September 24, 2012

GOODBYE BALLYMONEY, HELLO BELFAST

It rains every Monday in Northern Ireland; what I mean to say is that it Pours Cats and Dogs. Of course this was the day that I was to come to Belfast.  I survived!  The bus brought me to the City Centre in an hour and a half trip, and my ATC hostess, Honor Baird, picked me up to take me to her home on the outskirts of the city.

I had a wonderful time both at the Conference and at the home of Mattie McAllister. I cannot begin to write all that we did and all that I learned. I will need to do a separate blog for the Family history itself. I need to do a lot more research but today just before leaving Ballymoney I received a number of clues which I will need to follow up on, hopefully while I am still here. My notebooks and suitcase are filled with little pieces of paper, which I am trying to put all together in one place. Mattie was a fabulous hostess and we had a lot of fun together with another woman who stayed at her lovely house, Janice from Florida.

 
Our last night there we all went out to dinner in Port Rush, a seaside Holiday town. Note pics of Mattie's fish pie, before and after.

 

Yesterday I went to a service at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ballymoney and just by chance was seated by a woman who gave me a number of clues. If I can find the records of the church where the Kirks attended back in the mid 1700's, I can start looking for any records that may exist. In those days, many could not read and write, so signed documents with an X.

Now, getting the suitcases ready to go to Belfast (on the bus).  I realized that one month from yesterday I will be leaving to go home to Colorado.  But first ...   Belfast, Paris, and Normandy/Brittany.  I have never done so much in a short time in my entire life.  I hope to come back if the Conference is held again in two years but I must ask God to send the rain where it is needed more

Evelyn Robinson, mayor of Ballymoney; Keith Beattie, town hall manager and Janice McKay, conference attendee

Sarah Kirk, harpist

Here are some pics from the Conference:

 

 

 

ARRIVAL IN BELFAST

Honor made tea for me after we got my suitcase in and helped me research what I want to do the next two days. Tomorrow I prebooked to go on the hop on, hop off bus, to get an overview of Belfast. I want to see the murals from The Troubles and to spend at least a half day at the Titanic Building, recently opened and six stories high. You can see the last footprint made by a person before the ship sailed 100 years ago this year. The building opened to commemorate this anniversary. I enjoyed the traveling exhibit that was in Denver a number of years ago and hope to learn as much as possible.  I'm glad the bus is not an Open Tour as it is to rain all the days I am to be here. It is also raining in Paris but the day I go home it is to be cloudy.

Honor made us a meat pie and green beans for dinner; it was very nice and now I am going to relax some before the big day tomorrow.