Janet I will try & get something up by Christmas, it is likely that very few returned to Ireland, it has been estimated that only 5% of convicts came back. Your assumption that their families might have followed them is right, as you may know the Colonial Government did pay for family reunions for well behaved convicts, although there were interruptions to the scheme. In one of the important texts on convict history "Convict Society and Its Enemies" by J.B. Hirst he states: "It was the Irish who took most advantage of the opportunity of bringing their wives and children to the colony" he goes on about Irish "clannishness" and " devotion to their priests" and ends this para "Had there been this degree of attachment among the convicts generally, the colony's history might have been very different " This is a subject dear to my heart, thankyou for your interest Robyn

On 12/18/07, D and R Hardie <darnhard@ozemail.com.au> wrote: he goes on about Irish > "clannishness" and " devotion to their priests" and ends this para "Had > there been this degree of attachment among the convicts generally, the > colony's > history might have been very different " Ah, yes, we are very clannish, even today in many places of the world. And perhaps part of the genealogy research is our [unrealized] attempt to put the clan back together in some way now that we are spread across the world. Ireland is so small that the clannishness is still very evident. Everybody is related to everyone else in some fashion or another. I can't tell you how many times there has been a name in the news, perhaps from the North, and someone here will immediately identify the person as so and so's brother-in-law or cousin. And the devotion to the priests is easy - they were our brothers and cousins and the familial devotion came easily. Many of us are realizing it was not just part of our family that came to PEI, or somewhere in Australia, or Chicago, but whole related communities that emigrated together to the same place. We took a good part of our clan with us when we left. It has taken a huge population growth and mobility to break the ancient ties of the clan. I think it is true that the clan is gone in the large cities, but remains to some extent in the rural areas. Or am I wrong? Janet Janet

Even though the clan may have gone in the cities & to some extent even from rural society at least in Australia, I believe there is a sense of loss, and the obsession many of us have with our family history is an effort to overcome this. In a practical sense I have met up with many cousins, through my researches, much removed in a lot of instances but it's really satisfying to know these people who in other circumstances would just have been ordinary rels. I wonder if other listers have had as much fun as I have finding other 3rd& 4th generation survivors of our clan scattered far & wide. If it hadn't been for a certain convict family we'd have never made it here. robyn On Wednesday, December 19, 2007, at 05:39 AM, Janet Crawford wrote: > On 12/18/07, D and R Hardie <darnhard@ozemail.com.au> wrote: > he goes on about Irish >> "clannishness" and " devotion to their priests" and ends this para >> "Had >> there been this degree of attachment among the convicts generally, the >> colony's >> history might have been very different " > > Ah, yes, we are very clannish, even today in many places of the world. > And perhaps part of the genealogy research is our [unrealized] attempt > to put the clan back together in some way now that we are spread > across the world. > Ireland is so small that the clannishness is still very evident. > Everybody is related to everyone else in some fashion or another. I > can't tell you how many times there has been a name in the news, > perhaps from the North, and someone here will immediately identify the > person as so and so's brother-in-law or cousin. And the devotion to > the priests is easy - they were our brothers and cousins and the > familial devotion came easily. > Many of us are realizing it was not just part of our family that came > to PEI, or somewhere in Australia, or Chicago, but whole related > communities that emigrated together to the same place. We took a good > part of our clan with us when we left. It has taken a huge population > growth and mobility to break the ancient ties of the clan. I think it > is true that the clan is gone in the large cities, but remains to some > extent in the rural areas. Or am I wrong? > > Janet > > Janet > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > COTIPPERARY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

HAVE A VERY hAPPY CHRISTMAS DAY. & hopefully a NEW YEAR WITH < HOPEFULLY More rain at the right time.> WILL CATCH UP NEXT YEAR. fROM lESLEY ROBERTS. NARROMINE.. ----- Original Message ----- From: "D and R Hardie" <darnhard@ozemail.com.au> To: "Janet Crawford" <reojan@eircom.net> Cc: <cotipperary@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 6:57 PM Subject: [COTIPPERARY] Convicts > Janet > I will try & get something up by Christmas, it is likely that very few > returned to Ireland, it has been estimated that only 5% of convicts > came back. Your assumption that their families might have followed them > is right, as you may know the Colonial Government did pay for family > reunions for well behaved convicts, although there were interruptions > to the scheme. In one of the important texts on convict history > "Convict Society and Its Enemies" by J.B. Hirst he states: > "It was the Irish who took most advantage of the opportunity of > bringing their wives and children to the colony" he goes on about Irish > "clannishness" and " devotion to their priests" and ends this para "Had > there been this degree of attachment among the convicts generally, the > colony's > history might have been very different " > This is a subject dear to my heart, thankyou for your interest > Robyn > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > COTIPPERARY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message