The social phenomenon of Facebook has made me again quite interested in genealogical research about my family’s roots. While the Alex Haley saga is transatlantic to Africa, the McNichol roots are transatlantic as well to Ireland, England, Scotland and Germany. While most of us that maintain the moniker, “McNichol,” like to exault in our roots in the Irish Diaspora, the blend really has many examples of dilution from both my paternal and maternal lines of descent. From my understanding, my great-grandfather Hugh McNichol came to the United States as a six-month old with his parents and sister Mary. They settled in the area of Christian Street in South Philadelphia and then finally ended up as all good Irish of the 19th century as members of the famed Saint Anthony’s Parish, of late memory on Gray’s Ferry Road. Suffice it to say, I have been trying to find a link that would make me a Son of the American Revolution however this venue does not seem to be the route.
While checking out family history my mother’s paternal lineage dates to both Irish and German ancestry, with both a Protestant and Catholic background. My maternal grandfather, named Dick was a descendent of the Gray family that inhabited the same Gray’s Ferry area since about 1670. However, I still cannot find that elusive link to establish a blueblood claim to familial service in the American Revolution. While most of my research has been on my father’s paternal side, there is a cornucopia of surnames from McNichol, McNally, Sweeney, Sullivan, Alish, Bendsen and so on that heralds a virtual United Nations of ancestry from really all over Europe. To date I cannot find any more surviving Bendsens, my father being the last descendent extant of the long rooted Gray’s Ferry family. My paternal grandmother had a brother and sister. However like all good Irish, Catholic and transplanted families we lost touch with my great aunt’s family by marriage the Dennings in the mid -1960’s. I do know they settled in the Baltimore suburbs but we haven’t been in touch since the last family disagreement in 1967.
Such disagreements are illustrative of the way families lose touch of each other when patriarchs and matriarch of families pass away and the children are scattered all over the place. Recently, my grandfather McNichol’s lone surviving brother passed away. He was almost 90 years old. When attending the funeral services it fascinated me just how many McNichol descendants there are in the local Philadelphia area that do not share my last name. None the less they are in the Irish tradition all cousins of some sort. Facebook has made me curious about finding links to the McNichol family tree and I have tracked a few of them down. Mostly the McNichol’s I know are the children and grandchildren of my great grandfather McNichol’s brother Dennis McNichol. Of course once again in the Irish tradition there are multitudes of name repetitions’, 4 Hughs, 3Dennis’, multiple Marys and a handful of Francis X’s. There is even a “Francis X” that resides near me in Wilmington, Delaware but offers no relative connection. Please don’t mistake him with my cousin, “Francis X” whose father was,”Francis X” and just recently departed.
Confusing, confounding and all around illustrative of the fact that our American heritage is indeed a melting pot of all ethnic diversities and nationalities. I recently met a McNichol on Facebook has an ancestry of Jamaican-American ancestry. After a conversation via email, she indicated her family descended from the Irish migrations to the Caribbean in the mid 1600’s. I never really knew the Irish got to Jamaica in the 1600’s, however the penchant for rum, adventure and a new opportunity most likely precipitated their move. The distinctive migrations of the Europeans have provided many ethnically blended Irishmen all over the world. Perhaps that is enough of a reason to stop making reference to groups of individuals by their country of origin. Frankly, none of us are truly Irish, Italian, African or any other subsection of cultures other than uniquely, “American,” sans the geographical designation of another country of origin.
Perhaps it is just my own unusual desire to research history, however if one digs deeply enough it becomes very obvious that we are first and foremost, “Americans!” Maybe it would help the cause of human rights and freedoms if all of the references of our ancestral countries of origin were dissuaded and we finally accept the, “American melting pot,” for its unique and important sociological and historical value.
Every time I travel through Facebook I keep looking for connections to my Irish-American ancestry. Most importantly, I should be looking for my American cousins and ancestors that embraced the United States as an example of ethnic, social, historical , religious and cultural plurality regardless of their ethnic origins. We celebrate the 233 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th this year. We should very obviously celebrate the diversity and plurality that exists in all of our families that constitutes us as Americans.
I am going to keep looking for the connection as either a Son or Daughter of the American Revolution. Regardless of my results I can boast of this connection to the Founding Fathers by my birth and connection to all of the culturally diverse ethnic peoples that make up my own family heritage…regardless of their nation of origin.
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