, lately deceased, and of Michael Lambcroft, lately deceased, and of John Maddocke, of Cuddington, co. Chester, in trust for the use of me, the said Thomas Brinley, and the said Robert Worrall and our heirs and assigns forever, to my wife, Anne Brinley, during her natural life; at her death to eldest son, Francis Brinley. My lands in Horton and Stanwell, in the several counties of Middlesex and Bucks, and, by me purchased of Henry Bulstrode of Horton, to wife Anne for life; then to my second son, Thomas Brinley, a lease of ninety-nine years. Certain other lands and, lately bought of James Styles, the elder, of Langley, to daughter Mary Silvester, widow and her daughter, my granddaughter, Mary Silvester, the younger, who are both left destitute of subsistence by the decease of my said daughter's late husband, Peter Silvester, To the children of my daughter Grissell, the now wife of Nathaniel Silvester, gentleman, dwelling in New England, in the parts of America, in an island called Shelter Island, one hundred pounds within one year after my decease.

"The witnesses to the will were Robert Style and Rose Baker.
"In the codicil he bequeaths legacies to his brother Lawrence Brinley and Richard Brinley his son, both of London, merchants, to the intent that they shall with all conv enient speed sell that half of said lands, (in Wakerfield), for the best rate and value that they can get for the same. The witnesses to this codicil were William Wase, Budd Wase, William Carter, and William Brinley. The will was proved by the Widow, Anne Brinley.

Thomas Brinley, Part 1- worked for a king and got in "dire trouble"

Background info (short) for us colonials who know so little of Charles I and Cromwell.

Charles I of England, (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

After his succession, Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. Charles believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated the antipathy and mistrust of Reformed groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views were too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics, such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate his own downfall.

From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered, [however] Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England.... [Charles] was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared. The monarchy was restored to Charles's son, Charles II, in 1660. 
Source: Wikepedia.

I'll leave history with Cromwell for you to learn about elsewhere (a suggested source is here at Wikepedia.)

Thomas Brinley, Royal Auditor for Charles I and Charles II

My ancestor, Great times 8 grandfather through our Ada Swasey Rogers family tree, lived, worked and died in Dachet, England, right across the River Thames from Windsor Castle.

The town of Dachet is well recorded in history, and has a good site for further information HERE.

"The earliest settlement of the present village was centred around the church which is on an ‘island’ of high ground in otherwise low lying land and was probably a pre-Christian fortified site. Opposite, on the south side of the Green, is the Manor House range of buildings dating from the 1500s. At that time the characteristic Greens did not exist and a stream ran through the centre of the village widening to a pool in front of the Manor House; this was culverted in the 1840s to create the dry land of the present Greens.

"Datchet’s characteristic Victorian ‘mock Tudor’ architectural style was introduced when the Manor House was restored and re-fronted in about 1870.  

First known photograph of Dachet, around 1870

From left: Old Manor House; Manor House 1 & 2, newly re-fronted in mock-Tudor style and patterned roof tiles; Manor & Manor Green Cottage; Manor Hotel all whitewashed before any rebuilding; next white building is White Hart on opposite corner of High Street, with barns at back; Morning Star and ‘Temples’ building; old cottages; sign post pointing down Queens Road; gaslight in centre of village (no drinking fountain or Jubilee oak & cross yet); Royal Stag sign (pub out of shot); old cottages replaced by Bank & Bank House.

A business in one part of the Manor House

Dachet Manor House:

" ...A group of families ... probably lived at the Manor House in the 1800s and perhaps as far back as the early 1700s. Before that, although the evidence is very slight, it seems to have been occupied by royal officials, part of a group based in London but also living conveniently close to the Castle in Windsor, Eton and Datchet. The most significant character was Thomas Brinley, whose tombstone in the church is frequently visited by Americans seeking their ancestors. This black marble slab has been re-set in the chancel floor behind the altar and is easily seen. The inscription reads:

HERE LYETH Ye BODY OF THOMAS BRINLEY

ESQ BEINGE ONE OF THE AUDITORS OF

THE REVENNUE OF KINGE CHARLES THE

FIRST AND OF KINGE CHARLES Ye SECOND

BORNE IN THE CITTY OF EXETER HEE

MARRYED ANNE Ye DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM

WASE OF PETWORTH IN SUSSEX GENT

WHO HAD ISSUE BY HER FIVE SONNES AND

SEAVEN DAUGHTERS HE DIED Ye 15^TH DAY OF

OCTOr IN THE YEARE OF OUR LORD 1661

 Source:

http://www.datchethistory.org.uk/Link%20Articles/manor_thomas_brinley.htm
Continued in Part 2 Thomas Brinley to be posted tomorrow.

