The Phoenix Rises in
Australia.
The Phoenix
bird symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death. In ancient Greek
and Egyptian mythology, it is associated with the sun god.
According to
the Greeks, the bird lives in Arabia, near a cool well. Every morning at dawn,
the sun god would stop his chariot to listen to the bird sing a beautiful song
while it bathed in the well.
Only one
Phoenix exists at a time. When the bird felt its death was near, every 500 to
1,461 years, it would build a nest of aromatic wood and set it on fire. The bird
then was consumed by the flames.
A new Phoenix
sprang forth from the pyre. It embalmed the ashes of its predecessor in an egg
of myrrh and flew with it to Heliopolis, "city of the sun," where the egg was
deposited on the altar of the sun god. In Egypt, it was usually depicted as a
heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock or an eagle.
The
Phoenicians were an enigmatic people, who left little in the way of written
records. Much of what we know of them from ancient times was recorded by Greek
and Roman historians who mentioned their seamanship and shrewd business
dealings.
Does
my name of Phoenix come from this race, we could surmise that as they
were sailors. History states that they sailed as far as Spain, and what is to
say they did not sail to Ireland
where my
story begins.
Archibald
Smith Phoenix.
If any of
the following story is of any interest to you and you wish to find out
more, I do have all the genealogy of the families.
[email protected]
Ireland
My
great grandfather, John Phoenix was a farmer, He married my great grandmother
Mary Tate,and they farmed land on a hill called Drummiller, in County Down.
Drummiller is near Gilford and the village of Tullylish. He married Ella
Loughrin and one of their children was named John, he was my
grandfather. He lived in the same cottage, the ruins still stand
today hidden by trees and bracken. My grandfarhter was a weaver, as the
district was very much a flax growing district, I would assume that
grandfather John was a weaver of flax.
Scotland.
Times must
have been bad as the family emigrated to Scotland, They first arrived in
Glasgow but found their way to the little town of Johnstone, in Renfrewshire
as it boasted a flax mill.
Ella died in
Johnstone, and later John Phoenix married Mary Cameron Sayers.My
grandmother.
They raised
six children and one of them was my father Joshua.
England.
Some of the
family later moved to England, and last year my wife Del and I, on a trip from
Australia to the U.K. had the privilege of meeting Graham Phoenix and his wife
Trish.
Graham is a decendant of Ella Loughrin's marrage to my great
grandfather John.
U.S.A.
One of my
fathers brothers, James, went to the U.S.A. in 1924 with his wife Mary
and their children and set up another colony of Phoenix's there. I have met
one of my cousins, May Phoenix ,and her daughter Eleanor Shill on two previous
trips to England. they live in Florida.
Canada.
I also have
relatives in Canada from grandfather Phoenix's marriage to Ella
Loughrin.
Through having web pages i have been contacted by Kelly
Stadelbauer.
Korea.
My great
nephew William Phoenix, a decendant of my uncle James, lives in Korea and has
married a local girl, William as far as I know still works at the American
embassy.
Australia.
My wife Del
and I brought our children to Australia in 1971 Stephen, Allison, and John,
since then we have another son, Martin who was born in the "Mater" hospital in
Brisbane.
Stephen married Sharon Godfrey and they have two children,
Andrew and Jordan.
Allison married
Graham Harris and they have three children, Laura, Thomas, and
Gregry.
John married Tracy Connell, Martin is not as of yet married.
My main
genealogy pages can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/2484
<