Dear Joe;
It is interesting that cultures 'morph' over time. I think a lot of it has
to do with a personal desire to identify. That in part is why you see
'scotsmen' galore in North America acting at being scotish, while in
Scotland they can be see simply as they are, scotttish. That said how many
are irish, weklsh and english and live in scotland.
In a similar fashion individuals chose to be identified as irish, or
american or what have you. This is one of the great challenges of our
century is to appreciate the blending of cultures while respecting
individuality of freedom of choice.
Now as to the Sinclairs of Ireland, north or south. I invite you to turn to
economic and social perspectives as to how Argyll Sinclairs went to Ireland.
In the early 1700's ther was a time of economic expansion and crofters were
needed. As with today, people go where the jobs are and so off they went to
the farms and fields of ireland. Now as you are aware the sinclairs did not
own the land, either in Argyll or in Ireland. So they moved and it is
interesting to spot the naming patterns with Sinclairs where cousins appear
on both sides of the channel.
Then look to the geography, the channel is easily accessible to many
Sinclairs that learned of the sea. Lastly from a genealogical perspective,
then as now there is a mix of languages, cultures and the like making
Ireland one of the more adoptable cultures in Europe and the great nation it
is today.
Keep the flags flying.
Neil Sinclair
Toronto/PEI/Argyll
Challenge to the list, we have very little on Irish Sinclairs, any
contributors?
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