 

More Brinley ancestors

I just found new ancestors (well, further back on the trees actually.) 

(Check out yesterday's blog which left off here...)
 So 13) Richard Brinley's father was 14) Lawrence Brinley, b. 1530, Willenhall, Staffordshire, England, d. 1574 Staffordshire, Eng.

and his mother was 14) Ann Fletcher Brinley b 1529, Staffordshire, England, d. ABT 1592, Staffordshire, Eng.
 

Staffordshire, England

One day I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why 14) Ann Fletcher Brinley (my 10 times great grandmother) had been given the middle name of "George" on some Ancestry trees, and why she had an alias of Ann Hawthorne, as well as her father perhaps being Phillip Fletcher alias Hawthorne.  The only source I found was called a Millennium file, authored by Heritage Foundation, published by Ancestry DOT com.  That doesn't tell me why her father (if that's really her father) was having an alias.  The IF that I continue to have is based on ongoing lack of source materials, which are few and far between this far back into history.  Perhaps some chapter of English history does contain the story of the Fletcher/Hawthornes.

So for now I won't even list Phillip Fletcher (aka Hawthorne) as her father.

There are no further parents listed for 14) Lawrence Brinley, but a grandson was also given that name, so that is some substantiation for that relationship.

Tomorrow I'll give what I've learned about Thomas Brinley, Richard's son who was an auditor in the Court of King Charles I and II.

Grissell Brinley Sylvester's ancestors

More matriarchs from 16th Century (a repost and extended edit from March 2015)

Yesterday I shared information about the Sylvesters of Shelter Island, Capt. Nathaniel and Grissell Brinley Sylvester.  Note I'm spelling her name as it is documented as her signature, presumably by her own hand.  She had many sisters and brothers, and moved to America after her sister Anne Brinley married the Governor of Rhode Island, William Coddington.

11) Grissell Brinley Sylvester's parents were 12) Thomas Reeves Brinley, born 1591 in Exeter, Devon, England, died 15 Oct 1661 in Datchett, Buckinghamshire, England and 12) Anna Wase Brinley b. 1606 in Petworth, Sussex, England, d. 13 Jun 1687 in Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England.  

12) Thomas Reeves Brinley is well documented as the "Auditor General of the Revenues of King Charles I and II."  He left England during the English Civil War by Cromwell, and returned to his post for King Charles II, but died a year later.  (I think I need to dedicate a post to this man, since there must be source material telling about his life)

12) His wife, Anna Wase Brinley had 8 children, and also went with her husband when the revolution of Cromwell made Royalists unpopular, and lived into her 80s probably back in her home of Datchet.

Her parents were 13) William Wase b. May 1580 in Petworth, Sussex, England, d. 19 September 1642 in Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England and 13) Ann Cole Wase b. 1582 as recorded in St. Leonard, Heston, London, Middlesex, England, death unknown.  Apparently Ann married 13) William Wase when she was about 16 in Petworth, Sussex, England.  There is no other information on her at Ancestry at this time.

12) Thomas Reeves Brinley's mother was 13) Joanne Reeves Brinley (his middle name from her) b. 1563 in Exeter, Devon, England, Death in Exeter, Devon, England. His father was 13) Richard Brinley, b.1559 Willinghall, Stafordshire, England. 13) Joanne Reeves Brinley's father was 14) Richard Reeves, about whom we know nothing.

An illustration of Exeter in 1563, entitled Civitas Exoniae (vulgo Excester) urbs primaria in comitatu Devoniae

Exeter has a wonderful history, dating from Roman times and before...and I can't begin to explore all that is in this town.  The map above would have been how it looked during Joanne Reeves lifetime.   

