Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Irish In Me

When I was a child (Yes, kiddies, I did not come fully grown with wrinkles.) my grandmother paid to have our genealogy traced. Not surprisingly, the researcher discovered that we were related to Scotch royalty and that our heritage was a mixture of Scotch, Irish and English. Of course it was all nonsense and all it accomplished was enriching the 'so called' genealogist's pocket.

My younger sister is very active in tracing our family tree through the Mormon genealogy records and if there is royalty in our ancestry she hasn't found it. My maternal grandmother was, however, from the same branch of Spencer's as Lady Diana Spencer. I suppose that might count for a tad of royalty.

Nonetheless, I like to think of myself as having a wee bit of Irish in my blood along with the proven English. I have fair skin that freckles easily and my hair had enough red in it that my husband used to call me his little red head. Yes, I know that that combination can be found in many cultures and is not unique to Ireland, but, to me, it was proof that I had an Irish ancestor. Additionally, I believed it because I was told it was true by my grandmother. How could my dear grandmother be wrong? ~ ;-).

I am presenting an Irish bagpiper that a friend sent me in an e-mail. We Irish have to stick together


As a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery in the remote countryside and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere in sight.

I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid already in place.

I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and soul.

As I played the workers began to weep. I played and I played like I'd never played before, from Going Home and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest. I closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to my car.

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary'n Joseph, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."



11 comments:

Sylvia K said...

Oh, Darlene, that one is priceless and I'm still laughing! Love your post! I'm mostly Irish myself, my hair was auburn -- once upon a time, but I also have a little Native American and lord knows what else. But my family has been in this country, arriving on the east coast in the late 1700s -- at least from what little I know. I know they intermarried with another French/Irish family for years - wonder we have a brain left at all.

Joy Des Jardins said...

Oh my God...that is so funny Darlene. Well, I don't have any Irish in me...but I am 1/4th English on my dad's side...and Danish. The other half of my is all Italian. Thanks for this wonderful post you little redhead....

Betty said...

Hilarious. My English grandma once told me she could trace her ancestry back to William the Conqueror. As you said, would grandma lie?

Rinkly Rimes said...

That's lovely! I became very interested in genealogy at one time, but as soon as I reached 'doubtful' people (were they or weren't they the ones I was looking for?)I lost interest.

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

Love this, you always bring a smile to my face. I am suppose to be Irish, English and Scotch also.

Ugich Konitari said...

Great story. Really enjoyed that....

la peregrina said...

Irish humor. :)

BTW- Did you know that the Irish people have been migrating to Scotland since 500 AD?

http://www.scottishhistory.com/articles/early/settlement/settlement_page1.html

Which gives us this joke:

Do you know what a Scotsman is?

An Irishman who could swim.

Darlene said...

Sylvia - I think the question might be phrased, "Do we have a brain left?" ;-)

Joy - So that's where your lovely dark hair comes from, you Italian lass?

Betty - Your grandmother may be right. Through Lady Diana's ancestry my family's history does trace back to William the Conqueror. My early ancestor was a Norman who was one of William's knights and became the keeper of the wardrobe - a despencer. He adopted that name and it was later changed to Spencer, dropping the 'de'.

Brenda - Do you have access to the Mormon Church records in Australia?
To prove ancestry you have to have two proven sources of who they are. The result is accurate records. If you could be assured of authenticity you might want to research your genealogy again.

Ernestine - maybe we are twins?

Ugich - thank you again for the compliment. You know I always enjoy your stories.

la Peregrina - Tee Hee! Good one.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Irish ancestry. I am sure we all have a drop of royal blood. Does not history tell that royalty always chose good looking footmen? Really so funny the final bouquet with the concert of the bagpiper. It is good to laugh!

Rain Trueax said...

laughing. that is great

Gary White said...

Just checked in from Spain and we are laughing out loud here in SahagĂșn.