July 14, 2006
Meneely Newsletter #8
Dear Friends and Family,
It has been such a long time since the last
newsletter. I have been meaning to get this out to all of you for some time
now but have found it increasingly difficult to do so. For quite some time
it was impossible to find the time to actually sit down and put some thought
into what should be covered. (Yes, occasionally I do try to actually think.)
First of all apologies go out to all of you
that have inquired about t-shirts. The individual who was found to do them
turned out to not be very dependable and so that particular plan fell
through. There have been some inquiries made to another firm and we will
soon hopefully have some shirts available. I certainly am glad that none of
you had sent any money to me in that regard. Any of you that might still be
interested in obtaining a t-shirt please send me an e-mail with the word
"t-shirt" in the subject line so that it will automatically go to the
correct file.
As time goes by there are more and more sources
available to us for research. Not too long ago, I found some old Gaelic
texts with some references which were interesting. There have been several
references to Mac-an-Fhilidh in some old Irish manuscripts and just like
Meneely there are many different spellings. I have found references to
Mac-an-Fhilidh, Mac-in-Fhiledh, Mac-an-Filedh and Mac-on-Fhilidh. Many of
these references come from the 1500's and it is interesting to note that the
authors of these manuscripts refer to the Scots as "Albanachs" but they do
not refer to any of the above mentioned Mac-an-Fhilidh as that. So what we
can probably infer from that is there were two sides of the family one in
Ireland and one in Scotland. We know that there were references to a Maknely
in Scotland as early as the late 1400's. History tells us that there was a
large migration of the "Scotti" from Ireland to Scotland around 800 AD, and
another about 1000 A D. We can infer that since the various forms of the
name appears in both Scotland and Ireland in the late 15th and early 16th
century and since the use of surnames was not used (in the modern sense)
until the 10th century that part of the family must have immigrated to
Scotland somewhere between 950-1400 AD. Now that is a pretty large time
frame but I'm afraid that we may never be able to narrow it down more
precisely. We also do not know when part of the family went back to Ireland.
There were private settlements of Scots in both counties Down and Antrim in
the late 1500's who came with the Mac Donnells chief who was "Lord of the
Isles". He welcomed the Scots even though they were Presbyterian with open
arms. Partly because they were his countrymen and partly because the
province of Ulster was so laid waste from years of war and the Scots even
brought their own cattle.
Very recently I have found a birth record for an
Andrew Meneely born in County Antrim in 1760. Now this may be significant in
a couple of ways. We do not know yet if this is "our" Andrew, the father of
John b. 1787 or 88 and married to Isabella. But consider this, he has the
right name (and the last name is spelled M-e-n-e-e-l-y), and the Christian
name Andrew seems to be found only in this particular line (the "Bell"
Meneely's), he is born in the right timeframe making him 26-28 at the birth
of John, he is from the "north of Ireland" which is where Harmon's book says
we come from, and more significant is the spelling of the surname. There is
also a 1756 marriage record for a John Meneely in County Antrim. When I get
those records, it is my hope that we will find this John to be the father of
this particular Andrew and if that be the case, it will be a pretty good bet
that this is the Andrew that came to the U S in 1795. That would allow many
of us to take our lines back to about 1730 or so and may give some leads to
go back even farther. It is also very interesting to me that, from what I
have found so far, the Meneely records that I have found pre-date the
records for McNeely and McNeilly... very interesting.
Now for some history of the Scots-Irish in
America:
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the
Scots-Irish, in interesting contrast to many of their Scottish cousins, were
among the most determined adherents of the rebel cause. Their frontier
skills were particularly useful in the destroying of Burgoyne's army in the
Saratoga campaign; and George Washington was even moved to say that if the
cause was lost everywhere else he would take a last stand among the
Scots-Irish of his native Virginia. Serving in the British Army, Captain
Johann Henricks, one of the much despised Hessians, wrote in frustration, '
Call it not an American rebellion, it is nothing more than a Scots-Irish
Presbyterian rebellion.'
