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- #41
This a fun conversation.........thanks for exercising my brain. As far as employment, I have always found that hard working ambitious people will always prevail even if starting with a disadvantage. The Protestants did have more money by the nature of how most got to Ireland because they were Middle to upper class people that had money to support Henry and Cromwell to fight the war. There is a list of people that donated to the crown and after the war was over received land in the country. They were called "adventurers" and my family name (Wright) is on it. Beyond that, they were a very early middle class group, many were small busisness owners and self employed tradesmen (like my people) that knew how to prosper wherever they were. They were blamed for being hard working and prosperous by less aggressive people in the society. (Like today here in the US) of all my relatives I know from the Irish/Protestant side, I don't know any that were (or are) drunks or victims. I have a great photo of my 2nd great grandfather taken in a staged photo studio around 1860 with a bird dog and shotgun taken in a Dublin shop. Familiar similarities are striking, in both appearance and lifestyles.
My father's line of Shaughnessy was here in time for the 1880 census in Brooklyn. I believe I have him tracked down to a landlord's tax record in Gort, Co. Galway. But older history shows the line having brothers on both sides of the arguments over a number of holdings in that area.