My patron saint

I suppose it's appropriate that this Sunday has yours truly contemplating the life of his patron saint: Righail.

For ye socks who have difficulty pronouncing ye olde Gaelic, the modernday Scots have simplified things by spelling his name the way it sounds to modern English-speakers: Rule.

Anyway, I'd always known St. Righail was the fellow who lived in a hermitage on Dundrum Bay in Western Ireland. That's where he supposedly predicted the Great Famine of the 1840's about a millenia and a half before it actually happened. Way back in the 4th Century, he wrote of a vision he had of a great broom that swept away three-quarters of the island's population.

But, what I just learned today was the connection between St. Righail and the Apostle Andrew.

Apparently, 'twas himself that carried the remains of the apostle from their original resting place in Patras, Greece, all the way to Scotland in or about the year 327.

Don't know what took him from Scotland to Ireland, though.

Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller?

William Addams Reitwiesner

That's the name of an oft-quoted genealogical expert of sorts, whose research on prominent figures I have enjoyed perusing over the years.

Now, he's created his own website: http://www.wargs.com

It includes a great archive of his previous works and genealogical essays.

I particularly liked the (rather lengthy) one he did to show his calculations of the ethnic background of the two princes William and Harry.

Following a similar approach, some time ago I came up with my own set of numbers. If you care, they break down as follow:

37% = Irish
33% = English
20% = Scottish
5% = Welsh
3% = French
1% = Dutch
1% = German

That should total to 100% if my math is right . . . had to do a lot of rounding, I'm afraid. (Rounded-down as much as possible on those French numbers!)

If you're interested in checking-out your own genetic/ethnic background, I would point you to an awesome program being conducted by the Sorensen Molecular Genealogy Foundation: http://www.smgf.org

Happy hunting!