03-17-2008, 09:41 AM
Thanks for that and happy St Pat.
Interesting, as my last name is FitzGerald, which is a large and ancient family. We aren't really Irish, but Italian rather, and thanks to my Dad's research I can trace my ancestors back to 900 or so in Florance. Our family was always noted for engineering and building, and I guess I'm a child of that stock.
Still, having a thousand years of family perspective is unusual, for certain, and there is one thing that I've learned from it.
Only one generation in a thousand years of my branch of the FitzGerald family, my grandfather, had the luxury and stability in the economy and society to be born and die on the same piece of ground. Everyone else was running for their life. Perhaps that perspective engenders my all to often doomsday prognoses.
Interesting, as my last name is FitzGerald, which is a large and ancient family. We aren't really Irish, but Italian rather, and thanks to my Dad's research I can trace my ancestors back to 900 or so in Florance. Our family was always noted for engineering and building, and I guess I'm a child of that stock.
Still, having a thousand years of family perspective is unusual, for certain, and there is one thing that I've learned from it.
Only one generation in a thousand years of my branch of the FitzGerald family, my grandfather, had the luxury and stability in the economy and society to be born and die on the same piece of ground. Everyone else was running for their life. Perhaps that perspective engenders my all to often doomsday prognoses.