-------Original Message------- From: Marilynn Masten <GardnerRus@carolina.rr.com> Sent: 01/20/03 05:14 PM To: GARDNER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GARDNER] New England Gardners, Picts, and Scots > I had to go to my main source for this. I knew nothing until > this one was born when I was 23 and she has been my boss ever > since. Well, actually I had others and they are all bossy but > she knows the most as far history goes. > > I meant the "firblogs" who the people invading Ireland saw and > dubbed "Leprechauns". She says she and I are not descended from > from the firblogs, but from the Melanesians. I kind of wanted > a grandpa firblog in my line but you can't choose your > ancestors. > > If you ask me, there are too darn many Gardners and if people > had been forced to live alphabetically, as I would have > suggested if I'd been around when people started getting > surnames, there would never have been this confusion. > > My G-G-Grandmother was a Martin. Too many of them, too. Have I > got ONE name in my ancestry that isn't a dime a dozen? How > about Habmeyer? I've got that. Maybe they are a rare bird. > > Marilynn HOO hah! You made my day with this one [grin]. Yes, there are too many MARTINs around. Mine had the annoying habit of changing their native language from Quebecois French to Yankee English, and back again (or the other way around) as it suited them.... I do know some people who *have* chosen their ancestors. Some of them are earlier members of the DAR, or the Mayflower Society [grin]. (That is not the case any more. As I understand it, they have both cleaned up their membership requirements a lot in recent years.) The Fir Bolg make more sense than the Picts, in the context of this thread. There is an interesting site, combining myth with archaeology, at: http://www.danann.org/library/arch/irishmyth.html where one can read of the Parthelonians, the Nemedians, the Fir Bolg (or Firbolg), the Tuatha de Danann, and the Milesians (Melanesians are from the islands of the Southwest Pacific, closer to Indonesia and Australia than the Polynesians). It is all quite fascinating. I do not make any claim for the *accuracy* of this site, but it does read well. If one wishes to believe the Irish King Lists, a dangerous choice for the serious genealogist, it is possible for very many of us to connect all the way back to Adam. Of course, ditto for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, etc. etc. Relevant to nothing, some people think that J.R.R. Tolkien modeled his mythical Numenorians in small part after the Fir Bolg, with special connections between the northern and southern Fir Bolg landings in Ireland, and the northern and southern landings of the scattered fleet of Elendil in Middle- earth, after the Downfall. But that is a story of a different kind.... Darrell Darrell A. Martin working from web-based Earthlink mail darrellm@sprynet.com