Publisher  Cheryl “Zetta McNairn” Grice  Vol No.2 Is No.3 Date  March 2002

Hello….nice to see you again!  This month I promise to have a bit more “well-rounded” issue for you.  I’m even starting early rather than doing this at the last minute!  (I wonder if that is a McNairn trait….ha ha.)

This month, the first thing I would like to do is to list some websites which have been extremely helpful in my research on the McNairn family.  Of course don’t be surprised that the first one I mention is Judi McNairn’s website…I don’t remember exactly, but I believe her site was one of the first places I visited when I started doing genealogy research on the internet.  All right…here we go!

<http://jamcnairn.com/mcnairn/index.htm>  This is Judi’s McNairn Resource Site, in my opinion the most comprehensive site on the internet for McNairn information.  Definitely the first place to visit!  And, if you’re behind the “Times”…..all of The McNairn Times newsletters are archived on the site.  Judi is also getting an area ready on the site that I can use for  my branch of the McNairns and other things.  I’ll let you know when something is ready to view there, but it might be awhile…I’m really awful at HTML!

<http://www.mcnairn.com/>  A place for McNairns from all over the world to come together.  Created by Ian McNairn in England!

<http://www.geocities.com/klingongal69/mcnairnheritage.html>  This is a homepage for me that I have started and I’m going to be working on as I learn more about HTML and all those evils of creating a web page!  There is a little bit of information there now that you can look at if you like.

<http://www.genealogy.com/users/g/r/i/Cheryl-L-Grice/?Welcome=1015108815>  My website at Genealogy.com, which I named McNairn / Bailey + Grice = A Plethora of People!  This has my family tree on it.  

<http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=klingongal>  This is my Rootsweb WorldConnect Project McNairn Page.

<http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/mcnairnfamilyresearch>  This is my little group on Yahoo where we can post messages, photos, links, files, all sorts of things.  There is also a chat feature (no one has used it yet, I guess we are not all online at the same time!), a list of members, and a calendar.  All in all it’s a neat place, although I don’t have many members there yet.  I have posted some genealogy photos for your perusal, and you can post photos as well if you’d like.  Come and join me!  If we get enough people to join up, maybe we can schedule a specific night for chatting!  Wouldn’t that be fun?

<http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcnairn/>  This is the McNairn Genealogy Forum at Genealogy.com.  Hey, there’s not much there, but it’s growing.

<http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/m/mcnairn.html>  This is Rootsweb’s  McNairn surname mailing list.  Not a lot of mailings…..but when news breaks about the McNairn Family, this is one of the places that we post it.  Judi is the list manager.

<http://www.mcnairnpackaging.com/>  Well, it’s not genealogy, but a member of my family was the founder of this company.  Check it out.

<http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.canada.ontario.stormont&maxrows=25&dir=next>  Stormont County, Ontario message boards.  This is a popular place for McNairns.

<http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~leighann/index.html>  Here we have the Wigtownshire, Scotland pages.  All sorts of interesting information can be found here!  This is the area from which our ancestors originated.

<http://www.royalprovincial.com/>  The Loyalist Institute Homepage.  If you ever wanted to learn about Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War, this is the place to go.  Many of the folks who came over from Scotland became Loyalists.  Plus, this is something  that is not taught in American schools!

<http://www.scotlandgenweb.org/~nairn/>   History and information related to Nairnshire, Scotland, where some McNairns MAY be from…we are not sure yet!  If you find out anything concrete, let me know!

Well, since this month’s holiday is St. Patrick’s Day, and there is the possibility that we may find that some of our ancestors came from Ireland to Nairnshire, Scotland, I thought I would fill you in a bit on the origins of the holiday.   

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.  He was born, most sources say, somewhere between 373 A.D. and 390 A.D. in either Wales, Scotland, or England.  His real name was probably Maewyn Succat. Though Patricius was his “Roman” name, he later became known as the more familiar “Patrick”.  His father was Calpurnius, a Roman-British officer.  

