Dear Hearts and Gentle People,

I have just been given a copy of a page from your web site headed "Furlong Clans in St. John's NF". The most charitable way to describe it is to say it is garbled.

The coat of arms is not that of my branch of the Furlong line, which shows "a boar issuant from an oakwood". This information is more particularly described in the attached clipping from an article on The Furlongs provided by Mr. Burnham Gill, retired Provincial archivist.

The next line claims the information was provided "by Bill Dawson from an interview with Tom Furlong and research at the RC Basilica." I do not recall having an interview with Mr. Dawson. If he did interview me he will have to refresh my memory. How could you say "Remaining unknown"? I certainly know my own brothers and sisters, how many there were and how to spell their names. None of us ever called Wallace anything but "Wallace". Many of his friends called him "Wally" and spelled it that way when they had occasion to write it. And, Myles is spelled that way, not "Miles". In the order of our birth we are Thomas, Joan, Richard, Edward, Anne, Wallace, Francis, Mary and Myles.

My grandfather was a wheelwright who had his own carriage factory. He did marry Mary Wallace but I do not know the date, so I ask which is it 1850 or 1860?

It would appear, therefore, that I am grieviously misquoted in just about every line.

A footnote about "Thomas Furlong, a Cooper" reads "was living with Alexander Furlong in 1895." My grandfather, Thomas Furlong, died when my father was just three years old. How then could he be living with anybody here on earth in 1895? Obviously, you have your "Thomas Furlongs" mixed up.

With the exception of my sister, Anne, who enteredt the Sisters of Mercy Order, we all married and have children. If you would like to bring your Column One up to date I can provide you with names, addresses and telephone numbers to expedite your making contact.

I do not have enough information about the people named in your second column to be able to make a definitive comment except to say that I do not believe Lawrence Furlong had a son named "Chris". If you would like to corroborate this information, I refer you to Mrs. Angela Martin who lives at 24 McNeilly Street, St. John's A1B 1Y8, telephone 753-1287. She is a granddaughter of Lawrence Furlong. I am presuming you would want to have all the information on your web site accurate.

The names as they should appear in your Column One are a follows:

    Thomas Furlong, a wheelwright
            m Mary Wallace
            Date?

    Edward (Edmund) b1875
            m Anne Healy
    (Total of 9 children)

        Thomas
        Joan
        Richard
        Edward   
        Anne
        Wallace
        Francis
        Mary
        Myles

    I don't know that the "(Total of 9 children)" is necessary.

Richard, Mary, Myles, and I are still alive, Thank God. I respectfully request that you make the corrections immediately.

In the interest of truth in the media I should like to remain,

sincerely yours

T. E. Furlong

and

Since writing to you - e-mail no less - on 13th September 2000 a friend brought me a collection of what the late Jim McLoughlan would call "bumph" starting with the title of this epistle. In it you have "a Chris Furlong was a member". His address was 36 Shaw St., St John's, NF A1E 2W8. If this is the Chris Furlong to whom you refer in your "Furlong Clans of St. John's, NF" you have the wrong tense. Chris Furlong at 36 Shaw Street is my nephew and is still very much alive, thank God.

Elsewhere in the material you have Lawrence "owning" Smithville. The property belonged to the Roman Catholic Episcopel Corporation of St. John's, and Lawrence held it on lease.

I called Angela Martin, to whom I referred you, and she laughed out loud at the list of names you have as Lawrence Furlong's grandchildren. She isn't mentioned. She did have a brother Lawrence and other brothers and sisters only two of whom are still alive. None of them appear on the list.

I've been told that e-mail is "Faster than light", but in light of the fact that I have not recieved a reply to my e-mail of September the 13th, I very much doubt it. I am not on the internet and this experience strengthens my resolve not to get in on it, in spite of my friends' urgings to do so. I hope you received my letter and have removed the offending list as I requested. My Fax number is 709-726-0118 and would appreciate your sending me a copy of the corrected page.

Hoping to hear from you SOON I am

T. E. Furlong

The T. E. is for Thomas Edward the same as my grandfather whose keyring is stamped "T.E.FURLONG WHEELWRIGHT".