Gerry: don't strain yourself so much ! What I had and you didn't see was a Irish joke which came to me from a friend in Scotland. I would send it to you except that It got corrupted because I sent it to a lot of people upon request and so I deleted it for good. You are correct about the Ulsterscots, however starting in the mid 1700's they invented a great many things. If you and others want to put your brain to work, help us with this; In the early 1700's there was a Robert Anderson in Franklin Co., Pa. he is believed to have been white. It is also thought he was either engaged in the slave trade or worked on a slave trading ship. At some period of time he came ashore and married a slave and had children which were referred to as Mulatto's and his grandchildren were considered colored. There are considerable references to his children in the Upper West Conocoheague Presbytery Congregation, specifically "The Old White Church" in Mercersburg. I have all of their memberships and marriages in that church from the 1700-1850's, BUT there is not one mention of the father or mother. He does show up in the 1790 census otherwise he is a man of mystery. To make matters worse there was another Robert Anderson and we have no idea if they were related or not. This is a project of several groups in Franklin County and elsewhere.Any help in finding out more information on him and his family will be appreciated. Gordon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gerry Parchman" <lib2uus@comcast.net> To: <pafrankl@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 8:02 AM Subject: [PAFRANKL] Irish discovered Africa > Gordon, > > Since northern Africa (Egypt, Carthage, the Phoenicians etc.) was settled > before the Roman Empire (3000 BC for Egypt) and had an advanced culture, > while Ireland was still a backwater, you must be referring to southern > Africa, away from the Mediterranean and including all of sub-Sahara > Africa. The people in the Mediterranean didn't venture very far down the > western coast. But the eastern coast was explored by the Chinese about > 500 BC, and later by the Arabs after 700 AD. > > What time period are you talking about? I can believe that the Irish may > have stumbled on sub-Saharan Africa's west coast when they were more > developed since they were more oriented to the Atlantic than the > Mediterranean people. But further European exploration didn't occur much > until the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope about 1450 AD (Henry > the Navigator). By then, most of East Africa was already Muslim, with an > active trade with the Arabs. > > Gerry > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PAFRANKL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.435 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2726 - Release Date: 03/06/10 07:39:00