At approximately the age of  16, he was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland, where he was pressed into service as a shepherd.  During his 6 year captivity, it is said, he came to believe in God.  When he escaped, he first went to Britain, then Gaul, France, where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, for  twelve years.  Patrick eventually was appointed second bishop to Ireland, where he was very successful in winning converts to Christianity from the old Celtic religion.  He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries and setting up schools and churches to aid in the conversion of the Irish to Christianity.   

His mission in Ireland lasted for approximately twenty to thirty years, after which he retired to County Down, and died on March 17, 461 A.D.  

By the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure.  Some legends say that he used the Irish shamrock to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity; that he put a curse on venomous snakes and drove them all into the sea where they drowned; and that he raised people from the dead.  Of course, these are mostly legends….but after some 1500 years, it is impossible to separate the legend from the fact.  

St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated for a long time in Ireland, and became a Catholic holiday when Patrick received his sainthood.  Since then, it has evolved into more of a secular holiday.  The custom of celebrating the day  publicly finally came to America, Boston specifically, in 1737.  

I wonder if they had green beer back then?

Now, as an extra, I’ve got a couple of Irish sayings and blessings to pass along to you. The following is my absolute favourite!

May those who love us, love us
And those who don't love us,
May God turn their hearts
And if he can't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping!

This one comes really close to being my favourite.  It’s very beautiful, and I have a picture with this blessing on it hanging in my kitchen.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Ok, I lied, I have some more Irish stuff for you--some interesting links you might want to have a look at if you’ve the time.

Irish Music Box Ezine-- <http://www.dojo.ie/musicbox/>
Gaelic Music-- <http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/ceol.html>
Fianna Kitchen--Irish Recipes--
      <http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/kitchen/index.html>
Ireland Story (Facts and History of Ireland)--
      http://www.irelandstory.com/index.htm
Everything Irish Store--http://bitoheaven.vstoregifts.com/cgi- bin/pagegen/vstoregifts/bitoheaven/page.html?mode=home&file=/page/home                    
      /home.spl
Irish Jokes and Other Alternative Irish Websites (very interesting!!!)-- <http://users.bigpond.com/kirwilli/pats_pop.htm>
Irish News&Links--http://www.IrelandByNET.com
A Really Comprehensive Site of Irish Resources--
      http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/irish.html

Ok, ok, that’s enough.  Now back to our regular programming!

I have decided that it would be interesting as well as possibly beneficial for us to conduct a Medical Survey of our readers who are McNairns.  Basically, this means that if you are interested in participating, you would email me with specific medical conditions that you have experienced.  Then I would pool the information and sort by geographical location and other factors (suggestions are open).  I think this would be a neat way to kind of have an idea of what we need to look out for, health wise, in the future.  

In the study that I would publish here in the newsletter, I would not mention any names specifically.  I would keep your information confidential.  If anyone had a specific question regarding WHO experienced a particular condition, I would email the person who submitted it and ask them the question and then reply to the inquirer without revealing the identity of the either party.  

For example…and this is just a sampling of items for me…I have hypothyroidism, kidney stones, and LQTS (a heart arrhythmia).  See what I mean about that kind of information coming in handy?  Knowing this, you might now be on the lookout for one of these conditions.  

Let me know what you think of this idea……..or submit information to me:  cheryllgrice@cs.com    Thanks!

Last month I threw out the idea of possibly having some kind of reunion for all of us McNairns, other related families, and possible connections.  Well, I have received quite a few responses asking about suggestions for our first McNairn Reunion.  