Exeter Cathedral, completed 1400

Looking back to the Sylvesters of Shelter Island, I just want to show their connection to my family.  Their daughter 10) Ann Sylvester married 10) Capt. Jonathan Bowers in 1695. (Yesterday I showed some pictures of their home in Somerset, MA, built in 1723.)

 Their daughter, 9) Mary Bowers married 9) Joseph Swasey, my five times great grandfather on my  grandmother Ada Swasey Rogers Tree. (My numbering system has my grandchildren as generation 1), thus I'm 3). I am not sure it's always accurate however!)

The Sylvesters of Shelter Island

The Sylvesters of Shelter Island (repost and edited from March 15, 2015)

 I may have many ancestors of whom I had been totally oblivious.  And these were some of them, and I've become more interested in them since I now have a friend who used to live on Long Island (very near where Shelter Island is located.)

They are part of my family tree of my gandmother, Ada Swasey Rogers.

Shelter island is at far right (East) end of Long Island

First, what is Shelter Island?  Where? Long Island, New York State. There was also a movie by this name, which I know nothing about.    If you wish to read all about the Sylvesters settling of Shelter Island, I'll copy from Wikipedia at the end of this post.*

Shelter Island at eastern end of Long Island

On Ancestry 11) Capt. Nathaniel Gascoigne Sylvester is listed as being born either in 1610 in London City, Middlesex, England or between 1615-25 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands,
and dying on 13 Jun 1680 in Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, Suffolk County, New York. I just discovered one of his brothers, Peter Sylvester, is listed as being born in Holland, as well as Nathaniel, and there are parents given which means I need to chase these new (to me) ancestors also. 

In the Wikipedia quotation below, his birth was given as Rotterdam, where he later did business in shipping.  There are so few records, and yet he did have a family because his brothers were in business with him at times (and yes, I've seen these records).

Impossibly small picture, no idea what the script at the bottom says...it may have been a fictionalized portrait from an Ancestry member, I don't know where it came from, sorry!

His wife was 11) Grissell Brinley Sylvester (born 16 Jan 1635 in Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England and died 13 Jun 1687 at Sylvester Island, Suffolk, New York) 

signature of Grissell Brinley Sylvester

 

St Mary the Virgin, Datchet

Datchet Mead and Datchet Ferry in 1686 with Windsor Castle in the background

Where Grissell Brinley Sylvester was born: 

Datchet (Buckinghamshire, England) was a village on the River Thames, England. which developed because of its close proximity to Windsor and the ferry service which connected it to the main London road across the River Thames.

Dachet Village center

When Grissell was 17, she married Captain Sylvester, in 1652 on Shelter Island, NY.

The Island

 Quote from Wikipedia on Shelter Island

In 1651 the island [was sold] to a group of Barbados sugar merchants for 1,600 pounds of sugar. Nathaniel Sylvester (1610–1680), one of the merchants, was the island’s first white settler. He was among a number of English merchants who had lived and worked in Rotterdam (where he was born) before going to Barbados. His connections there and with the Netherlands helped him establish a far-flung trading enterprise. On March 23, 1652, he made the purchase official by agreement with Youghco (called Pogatticut), the sachem of the Manhanset tribe. The other owners, Sylvester’s brother Constant, and Thomas Middleton, never came to Long Island. In 1673 Nathaniel Sylvester claimed ownership of Shelter Island, Fishers Island, and other parts of Long Island.^[3] By that time the Manhansett had declined in number and power.^[4]

In 1652 Sylvester constructed a house on the island for his 17-year-old bride, Grissell Brinley from London. Her mother was Anna (Wase) Brinley and her father Thomas Brinley had been an auditor in the court of King Charles I. With the Revolution he had lost his position; Grissell had gone to the colony with her older sister Anne, who had married William Coddington, the governor of the Rhode Island colony.^[4] Archeological research in the 21st century has revealed there may have been two early house complexes. The Sylvesters had eleven surviving children. The more elaborate manor house, which survives today, was built in 1733 by a Sylvester grandson [see  photos above.]

