Hello. > Bruce, I don't know where the name Cazaire came from. All the Baker >researchers I have run across have that as her name. Her dad John MULWEE >was born 1744 in Ireland so it may be an Irish or Scottish name. I >searched on the computer for meanings of names. The closest name was >Casarah , a relatively modern name from the song "Que Sera Sera, whatever >will be, will be." Actually it may be a form of Sarah. I know that in the >will she was called Rachel so I imagine that was her formal and legal >proper name. Could she have been Rachel Cazaire Mulwee ? The name MULWEE >is unusual also. I wonder if that name wasn't originally Mc Elwee. Cessaire, Casair, Kesara, and other spellings, was an old Irish culture heroine dealing with some of the early "invasion/migration" history. Cessair was the leader of the legendary "First invasion of Ireland". A very brief but relatively OK summary follows: "After the colonizing Christians arrived in Ireland, the island's ancient legends were altered to incorporate elements from the new traditions. Thus we find some rather strange amalgams of native and imported myth, like the one in which Cassair appears. She was apparently an early Irish earth-goddess, later called a historical woman, who was a 'granddaughter of Noah' and 'married to a man of the blood of Seth'. With this heritage, it was no small feat to get her to Ireland; the annalists simply defied Judeo-Christian tradition by allowing Cassair to survive the flood, along with three men and 50 women, who in three ships plied the deluge waters from Palestine to Eire. Ireland, of course, was spared the flood -- one of the many miracles in the land's mythic history. Cassair and crew arrived, after 40 days and the loss of two ships, at Corca Guiny in Ireland. There the last ship was wrecked, and Cessair was drowned. So were her daughters Birrin and Blama, along with almost everyone in the ship. Cessair leveled mighty curses at Jehovah as she went down." There are many renditions of the story of this "female 'Noah'", and some of the on-board situations in the actual tales are very amusing <gr>. She was married to Fintan, a shipwreck survivor who went on to have one @#$%^%$#@ of a life <gr>. He was eventually tied with Finn Mac Cumhail (Finn 'Mac Cool') of serious Irish legend. Betcha anything that your Cazaire was named after the legendary Cessair/Casair. Gosh did her dad's 'family stories' say that they were descended from her?? We all know how that can go <gr>. Or perhaps a strong older lady in the first generation immigrants of his family was a taleteller, and was named or nicknamed Casair, and yours was named after this newer version of the "first invaders heroine". Or maybe her mom just liked the old stories, and wanted to wish Cessaire's gutsiness and strength on her daughter. Who know? Any relatively good book on Irish Myth and Legend will yield a lot more of the stories and provenance of this mythic lady. Happy hunting <gr>, Linda