So far, the most popular place for having the reunion seems to be Ontario.  I have a cousin there who has a nice big old remodeled farmhouse, and lots of land upon which to have a reunion, and he as offered it’s use for a brief reunion (something like 1-2 days).  The most popular suggested length of the reunion has been one day (as opposed to say an entire week of festivities like some folks do!).  Everyone who wrote back with ideas for the reunion said that they would definitely be interesting in coming.  And so…..if everything goes as planned, we would like to have this reunion sometime in August of 2003.  This gives us about a year and a half to prepare.  Now, if anyone else has any ideas for activities…. setup….communication…..getting the word out….. finances….. anything…….. please let me know.  We ARE going to have this reunion, even if it is just a couple of people sitting around on a log telling stories!  Both Judi McNairn and I are pretty much DETERMINED to make this happen.  I think it would be fantastic to meet all of you, my subscribers!  I already know it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I am positive that we can pull this together.  Please keep the ideas coming!

Judi has been really busy the past month preparing tax returns at her new job (this is just one of about 5 jobs now!), and so there will not be an article from her this month.  She asked me to pass along her apologies, and  she hopes to be able to fill you in next month on what was happening historically speaking from 1850 to 1900.

And so we come to the end of another issue.  This one was just a BIT longer than the other ones!  I’m hoping that following issues will also be two or three, or possibly even FOUR pages.  

I’m still working on putting together the McNairn Directory.  If you haven’t written to me and let me know how you would like to appear in the directory, please do so.  I’ll use my entry as an example:

Name:  Grice, Cheryl
Location:  Muncie, Indiana, USA
Email:  cheryllgrice@cs.com
Other Info:  Married to Phil Grice.  Three children:  Alex, 8; Jesse, 5; and Crystal, 3.

Keep the information coming!  The more McNairns we have a record for, the easier it will be to get ahold of you if we need to.  And it will be easier hopefully to establish a family connection between ALL of us!

Next:  I am still working on more sections to add to the newsletter.  So…..If you have any stories you would like to tell about your family, any interesting historical tidbits you would like to pass along, or any suggestions for things we can do together as a clan, please let me know.  You are the reason for my writing this newsletter…..let me know what you would like to see!  

Here is how to contact me:
Email:  cheryllgrice@cs.com
Snail Mail:  Cheryl Grice, 901 W. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN  47302
Phone:  (765) 286-2816

Take care…..See you all next month!!!      

Cheryl

Publisher  Cheryl “Zetta McNairn” Grice  Vol No.2 Is No.3 Date  March 2002

Hello….nice to see you again!  This month I promise to have a bit more “well-rounded” issue for you.  I’m even starting early rather than doing this at the last minute!  (I wonder if that is a McNairn trait….ha ha.)

This month, the first thing I would like to do is to list some websites which have been extremely helpful in my research on the McNairn family.  Of course don’t be surprised that the first one I mention is Judi McNairn’s website…I don’t remember exactly, but I believe her site was one of the first places I visited when I started doing genealogy research on the internet.  All right…here we go!

<http://jamcnairn.com/mcnairn/index.htm>  This is Judi’s McNairn Resource Site, in my opinion the most comprehensive site on the internet for McNairn information.  Definitely the first place to visit!  And, if you’re behind the “Times”…..all of The McNairn Times newsletters are archived on the site.  Judi is also getting an area ready on the site that I can use for  my branch of the McNairns and other things.  I’ll let you know when something is ready to view there, but it might be awhile…I’m really awful at HTML!

<http://www.mcnairn.com/>  A place for McNairns from all over the world to come together.  Created by Ian McNairn in England!

<http://www.geocities.com/klingongal69/mcnairnheritage.html>  This is a homepage for me that I have started and I’m going to be working on as I learn more about HTML and all those evils of creating a web page!  There is a little bit of information there now that you can look at if you like.

<http://www.genealogy.com/users/g/r/i/Cheryl-L-Grice/?Welcome=1015108815>  My website at Genealogy.com, which I named McNairn / Bailey + Grice = A Plethora of People!  This has my family tree on it.  

<http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=klingongal>  This is my Rootsweb WorldConnect Project McNairn Page.

