So Mike, where the heck IS Ruthenia anyway?

Fadac, if there is a family tradition of your ancestors being booted out of their homes to make room for sheep grazing, it may well be true: In the late 1700's , most of the Highlands were depopulated in order to break up the Clans and acquire grazing lands for the wealthy landowners. Many Highlands Scots went to Canada or Australia, others wound up in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina- my Great-Great-Great Grandfather Jacob was one of them. He was awarded land in Kentucky for service in the Revolutionary War. He settled in a valley there alongside other veterans, most of them ex-patriate Scots and Welsh. Jacob's Grandson Stephen fought with the Confederate Army of Tennessee, was wounded, and returned home to marry a 19 year old Cherokee girl.

And so my Mom's family is an old one in Kentucky. My Dad's family were relative late-comers. His Grandpa was Swedish, his mother's family English and Irish. I say Long Live the Melting Pot... the more flavors, the better the stew.

LEJ