Anna Connell

[Gary James]

Great articles and I agree it would be great if her name went on sometjing to do with the club i.e. the trining ground would be good rather than just "Carrington" - thats the same as utds.

AND:

"black shirts with a white cross".

Fantastic away shirt idea !! We'd look like a proper set of warriors in that!

Sorry. The whole point of my comments on this thread is to highlight the fact that Anna Connell's direct involvement is a myth. She is not the founder of the Club - it predated her involvement with the men's meetings and evidence suggests whe wasn't even in Manchester at the time!

By focusing on Anna we're playing down the absoultely brilliant and legitimate work of the real founders.

 

[irishblue59]

swp is back should show the irish more respect given how our club was founded by an irish person.

 

[law74]

Family History Library film no 101388, Volume 7, page 620
Lurgan, Lurgan in the parish of Shankill, Co Armagh

19 Jan 1857
Robert ROBINSON, 21, bachelor, weaver, Tegnavin
William Robinson, weaver
Jane HUGHS, 19, spinster, weaver, Montbrief
John Hughs, weaver
Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland by license, Arthur Connell, Curate
Robert Robinson , Jane Hughs
William John Wetheral, Rebecca Curry

24 Jan 1857
William HUMPHRIES, 21, bachelor, shoemaker, Lurgan
John Humphries, printer
Elizabeth SOMERVILLE, 22, spinster, servant, Lurgan
William Somerville, mason
Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland by license, Arthur Connell, Curate
William Humphries, Elizabeth Somerville
Edward Wilson, Anne Patterson
Just a bit of info on Arthur Connell,not much seems to have been done on his Irish roots.
It'd be nice to know if he had brothers or sisters & if they had children,we may well have a bloodline of the people responsible for our existence in Ireland.

Somewhat ironic then (or typical City if you wish), that one of our founding Fathers was a Curate in Lurgan, a town that has City supporters clubs in its three nearest towns (Portadown, Lisburn and Bannbridge even if the Banbridge club are known as Gilford, even closer to Lurgan), while the blues based in and around lurgan travel to other towns to join supporters clubs.

great thread and a joy to follow.

 

[Marcity]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL . Gary James I'm a fan of your excellent work. And it is really interesting to see how views and "facts" can change. If I hadn't stumble across this thread I still would think that Anna Connell is our founder. Will there be a new book about our origins? I don't think the second edition is very helpful to me as I've already have Manchester: A Football History first edt.

 

[Gary James]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL . Gary James I'm a fan of your excellent work. And it is really interesting to see how views and "facts" can change. If I hadn't stumble across this thread I still would think that Anna Connell is our founder. Will there be a new book about our origins? I don't think the second edition is very helpful to me as I've already have Manchester: A Football History first edt.

Perhaps I should include the full story in the next "Big Book Of City" (hopefully due out at Christmas 2011). I'm pulling together ideas for that now, so it does seem to be one that needs detailed explanation.
Thanks for the comments. Very much appreciated.

 

[Rammyblues]

Top thread, again Mods can this be made a sticky. Could also do with researching who of the founding members were Freemasons re colour of our kit. Especially current home kit.

 

[Dyed Petya]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL . Gary James I'm a fan of your excellent work. And it is really interesting to see how views and "facts" can change. If I hadn't stumble across this thread I still would think that Anna Connell is our founder. Will there be a new book about our origins? I don't think the second edition is very helpful to me as I've already have Manchester: A Football History first edt.

Perhaps I should include the full story in the next "Big Book Of City" (hopefully due out at Christmas 2011). I'm pulling together ideas for that now, so it does seem to be one that needs detailed explanation.

I think if you could get the latest information on our roots out there, then that wuld be an extremely worthwhile thing to do. The Anna Connell story is much publicised in the mainsream media because it makes a good story, meaning that a lot of fans treat it as true when actually research seems to have moved on and shown that her direct involvement in the football club itself was fairly minimal at best. If you have the opportunity to set the record straight, please do! You're certainly the best man for the job! :)

 

[Gary James]

I think if you could get the latest information on our roots out there, then that wuld be an extremely worthwhile thing to do. The Anna Connell story is much publicised in the mainsream media because it makes a good story, meaning that a lot of fans treat it as true when actually research seems to have moved on and shown that her direct involvement in the football club itself was fairly minimal at best. If you have the opportunity to set the record straight, please do! You're certainly the best man for the job! :)

I've included it in the new version of "Manchester A Football History" (arrived back from the printers last Thursday night) and am always conscious of trying to ensure each book offers something new. I'll have to think about how to do it, maybe a 'Fact V Fiction' feature?<br /><br />-- Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:56 am --<br /><br />

Top thread, again Mods can this be made a sticky. Could also do with researching who of the founding members were Freemasons re colour of our kit. Especially current home kit.

There's another thread/couple of threads about Masons. William Beastow (probably the real person to thank for the organisation of the club in its early days) was a senior member of the Masonic community in West Gorton and presented the black shirts with white cross. Personally, I believe the story of that is the one that evolved into the club's selection of Cambridge Blue in the 1890s (and the rumour of Masonic influence).

There's no factual evidence that our current colour came from links with the Masons - plenty of rumour and a few myths but no facts (the Sidney Rose article in Masonic Quarterly contained lots of errors and no facts on the early years).

City wore royal blue and white stripes as Ardwick in 1887 and it looks like that evolved into halved shirts (blue and white) then Cambridge Blue, then Sky Blue.

 

[bluemanc]

Someone started a thread asking about Anna Connell the other day,hth.

 

[MCFC BOB]

Was she the founder of the club?