Rev. Martin, I also wish my ancestors had 'strange' names.......makes them easier to find! I also wish my ancestors had "recognized' religion........they left records! I also wish my ancestors had 'gone to school/purchased land, etc......they left a paper trail! I also wish my ancestors had left ALL kinds of records...........I COULD FIND THEM!!! I believe this message, taken in the manner it was written, tells of all the 'frustration' we ALL feel at one time or another, in the relentless search for our elusive ancestors!! ALL of my ancestors left the same kind of trail that the message conveyed!!! NONE!! So we wish they had completed all of the mentioned things......been wealthy, left land/wills....well documented (paper trail).........makes it easier for us to find them. Please don't take offense..........we're all frustrated at one time or another! Lin T. [email protected] Searching for O'Connor/Connor -----Original Message----- From: Rev. Martin J. Murphy III <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, February 09, 1999 12:21 PM Subject: Re: Genealogy/ I WANT >I am not sure what kind of message is being sent here, but, to fulfill this >request, one had to be an invader, English, (Henry VIII or Oliver Cromwell). > >Is this message serious or are you trying to raise the passion of an >already persecuted Irish who did nothing but defend the land they owned-the >faith they worshiped, the children they adored?(English occupation for 700 >year beginning with Henry II with the permission of Adrian, the only >English Pope-who set the stage for Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell to >devistate Ireland)(beginning of the "troubles") > >What is the message here? Is it selfish or are you playing tricks with our >most sacred history? > >One of the most insulting statements was "recognized houses of worship"!. >The Established Church (Church of Ireland-which stole most Catholic >Bishopric Cathedrals) with the tithe order comes to mind.(thankfully ended >in 1868) I think you should wander further to explain this message as it >brings up painful messages for concerned Irish/Americans. > >Then you mention "who can read or write"!. Under the English laws, the >Irish were not allowed to study, speak "Irish" which some uneducated in the >world call Gaelic. > >Come on now, til now I respected this list-now I am not sure and I am very >upset. > >Fr. Martin J. Murphy III > >At 02:33 AM 2/9/99 EST, [email protected] wrote: >>"I WANT" >> I want ancestors with names like Rudimentary Montagnard or >>Melchizenick von Steubenhoffmannschild or Spetznatz Gianfortoni, not William >>Brown or John Hunter or Mary Abbott. >> I want ancestors who could read and write, had their children >>baptized in recognized houses of worship, went to school, purchased land, >left >>detailed wills (naming a huge extended family as legatees), had their >>photographs taken once a year -- subsequently putting said pictures in >>elaborate isinglass frames annotated with calligraphic inscriptions, and >>carved voluble and informative inscriptions in their headstones. >> I want relatives who managed to bury their predecessors in >>established, still-extant (and indexed) cemeteries. >> I want family members who wrote memoirs, who enlisted in the >>military as officers and who served in strategically important (and well >>documented) skirmishes. >> I want relatives who served as councilmen, schoolteachers, county >>clerks and town historians. >> I want relatives who 'religiously' wrote in the family Bible, >>journaling every little event and detailing the familial relationship of >every >>visitor. >> In the case of immigrant progenitors, I want them to have arrived >>only in those years wherein passenger lists were indexed by National >Archives, >>and I want them to have applied for citizenship, and to have done so only in >>those jurisdictions which have since established indices. >> I want relatives who were patriotic and clubby, who joined every >>patrimonial society they could find, who kept diaries, and listed all their >>addresses, who had paintings made of their houses, and who dated every piece >>of paper they touched. >> I want forebears who were wealthy enough to afford, and to keep >for >>generations, the tribal homestead, and who left all the aforementioned >>pictures and diaries and journals intact in the library. >> But most of all, I want relatives I can find!!! >> >> >