Re: "Drakon" by S. M. Stirling

James Nicoll wrote:

In article <v4ul1p$7ud$1@reader1.panix.com>,
James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

In article <2g957j5m5qfpevnuuojggu1d98la2vgrpv@4ax.com>,
The Horny Goat  <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:36:21 -0400, William Hyde
<wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>

However, Ontario also received a number of "delayed loyalists", i.e.
Americans attracted by free land, well after the war(1).  As these
proved far from loyal to the British in the war of 1812(2), perhaps your
grandmother had a point.
>

>
I've never seen a source that suggested land in modern day southern
Ontario was free though it was a fraction (I've read 1/3) of what the
US was selling land for in what is now the Midwest.
>
Again - in British eyes there were enough of them that it was felt to
be a security threat in the region between London (ON) and York (now
Toronto) though in the event these settlers chose loyalty to their
land rather than to their former country.

>
Yeah, to the 1812 invaders' enormous surprise, you can't win hearts
and minds by setting fire to people's homes.

 So, while there's no UE or American Invasion of 1812 About Which
They Would Later Lie Shamelessly stories in the Canadian side of
my family, my aunt had a rather astonishing claim that we were
related to Upper Canada's Bishop Strachan, a stalwart figure who
played a central role in the Upper Canada Rebellion... by being
such a consumate dick (along with the rest of the Family Compact
that ran Upper Canada back then) that he helped provoke it.
 Well, you can't have heroes without villains.
 What makes the claim eye-brow-raising is that Bishop Strachan
was very very Anglican, whereas my mother's family were very
very Catholic. How you bridge godless heretics to Catholics,
I don't know.

In the mid-1800s there was a tendency among conservative Anglicans to pull a Newman.  Perhaps one of Bishop S's descendants did so.
As it happens I know a great-great nephew of the Cardinal.  The family is not Catholic.
I have reason to believe that one of my great-grandfathers, about as pro-Catholic as Torquemada was pro-Jewish, to have been born Catholic.
People change. And then deny that they did so, as often as not.
William Hyde