Dear Linde, you should be writing articles for the International Irish Genealogy Society! Besides all that, Kirby Miller says in his book on Irish emigration that Donegal lost much of its population long before the (recent) Potato Famine. That seems proven out by the DNA results posted on many American projects like the Cumberland Gap project. lots of northwest Irish DNA. I was especially howling at the mad fiddlers, knowing the area is famed for such. Of course the primary reason for leaving Donegal is the weather. Linda Merle ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lunney Family" <jglunney@eircom.net> To: scotch-irish@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2011 2:40:34 AM Subject: [S-I] Thoughts on replying to an American/ Canadian/ Australian/ New Zealand/ Argentinian/ South African/ Englih/ Scots/ letter I suppose I'd better reply to that letter from that American woman about the family history, it's been lying here a fortnight or three weeks already; cows calving, floods, weddings, elections; it's all been happening this last while. I can put her straight about one thing anyway; our lot are not the same as her lot. Those Gortmullan ones were different; they were A. Catholic OR B. feckless; they were fiddlers and drank and lost the home farm that was my great great grandfather's, while my great grandfather was a very hard worker and made a success of the farm he bought for himself to get away from the noise of fiddle music night and day OR C. they all emigrated and we stayed here so they must have been different OR D. we know they were different because we know that their grandfather came to Gortmullan as a servant with the minister of First Ballyness who moved from Tyrone and it just happens that they had the same name as us. Anyway, I'll write and tell her what I know, which is very little really and she might not want to hear the real reason her great grandfather left; that trail of weans that that woman up beyond Gortmullan said were his. It's all a bit difficult to put down on paper to someone you don't know; it's hard to explain life here to someone not from here and it might offend her if I told her what my granny said about her granny. Maybe as well not mention the broken lock on the chest where the money used to be. I suppose if I've started I'll have to finish it one way or the other. Must remember to tell John to tell his young lad to bring an American stamp home to me the next time he comes from the town; that's if the Post Office is ever open again after the IRA bomb at that side of the street. Right; letter written, though dear knows it's hardly worth putting a stamp on, because I don't really understand what she's after. Why she's talking about the "ould sod" and shamrocks and feeling homesick on St Patrick's day, sure that's all old guff, our ones never went in for any of that. So where does this go to then? There's nothing on the letter; the address must be on the envelope. Where the hell is the envelope that her letter came in? I kept the letter right enough, somebody must have used that envelope to light the fire or something. There's no way I can write to her now, probably just as well anyway, I would only have disappointed her because I can't tell her the whole big story about her ancestors that I know she wants to hear ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCOTCH-IRISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message