John J. Meneely, Sr, 74, entered into the presence of our Lord on 5/11/05.  Jack was born and raised in Houston, PA and is preceded in death by his parents, John H. and Pearl Meneely.  Survived by wife of 49 years, Vivian; sons and daughters-in-law, Jay and Sue Meneely of Omaha; Ray and Karen Meneely of Glendora, CA; daughters and sons-in-law, Linda and John Rice of Omaha; Sharon and Jeff Bayer of Smithville, MO; 13 grandchildren; brother, Edward of Amherst, OH; sisters, Vera Flick of London, OH, Shirley Skerl of Carnegie, and Phyllis Lagoni of Canonsburg. MEMORIAL SERVICE Sat. 10 a.m., at Evangelical Bible Church, 7820 Fort St.  Omaha, NE.

 

 

In our last newsletter I promised that we would cover some topics, such as were the terms "redneck" and "hillbilly" come from. Many words common in America today have Celtic roots. The following terms have association with the American South and southern culture, they are distinctly Scottish and Ulster-Scottish (Scots-Irish).

 

Hillbilly:

 

This nickname for mountain folk in the Ozarks and in Appalachia comes from when Ulster-Scots settlers in the hill country of Appalachia brought their traditional music to america. Many of their songs dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. Any of you who watch "American Chopper" on tv are familiar with the Teuttles and Orange County Choppers. (A Scots-Irish name in a New York county named for William of Orange.) There were quite a few Ulster-Scots in New York as well and the largest population in the colonial US was in Pennsylvania. As we discussed before many of these settlers moved after the "Wiskey Rebellion" to Kentucky and from there they spread all over the south.

Supporters of King William were known as "Orangemen" and "Billy Boys" and in North America they soon became referred to as "hill-billies".

 

Red neck:

 

This is a Scottish term and refers to supporters of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, or as they were called, "Covenanters". They were mostly Lowland Presbyterians many who fled Scotland for Ulster while persecuted by the British Crown. In 1638 and 1641 these Covenanters  signed documents that stated Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and they would not accept the Church of England as their official state church. Many of them signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of around their necks as insignia; hence the term "Red neck" which became a slang term for a Scottish dissenter. Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in the south were Presbyterian the term was applied to them and later on to their descendants.  

 

On to new business...

 

The Meneely Clan has been invited  to the Swamp Celts Festival and Highland Games in Gonzales, Louisiana which will be held in April of 2006. Anyone who might be interested in attending this event please let me know. Each clan will get a table and a spot around the athletic ring which will be ideal to introduce our clan to the public and maybe even gain some new members as well as to socialize with the other clans. You can check it out for yourself at www.swampcelts.com  and www.celts1.com . 

 

We would also like to know who has an interest in obtaining t-shirts with our coat-of-arms. If there is enough interest we might also get some large ebroidered patches of same. I have ordered t-shirts for the Clan Committee and it will be real easy to add to that order if anyone has the desire. I am also researching getting a large flag for our clan to display at these type events and at our 2012 reunion.

 

If there is any person reading this who might have some helpfull information relating to immigrating from the UK to the USA; if you would contact me it would be most apreciated. We have some more of our clan who would like to do what so many have already done, but we are running in to a lot of obstacles, so any help would be welcomed.

 

Please forward this to all your relatives in your respective address books.

 

Peace and Blessings,

Vence

 

 

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