Irish Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Ramblin' with Roger

Is it my Irish eyes that are smilin’?

Peace from Roger O’Green.

I haven’t scheduled it, but I think I need to take one of those DNA testing kits. I haven’t investigated how precise they are yet, but there are three things I’m hoping to discover:

1) Was the picture on my maternal grandmother’s wall of one of her ancestors, and therefore one of MY ancestors, English or Irish? I’ve heard both.

If the latter, I’d be one of 33.3 million “who claimed Irish ancestry in 2013. This number was more than seven times the population of Ireland itself (4.6 million).”

2) Were ancestors on my fathers side Dutch or “Pennsylvania Dutch,” which is to say, German? Here again, the lore conflicts.

3) I want to get into one of those registers to try ascertain whether I can find a match that will tell me who the biological father of my father is?

Not sure which product, MyHeritage or Family Tree DNA, or LivingDNA or 23andMe or Ancestry.com’s product or something else is the best for the price and will give me the information I want.

Have you folks used any of these products? How satisfied were you with them? What did you learn that you are willing to to share? Your feedback, if any, will probably have an impact in my decision-making.

I’m also curious about why, if you considered doing one of these tests, why you did not? Cost? You already know? Lack of curiosity?

For me, the results might inform my travel plans when/if I ever retire. This is not merely an academic query, though I would like the Daughter, who has relatives she can trace back to the 14th century on her mother’s side, to have a clearer record on her father’s.

Of course, on this St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll always be a bit Irish. They color the Chicago River with my last name, FCOL. Peace from Roger O’Green.

Surname of Green

Sometimes the surname Green can be of Irish origins.

Someone in my office recently asked me the derivation of my last name. I instinctively knew it was rooted in Great Britain and/or Ireland, but I had not looked it up in a while.

This is what I found HERE.

Recorded in the spellings of Green and Greene, this is one of the most widespread of English, and sometimes Irish, surnames. It is usually of pre 7th century origins, and derives from the word “grene” meaning green.

As such it may be topographical for a person resident by a village green or even a place called Green, or as a status name for a young man who played the part of the mystic and fertile “Green Man” sometimes known as “Jack in the Green”, in the May Day fertility celebrations. In this context “green” was symbolic of youthful ardour, spring, and the re-growth of nature.

Sometimes the surname can be of Irish origins, and a translation of the ancient Gaelic given name “Uaithne”. As this also means “green,” it probably has the same basic meaning and origin as the English form.

Green is the 37th most popular surname in the United States, I’ve read multiple places.

Truth is that I’m not certain of my English and/or Irish roots, though surely I have one or both, based on family lore. But on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m willing to yield to the wearing of the green, just in case.

I really am Irish, I guess

This is fascinating, because all the Census records I came across suggests that she was black.

I discovered only recently that my maternal grandmother’s brother Ernie, born in 1904, was arrested in 1928 near Syracuse, NY and that he spent nearly five years in prison in Auburn, NY. Apparently, he was spending time with a young white woman, her father didn’t like it, and helped manufacture a charge of rape against Ernie.

In the mounds of papers filed in anticipation of him being paroled in 1932 was this “social history” such as his education, his military service (none), religion (Catholic – I did not know that), marital status (single), and family background. His father, Edward Yates, had died in 1910 at the age of 58. His mother, nee Lillian Bell Archer, remarried to Maurice Holland in 1911. (His Census track is fascinating, born either in Texas or Mexico, depending on what Census one checks.)

This, though, was the kicker for me. It indicates that she was of Irish descent! This is fascinating because all the Census records I came across suggests that she was black. Surely she was partially black, but as the rules of the time would suggest, anyone partially black was considered black. And that’s still largely true of most mixed-race people; see Barack Obama, Halle Berry, etc.

Lillian, my great-grandmother though, at least on this document, was Irish, and that’s reason enough, besides my name, to be wearing the green. Oh, and Ernie, who agreed to live an “honest and upright life” married Charlotte Berman, a white woman of Eastern European descent, in 1937, and did just that until he died in April 1954, just 50 years old, when I was but one. I have no first cousins, but most of the second cousins I’m close to, including the one who retrieved this prison record, are his grandchildren, who, I suppose, are all a little Irish, too.
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Creepy old Simon and Kirby comic: Nasty Little Man

Green Light, Red Light

Arthur’s maybe a little Irish

Everyone wants to be Irish, now

It seems more likely at that time that an Irish woman, who was of lower social standing, would marry a black man than an English woman would.

I go through this periodic rushes of interest in my genealogy, stifled primarily by life getting in the way. When I was growing up, I was told I was, in addition to being black, American Indian, probably Iroquois, on both sides; having seen my maternal grandmother, it was quite evident at least in her heritage. I was Dutch on my father’s side, though it COULD have really been Pennsylvania Dutch, which was actually German.

