Thursday, October 1, 2026

Ohio Letters by Irish-Palatine to New Zealand asking about a Canadian sibling!

 I received my 2nd reply from New Zealand - my distant relative! She sent me three letters from a farmer in Ohio who moved from Ireland - he was writing to New Zealand, comparing New Zealand and Ohio to Ireland! He was also strictly against drinking. He said it's a narcotic and destroys anyone eventually if they drink. This was in1886-7. He talked about all the different trees you could grow. He exported his farm beef and crops back to England.

So the Palatine-Irish grew Apple orchards in Ireland and I thought they drank homebrew (I just ordered some cider yeast to ferment some cider from a White Bear orchard). Anyway - John Wesley who created Methodism - he preached at my ancestor's church in Ireland in 1760s - John Sparling. So Wesley said the Palatines drank homebrew and were not religious - but hardworking. I think maybe when they converted to Methodism then they all stopped drinking. hahaha.
"I rode to Ballingarrane, a town of Palatines, who came over in Queen Anne's time... Having no minister, they were become a most eminent, blameworthy people. They had no religion at all, were eminent for cursing, swearing, and drunkenness, but industrious beyond any of their neighbors."
Also the land farming got much harder as they had to keep subdividing their land! They had the same problem as the actual Catholic Irish. In 1821 Christopher Sparling, my ancestor, was murdered by Catholic Irish - because Christopher had built a big German barn and house - and out buildings for farming. He was leasing a 200 acre tract but he could not afford the rent still. Yet because he was Protestant and the owner Lord had kicked off the subsistence Irish - and Sparling had fought back against the Agrarian revolt - he got murdered. He was on his horse on the road with his wife and his wife also fought back. hahaha. 
Anyway that movie Black 47  - I watched it free on Kanopy - and it depicts this struggle between the Catholic Irish and the English Protestants during the famine. The Palatine Germans were caught in between and that's when they all began moving to Canada from Ireland - or New Zealand or the U.S.
So my Mom went to Canada with her grandmother - who showed my mom the farm in Canada - that was in the Palatine community in Canada. The letters I read said they had not heard from Susannah Sparling much at all - she was my mom's great-great-great grandmother (my Mom's grandmother's grandmother). Susannah Sparling had married Rody Hanly who was 100% Irish! My question is "was Hanly Methodist also?" Did he convert from Irish-Anglican or Irish-Catholic to Methodist? Hanly is a classical Irish name - meaning he must be the reason my oldest sister has Strawberry-Blonde Hair!? Wild.
She sent me a Sparling book also - but it's in Apple Icloud and I have to wait for Apple to approve me for password. hahaha. Anyway Sparling means "Sparrow" - in German - referring to a person with lots of energy. Another Palatine name is Switzer - the Swiss Huguenots had fled to Palatine - but then the French Catholics invaded Palatine. Crazy how Europe had so many wars over religion. hahahaha.  About 10% of the Palatines were also Catholic but Queen Anne was sponsoring the Palatines to move to British Colonies as Protestants - so she demanded conversion or be sent back. 1000 Palatines got sent to Jamaica to clear the land and very few survived!

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