I just got the following refresher on some interesting family history from my cousin Tom. I am proud that Matilda has a great-great-great-great-grandmother who was on the run from the English!
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Here are a few facts about Matilda's Raleigh ancestors. John Rawleigh - was the spelling used prior to about 1900 when your great-grandfather William and his brother Mike changed it to Raleigh. John is my great-grandfather and your great-great-grandfather. John was "a seventh generation red-head." None of my children had red hair, but my eldest son, Tom, married a red head and I have three red haired grandchildren , Tom, Helen and Grace. I have been told that you have to have the gene on both sides to get red hair.
When John Rawleigh left Ireland, about 1848, he had "44 cousins who left for Australia." There was never any further communications because John and Margaret left for France to escape a warrant for her arrest. Margaret wrote pamphlets against the English occupiers of Ireland - you didn't throw shoes in those days. He was a member of the "organization" and along with another man was appointed to guard her and get her out of the country. They married in France and then came to New Orleans.
So those Australian connections go farther back then you think - and so does that red hair.
Bloody hell - How many mad Connollys running around God's Country unchecked for how long?
ReplyDeleteNot sure I'll sleep tonight...........
Anyhow the head Mr. C - Tom - has changed his name to Kennealy and started writing books.
Hope he goes O.K.
Yes, the red gene is definitely on both sides!
Glad to hear the criminal connections are on both sides too.
("Organised" Connolly - tautoligy?)
You may think Matilda is American, we think she is a dinky di Aussie girl!
Ange & Paul
I am comforted to know that my family may have roots sunk in the beautiful red earth down there for some 160 years now!
ReplyDeleteAnd trust me, on the Aussie bit, I already think of her as occupying a bit of a spectrum of citizenship and identity...Australian-Minnesotan-American.
One of my biggest joys is knowing that if I can get 'organized', like my ancestors, and get her to the consulate in Chicago post haste, it should be a fairly easy bit of bureaucracy to get her Australian citizenship socked away by age 1.
My heart swells knowing the opportunities she should have to be a citizen of the two greatest countries on Earth simultaneously.
Well said, Pat.
ReplyDeleteAsians say a wise rabbit has three burrows, Matilda has a good start already!
We know you & Em will guide her to be a great citizen and contributor to the future.
It will be a joy to watch and participate a little.
Ange & Paul