THE SILK FAMILY

The Silk family in Pittsburgh, Pa., started with Thomas Silk who arrived there in 1782 at the age of 3 years with his mother and her two other children. We do not know the name of his father and mother or the other children. According to his son William, Thomas' arrived with his mother from New Jersey. Whether they landed there coming from Ireland or they lived in New Jersey is not known. Thomas' father could have been in the Revolutionary War. But the only Silk that I could find documented in that war was a James Silk who applied for a pension in Maryland after the war.

The Silk in Ireland came from a county Clare originally. They descended from Sioda of the O'Brien and MacNamara family in County Clare. The details of these ancestors of the Silk's of Ireland are given in a paper Jan Rowan has.

Sioda an EicH Bhuidhe (which means Silk of the yellow horse in Gaelic lived in Ireland before 1000 A. D. and he was followed by other descendents named Sioda, the last one being the father of Daniel Sheedy who lived in 1600's A. D. in Ireland. These Sioda's were probably named for the silk cloth, which at first was quite rare and expensive and was called the "cloth of kings". Silk was called Sioda in Gaelic, Seda in Spanish, Seta in Italian, Seolc in Anglo-Saxon, Si in China, Silke in Swedish and Silk in English.

Silk was called Si in China where it originated. According to Chinese legend, Si-Ling-Shi the lovely wife of the Chinese Emperor sat drinking tea in her garden one day. She saw a silkworm spin a lovely golden thread in the mulberry tree over her head. She picked of the silkworm's cocoon and dropped it in her tea. After she unwrapped the long golden thread from the cocoon, she convinced her husband, the Emperor, to give her a whole grove of mulberry trees so that she could grow enough silk to make a wonderful golden cloth.

The Chinese guarded their silk making carefully for many centuries, but eventually some of it found its way to western Asia and to Europe. According to Aristotle the Greeks tried making silk on the island of Kos. Silk cloth from about 500 BC has been found in Scythian graves in the Altai and in Celtic graves in Central Europe.

The Silk route was a famous trade route from China to Antioch. It then was established about 206 BC based on the explorations of Chang Chien. It was a 4000 mile route that started at Sian, China, followed the Great Wall northwest to Sikiang, through Sikiang to Kashgar, then through the Tien Shan Mountains to Tashkent and Samarkand. Marco Polo later followed this route to China about 1275 AD (North of this Silk Route and east of Lake Baikal, the Silka River flows east through the town of Silka and joins the Amur River. I do not know how it got the name Silka.)

Silk was not successfully grown in Europe, however, until the Roman Emperor Justinian commissioned monks to go to China and bring back silkworms hidden in their bamboo walking sticks about 550 AD. Silk culture was introduced to Spain about 800 AD, into Italy about 1100 AD and after 1300 AD into England and Ireland.

Seedy/Silk
page 260 O'Harts' Irish Pedigrees

Coat of arms: Red shield (gules) with a lion rampant in silver (argent) and in chief to spear heads in gold (or). (Crest 395 plate 23 - same as MacNamara

According to some genealogists, Sioda an Eich Bhuidhe (Silks of the yellow horse in Gaelic), who was No. 102 on the MacNamara pedigree and who had an uncle Einsioda and a son Assioda, was the ancestor of MacSioda (son of Silk in Gaelic); anglicized Mac Sheedy, Silk and Silke. But this family directly descends from a later Sioda, who was younger then brother of John Ghabhaltuis (John the conqueror in Gaelic) and who was No. 117 on the MacNamara genealogy. That Sioda was the ancestor of the MacNamara Fionn.

116. Maccon (2): son of Cu Meadh (2)
117. Sioda (Silk in Gaelic): son of Maccon (2); a quo Mac Sioda (born about 1300 AD) younger brother of John an Ghabhaltuis.
118. Maccon Dal: his son
119. Sioda: his son, and had a brother John MacNamara Fionn (fair headed in Gaelic)
120. Florence: his son
121. Lochlan: his son
122. Florence: his son
123. Florence: his son
124. Sioda: his son
125. Daniel Sheedy: his son and the first to use this surname; had two brothers: Donoch (or Denis), Thade (living in 1691 AD

Sioda was from Clann Coilein (after Cullin who was No. 100 on the MacNamara pedigree), which was the territory of the MacNamara's and was known as the MacNamara Fionn, situated in County Clare (according to the description of that county preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin) and comprising. the following parishes: Killaloe, Aglish, Killurin, Kikeady, Killbrooney, Tullagh, Maynoe, Kilnoe, Killokennedy, Kiltrinanela, Feakle, Kilfinaghty and Inisbealtraga. As the O'Grady's were seated in Tomgrany, Scariff and Maynoe, it may be assumed that they were tributary to the chiefs if the MacNamara's. After the Cromwellian Settlement (about 1650 AD) the Sheedy/Silk family were scattered. Some of them settled in County Cork, some in Tipperary, some in Limerick, and some in County Clare; but few of them are now to be found in their ancient patrimony of Clann Coilein.