<http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/mcnairnfamilyresearch>  This is my little group on Yahoo where we can post messages, photos, links, files, all sorts of things.  There is also a chat feature (no one has used it yet, I guess we are not all online at the same time!), a list of members, and a calendar.  All in all it’s a neat place, although I don’t have many members there yet.  I have posted some genealogy photos for your perusal, and you can post photos as well if you’d like.  Come and join me!  If we get enough people to join up, maybe we can schedule a specific night for chatting!  Wouldn’t that be fun?

<http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcnairn/>  This is the McNairn Genealogy Forum at Genealogy.com.  Hey, there’s not much there, but it’s growing.

<http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/m/mcnairn.html>  This is Rootsweb’s  McNairn surname mailing list.  Not a lot of mailings…..but when news breaks about the McNairn Family, this is one of the places that we post it.  Judi is the list manager.

<http://www.mcnairnpackaging.com/>  Well, it’s not genealogy, but a member of my family was the founder of this company.  Check it out.

<http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.canada.ontario.stormont&maxrows=25&dir=next>  Stormont County, Ontario message boards.  This is a popular place for McNairns.

<http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~leighann/index.html>  Here we have the Wigtownshire, Scotland pages.  All sorts of interesting information can be found here!  This is the area from which our ancestors originated.

<http://www.royalprovincial.com/>  The Loyalist Institute Homepage.  If you ever wanted to learn about Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War, this is the place to go.  Many of the folks who came over from Scotland became Loyalists.  Plus, this is something  that is not taught in American schools!

<http://www.scotlandgenweb.org/~nairn/>   History and information related to Nairnshire, Scotland, where some McNairns MAY be from…we are not sure yet!  If you find out anything concrete, let me know!

Well, since this month’s holiday is St. Patrick’s Day, and there is the possibility that we may find that some of our ancestors came from Ireland to Nairnshire, Scotland, I thought I would fill you in a bit on the origins of the holiday.   

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.  He was born, most sources say, somewhere between 373 A.D. and 390 A.D. in either Wales, Scotland, or England.  His real name was probably Maewyn Succat. Though Patricius was his “Roman” name, he later became known as the more familiar “Patrick”.  His father was Calpurnius, a Roman-British officer.  

At approximately the age of  16, he was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland, where he was pressed into service as a shepherd.  During his 6 year captivity, it is said, he came to believe in God.  When he escaped, he first went to Britain, then Gaul, France, where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, for  twelve years.  Patrick eventually was appointed second bishop to Ireland, where he was very successful in winning converts to Christianity from the old Celtic religion.  He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries and setting up schools and churches to aid in the conversion of the Irish to Christianity.   

His mission in Ireland lasted for approximately twenty to thirty years, after which he retired to County Down, and died on March 17, 461 A.D.  

By the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure.  Some legends say that he used the Irish shamrock to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity; that he put a curse on venomous snakes and drove them all into the sea where they drowned; and that he raised people from the dead.  Of course, these are mostly legends….but after some 1500 years, it is impossible to separate the legend from the fact.  

St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated for a long time in Ireland, and became a Catholic holiday when Patrick received his sainthood.  Since then, it has evolved into more of a secular holiday.  The custom of celebrating the day  publicly finally came to America, Boston specifically, in 1737.  

I wonder if they had green beer back then?

Now, as an extra, I’ve got a couple of Irish sayings and blessings to pass along to you. The following is my absolute favourite!

May those who love us, love us
And those who don't love us,
May God turn their hearts
And if he can't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping!

This one comes really close to being my favourite.  It’s very beautiful, and I have a picture with this blessing on it hanging in my kitchen.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Ok, I lied, I have some more Irish stuff for you--some interesting links you might want to have a look at if you’ve the time.

Irish Music Box Ezine-- <http://www.dojo.ie/musicbox/>
Gaelic Music-- <http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/ceol.html>
Fianna Kitchen--Irish Recipes--
      <http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/kitchen/index.html>
Ireland Story (Facts and History of Ireland)--
      http://www.irelandstory.com/index.htm
Everything Irish Store--http://bitoheaven.vstoregifts.com/cgi- bin/pagegen/vstoregifts/bitoheaven/page.html?mode=home&file=/page/home                    
      /home.spl
Irish Jokes and Other Alternative Irish Websites (very interesting!!!)-- <http://users.bigpond.com/kirwilli/pats_pop.htm>
Irish News&Links--http://www.IrelandByNET.com
A Really Comprehensive Site of Irish Resources--
      http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/irish.html

Ok, ok, that’s enough.  Now back to our regular programming!