The Sylvester estate was developed as a large provisioning plantation. It raised food crops, as well as livestock for slaughter, sending casks of preserved meats and other supplies to Barbados. Labor was provided by a multicultural force of American Indians, enslaved Africans and English indentured servants.  His descendants continued to use slaves on the plantation into the 19th century. An estimated 200 blacks are buried at the Negro Burying Ground on the North Peninsula.^[4]

The Sylvesters gave shelter to many persecuted Quakers. Sylvester Manor stands today, just off New York State Route 114, and is controlled by Sylvester descendants. All but about 24 acres of the original thousands of acres have gone into other hands.^[4]

Following the death in 1680 of Nathaniel Sylvester, Shelter Island was divided between his two sons, Giles and Nathaniel II. In 1695, William Nicoll, a resident of Islip, bought from Giles the area now called Mashomack Nature Preserve. Three years later, in 1698, another newcomer, George Havens, bought 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) from Nathaniel II. This parcel comprises what today is the Center; it stretched south to South Ferry and west to West Neck Creek. Over time these estates and parcels were split and divided by marriage and purchase, so that by the early 18th century, 20 families lived on Shelter Island. By order of the Provincial Government, the Town of Shelter Island was established in 1730.

Note: Most of the photos are from public domain Ancestry collections, or Wikipedia.

Photo of the Sylvester Manor as it is today. It was inhabited by family members for 12 generations, from 1652.

Sylvester Manor as rebuilt in 1737, as it looks today (2016?)  These windows have the ability to go up from the bottom or down from the top.

Ann Sylvester was daughter of Nathaniel and Grissell, and Ann married Jonathan Bower, and their home looks like this (below)...also still standing. Their home was the first built in Somerset, MA in 1723, not on Shelter Island.

These are incredible windows!

Obviously the window with the air conditioner is newer, but I notice the one with diamond panes below it swings out to the side, of the older part of the home.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A repost of an old celebratory wish to all...

Originally posted: Monday, March 17, 2014

I love St. Patrick's Day

...from green beer to the great step-dancing to drumming.  Ahhh.
Shamrocks are beautiful, if somewhat weedy once they are established.  "Erin go bragh!"

 Irish history includes some of my ancestors, as well as the Scottish ones who were forced to move to Ireland by the British.  And lots of wonderful music has been written.

I love the myths.  Bridgid.
The ancient sites.  Newgrange.

So I will salute St. Patrick's day, which was brought by the immigrants from Ireland to the US...and still goes strong each March 17.  Erin go bragh!

St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dublin, Ireland

Some of my Irish (and Scotts) ancestors were:

George BEATTY (BEATTIE, Birth 1665 • Cavan, Cavan, Ireland,  Death 9 MAY 1741 • Cavan, Cavan, Ireland

his wife:

Martha CAIRNES BEATTIE, Birth 1669 • Claremore, Tyrone, Ireland, Death APR 1743 • Cavan, Cavan, Ireland

their son:

Francis BEATIE, Birth 1715 • Ireland.  Immigrated to America, Death 1791 • Emory, Washington, Virginia,

his wife:

Martha TATE BEATTIE Her parents from Scotland, she immigrated to America, Birth 1720 • Ireland  Death BEF 1790 • Virginia, 

that line ending up in Kentucky and marrying into the Williams family who were my grandfather, Albert Webb's ancestors (Booth Family tree)

And another family in the Booth Family tree:

Robert McNeal, Birth 12 FEB 1741 • Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Death 23 SEPT 1818 • Geneseo, Livingston, New York an immigrant whose father was...

Malcolm John McNeal, Birth 1714 • Ballymascanlan, Louth, Ireland, Death ABT 1785 • Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

and his father was:

Archibald McNeal (McNeel), Birth 30 DEC 1686 • Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, Death, Ireland

I haven't gone into all the wives who were also born in Ireland.

Let's just say when I say I have Scotch-Irish roots, there are really some strong ones back there.

 

And especially a toast to my son, Marty and girlfriend Barbara, who were active celebrating St. Patty's day in 2014- this photo is noteworthy because Barbara isn't wearing sunglasses!