For a little current news:
There will be a reunion late this week in
Brazil, Indiana that is held annually by the descendants of Ross Meneely.
Albert Ross Meneely was the 2nd son of John Clinton Meneely and Hannah
Elwell. I have been invited and intend to go.
The reunion is set for Saturday July 23rd at the
Jackson Township Fire Department from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Two of my unless have sent me some interesting
information. My Dad's elder brother, Ken Meneely who lives in Grant's Pass,
Oregon was recently out walking in the downtown area and ran across a
Meneely bell. The city of Grant's Pass bought the bell in celebration of
this last 4th of July being the 230th anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence. Pop's youngest brother, Homer, has bought his
own Meneely bell.
Once again, I am sorry it took me so long to get
back in the swing of things. I have been doing some research and have also
had to do a lot of soul searching in regards to my efforts. It has been more
than a little discouraging for me personally in a couple of ways. First of
all is the total lack of response and or interest that we have had from
family members in Northern Ireland. Secondly, a great personal blow to me,
is I have lost contact with our Clan Registrar for the UK and Ireland, Sam
Meneely. Sam and his wife moved to Spain about a year ago. He e-mailed me a
couple of times after the move but then has dropped out of sight. Even
though we had never met in person , we have been communicating back and
forth for about 3 years and it was amazing to both of us at the similarities
we shared. We were both looking forward to the 2012 reunion so that we could
finally meet and spend some time together, I pray he will still be there.
The loss of contact with Sam has almost been like a grieving process for me,
sounds silly doesn't it? Sam did a lot of work for the Clan Committee
including designing our coat-of-arms. He is quite the artist and craftsman
and shortly before his move he sent me a gift. He had made me a Scottish
battle shield, or target' which is among my most treasured of possessions.
Thirdly, there are many out there who I know have family tree information
available but have not taken the time or made the effort to send the info to
Larry. We would really like to get some information from some descendants of
Robert Meneely (changed his name form McNeely on the voyage over) who came
to America in the mid 1800's. It has all boiled down to this, however, the
reason all of us on the Clan Committee, our webmaster and our Clan website
hosts take the time and make the effort (and spend the money) is for our own
personal satisfaction and to leave a record for those that follow. I will be
eternally grateful to those who have come before us and took the time to
put what they did down on paper. So I do this for my children and my
grandchildren and for all those that will follow. I also want to thank all
of you who have encouraged me to continue, I pledge to you that I will do a
much better job of keeping up with these efforts.
The following is a copy of a letter concerning
my eldest. David Travis Meneely was also put up for a Purple Heart but
declined receiving it. He told me that there was no way he would accept a
medal for a concussion and minor shrapnel wounds when others have lost life
and limbs and such.
"DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
This is to certify that The Secretary of the
Navy has awarded the NAVY AND MARINE CORPS ACHIEVEMENT MEDAL (WITH COMBAT
DISTINGUISHING SERVICE) to Corporal David Travis Meneely United States Marine
Corps Reserve For:
Heroic achievement while serving as squad
leader, Company C., 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 7,
1st Marine Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II on 2 October
2004. During a security patrol near the city of Sa'dah, Iraq, Corporal
Meneely's squad came under direct attack by a suicide vehicle-borne
improvised explosive device. Following the blast, he supervised the triage
for the wounded members of his squad. With complete disregard for his own
personal safety, he dismounted in a high threat area and supervised the
treatment of his wounded Marines and the repair of his vehicle while
simultaneously requesting airmobile medical evacuation. He and his squad
successfully defeated the insurgent attack and accomplished the mission with
only minor friendly casualties. Corporal Meneely's initiative, perseverance,
and total; dedication to duty reflected credit upon him and were keeping
with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval
Service.
signed for the Secretary of the Navy
Richard F Natonski
Major General, USMC
Commanding General, 1st Marine Division"
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Peace and Blessings,
Vence Meneely