On my mother’s mother’s mother’s side, there is a picture – a daguerreotype, I think – of a white woman who is an ancestor. She came from the British Isles, but was she English, or Irish? I rather fancied the latter, especially after having read the book The Sweeter The Juice, a true story about an Irish woman and a mulatto man marrying after the Civil War. The Irish had not achieved “whiteness” in the United States right away; it took a couple of generations before beginning to assimilate.

So it seems more likely at that time that an Irish woman, who was of lower social standing, would marry a black man than an English woman would. The particulars of my specific past, however, remain a familial mystery until that purported “free time” I seek allows a greater investigation into this matter.

One thing I could easily do is take one of those DNA tests that I got from Ancestry.com several weeks ago. It wouldn’t likely distinguish between German and Dutch, or English and Irish, but it would be broadly informative.

As you may recall, it was discovered that Barack Obama had Irish ancestors; lots of O’Bama jokes ensued at the time.

I’ve always been Roger O. Green, or Roger O’Green, if you will. Some day, maybe I’ll discover whether I come by my faux designation legitimately.

Aaron Gough Bra

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I made my header a shade of green.

Wait, it was ALREADY a shade of green. As am I.

Anyway, I recall that a few years ago, for the past few years, I noticed that SamuraiFrog had expressed his distaste for St. Patrick’s Day. Gotta say that, after last weekend, I’m inclined to join him. The Kegs & Eggs Riots, only a half dozen blocks from my home, took place in anticpation of the parade this past Saturday. I must agree with Mr. Frog that Irish heritage (or more likely, faux heritage) is not a license to be an ass.
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Census so kindly put out all of this nifty info, and I had nothing better to celebrate the day. AND I don’t have worry about copyright violation for the text!

Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17): 2011

Originally a religious holiday to honor St. Patrick, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a celebration for all things Irish. The world’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade occurred on March 17, 1762, in New York City, featuring Irish soldiers serving in the English military. This parade became an annual event, with President Truman attending in 1948. Congress proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month in 1995, and the President issues a proclamation commemorating the occasion each year.

Population Distribution

36.9 million
Number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2009. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million).
Irish was the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.
Sources: 2009 American Community Survey and Ireland Central Statistics Office

122,000
Number of Irish-born U.S. residents in 2009. Those from Ireland are much older (a median of 60 years old) and have a higher median household income
($56,158) than U.S. residents as a whole (37 years and $50,221, respectively).
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

24%
Percent of Massachusetts residents who were of Irish ancestry in 2009. This compares with a rate of 12 percent for the nation as a whole.<1–more->
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Irish-Americans Today

32% Percentage of people of Irish ancestry, 25 or older, who had a bachelor’s degree or higher. In addition, 92 percent of Irish-Americans in this age group had at least a high school diploma. For the nation as a whole, the corresponding rates were 28 percent and 85 percent respectively.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

$56,383
Median income for households headed by an Irish-American, higher than the $50,221 for all households. In addition, 10 percent of people of Irish ancestry were in poverty, lower than the rate of 14 percent for all Americans.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

40%
Percentage of employed civilian Irish-Americans 16 or older who worked in management, professional and related occupations. Additionally, 27 percent worked in sales and office occupations; 16 percent in service occupations; 9 percent in production, transportation and material moving occupations; and 8 percent in construction, extraction, maintenance and repair occupations.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

70%
Percentage of householders of Irish ancestry who owned the home in which they live, with the remainder renting. For the nation as a whole, the homeownership rate was 66 percent.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Places to Spend the Day

4
Number of places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, Texas, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,828 residents, respectively. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 152 residents and Shamrock, Okla., 122. (Statistic for Mount Gay-Shamrock is from the 2000 Census; the other statistics are 2009 estimates.)
Sources: American FactFinder and population estimates

9
Number of places in the United States that share the name of Ireland’s capital, Dublin. Since the 2000 Census, Dublin, Calif., has surpassed Dublin, Ohio, as the most populous of these places (44,541 compared with 39,310, respectively, as of July 1, 2009).

If you’re still not into the spirit of St. Paddy’s Day, then you might consider paying a visit to Emerald Isle, N.C., with 3,695 residents.
Other appropriate places in which to spend the day: the township of Irishtown, Ill., several places or townships named ”Clover” (in South Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and the township of Cloverleaf, Minn.
Sources: American FactFinder and population estimates

The Celebration

26.1 billion and 2.3 billion
U.S. beef and cabbage production, respectively, in pounds, in 2009. Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service – beef, and cabbage.

$25 million
Value of potted florist chrysanthemum sales at wholesale in 2009 for operations with
$100,000 or more sales. Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
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Top 50 St Patrick’s Day Facts