This week’s theme is family legends. All families have legends about their
ancestors. Some involved being related
to royalty or famous people, others involve having the family name changed at
Ellis Island, while still other might involve ancestors who came over on the
Mayflower. Most family legends may have
a little truth in them.
In my family the legend involved the reason that James
Hannah (1772--1828), my emigrant ancestor, came to the United States in the late 1700’s. As the story goes, James, a younger son, came from a
well-to-do family in Derry Ireland. The
family owned a Bleaching Green. These
were large grassy areas where linen cloth would be laid to be bleached by the
sun. James evidently fell in love with
one of the family maids, who of course is always described as pretty. This was
totally unacceptable to James's parents, who beat him so he fled to the port and
sailed to the United States, probably landing in Philadelphia. 
That is a nice story, some of it may be true. From my research, I am pretty sure that the
Hannahs did indeed own a bleaching green.
Bleaching Greens were very common in that part of Ireland. I have a letter in which a cousin describes going
to Ireland, meeting with the Hannahs, and seeing the bleaching green.
Now did James fall in love with the maid and flee. Maybe, but probably not. I think if he had loved her, he probably
would have married her and brought her to the States with him. I think that being a younger son, he did not see much future for him in Derry, so he decided to migrate. However, it is a nice story.
I have not been able to trace the origin of that story so if
I could talk to James Hannah, I definitely would ask him why he left Ireland
and came to the United States.
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