I have decided that it would be interesting as well as possibly beneficial for us to conduct a Medical Survey of our readers who are McNairns.  Basically, this means that if you are interested in participating, you would email me with specific medical conditions that you have experienced.  Then I would pool the information and sort by geographical location and other factors (suggestions are open).  I think this would be a neat way to kind of have an idea of what we need to look out for, health wise, in the future.  

In the study that I would publish here in the newsletter, I would not mention any names specifically.  I would keep your information confidential.  If anyone had a specific question regarding WHO experienced a particular condition, I would email the person who submitted it and ask them the question and then reply to the inquirer without revealing the identity of the either party.  

For example…and this is just a sampling of items for me…I have hypothyroidism, kidney stones, and LQTS (a heart arrhythmia).  See what I mean about that kind of information coming in handy?  Knowing this, you might now be on the lookout for one of these conditions.  

Let me know what you think of this idea……..or submit information to me:  cheryllgrice@cs.com    Thanks!

Last month I threw out the idea of possibly having some kind of reunion for all of us McNairns, other related families, and possible connections.  Well, I have received quite a few responses asking about suggestions for our first McNairn Reunion.  

So far, the most popular place for having the reunion seems to be Ontario.  I have a cousin there who has a nice big old remodeled farmhouse, and lots of land upon which to have a reunion, and he as offered it’s use for a brief reunion (something like 1-2 days).  The most popular suggested length of the reunion has been one day (as opposed to say an entire week of festivities like some folks do!).  Everyone who wrote back with ideas for the reunion said that they would definitely be interesting in coming.  And so…..if everything goes as planned, we would like to have this reunion sometime in August of 2003.  This gives us about a year and a half to prepare.  Now, if anyone else has any ideas for activities…. setup….communication…..getting the word out….. finances….. anything…….. please let me know.  We ARE going to have this reunion, even if it is just a couple of people sitting around on a log telling stories!  Both Judi McNairn and I are pretty much DETERMINED to make this happen.  I think it would be fantastic to meet all of you, my subscribers!  I already know it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I am positive that we can pull this together.  Please keep the ideas coming!

Judi has been really busy the past month preparing tax returns at her new job (this is just one of about 5 jobs now!), and so there will not be an article from her this month.  She asked me to pass along her apologies, and  she hopes to be able to fill you in next month on what was happening historically speaking from 1850 to 1900.

And so we come to the end of another issue.  This one was just a BIT longer than the other ones!  I’m hoping that following issues will also be two or three, or possibly even FOUR pages.  

I’m still working on putting together the McNairn Directory.  If you haven’t written to me and let me know how you would like to appear in the directory, please do so.  I’ll use my entry as an example:

Name:  Grice, Cheryl
Location:  Muncie, Indiana, USA
Email:  cheryllgrice@cs.com
Other Info:  Married to Phil Grice.  Three children:  Alex, 8; Jesse, 5; and Crystal, 3.

Keep the information coming!  The more McNairns we have a record for, the easier it will be to get ahold of you if we need to.  And it will be easier hopefully to establish a family connection between ALL of us!

Next:  I am still working on more sections to add to the newsletter.  So…..If you have any stories you would like to tell about your family, any interesting historical tidbits you would like to pass along, or any suggestions for things we can do together as a clan, please let me know.  You are the reason for my writing this newsletter…..let me know what you would like to see!  

Here is how to contact me:
Email:  cheryllgrice@cs.com
Snail Mail:  Cheryl Grice, 901 W. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN  47302
Phone:  (765) 286-2816

Take care…..See you all next month!!!      

Cheryl