Tuesday, April 10th.
(Grampa Kinnear's birthday, he would have been 101, but he's left for the other side at age 91)
Left Carlingford and headed for the Mountains of Mourne. Stopped in Kilkeel to pick up food and throat lozenges and vitamin C to fight off the comings of a cold. Drove up to Silent Valley where there's a reservoire providing most of County Down and Belfast with water. Took a hike to the reservoir got a little lost on the way! Had a picnic on the grass. The vegetation is similar to the tundra we have in Canada.
We called Betty,a family relative on my grandma's side, to let her know we'd be over for a visit at around 3pm. The drive from the top of Silent Valley to Mullartown was just gorgeous! Beautiful views, like a patchwork of green green fields separated by stone walls and speckled with white sheep. The blue Irish Sea in the distance! Breath takin'.
Got to Ballynahinch, which is where my grandma's family comes from. Gotta love the name of this town. In Gaelic, bally is "baile" for "town", and hinch is "hinse" for island or river meadow. So Ballynahinch is town of the island", or town of the river meadow. Fancy that!
We found Betty's house no problem. Funny how roads are marked: Crossgar Road is simply the road from Ballynahinch to Crossgar! It's as simple as that! She was very kind to us. Served us tea and sweets. She showed us photos of family, and of their visit to Canada back in the late 70's. So, when I was 3 we actually met in Maple-Grove where we used to live. There were photos of my grandparent's at Monck Lake. She then took us to visit a couple of cemetaries to see where our relatives are sleeping. Hugh Lightbody, my great great grandfather and his wife. Here's a photo. And then we drove out of town a bit to find the other cemetary where the other are buried. It was hard to find. Down a dirt road next to an electrical area. Not the most pleasant of places. But once we entered cemetary, it's quite peaceful and has that magical feeling that old country cemetaries have. After about half an hour, we finally found the grave stone...it was lying under tallish grass inside the church ruin, by the wall. Manu is the one who found it! Luckily, now we could leave with feeling fulfilled.
Spent the night at a B&B. The lady was super nice and made us feel at home. She even let us use her kitchen to heat up a pizza we bought at Lidl, a cheapo chain grocery store.
April 11th
(Guy's, my French Canadian grandpa, 81st birthday!)
This was the day we were to find where my grandpa Kinnear comes from. The B&B lady, Maeve is her name, told us where we could find Hutton's pub! My mom said this pub was owned by distant relatives. So I figure they would be able to help us locate my grandpa's place. It really is like a treasure hunt, have a few clues to help us get started in finding my grandpa's old farm. No address on hand. All I knew whas that it was outside of Down Patrick! Luckily my mom called that morning to give us another very useful hint: my grandpa used to call the area he lived in Woodgrange. Headed towards Hutton's pub, which is about 5 mins outside of DownPatrick and found a huge old mill. Went in there, it's now renovated into a wedding/hotel venue. The gal in there told us where we could find Hutton's pub. Went over there to meet a distant cousin called Margaret Dickson, on my grandad's mother's side. They have a pretty fancy house with an electric gate at the front of the drive with an intercom system and all! She was very friendly and invited us in. She told us where we could find grampa's place and called on another relative of ours called Tommy Taylor. He lives in the area of Woodgrange too! Tommy Taylor's wife invited us over at 5:30 when her husband Tommy would finish work. After a wee visit with Margaret, her father William and daughter Anna, we went to look for grandpa's house. It's next to the church down the road in Woodgrange. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to go into it as some folks recently bought the place and built a new house on top of the old one. The new owers weren't around. But it was neat enough to see the place from the outside. Lots of old farm buildings are still standing.
Had a nap across the road from it, in the car.
Visited the County Down museum which is quite the museum...lots of money must have gone into it because it really goes into lots of detail of the town and area from the beginning of time. We then paid a visit to St. Patrick's grave! Well, his body is probably not there, but there is a huge stone with his name on it.
Went back to Woodgrange to visit Tommy Taylor and his wife. They were so friendly! We had a really sweet visit with the both of them.
They have a piano and. Tommy asked me to play a a lively tune on it, so I played Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. He then played a couple of tunes on his mouth organ and his wife sang us the:
"If you're Irish come into the parlour" song.
They have a cozy home and the fire was on in the fireplace. He reminded me of my grandpa a little...same colouring in the face and nice light eyes. They told us where we could find the cemetary where my grandpa's mother and his two sisters were buried.
It's a sad story. One sister was ages 9, she died of pneumonia because she fell in the pond but didn't tell her folks for fear of them getting mad at her...so she kept the secret to herself and took ill! The other sister was 4. She died because she was kicked by a horse. Those were probably not the easiest of days. A few other members are also buried in the same plot. We went to town to find the Non-Subscribing Protestant church where they are buried. And fortunately a man was in the church...he's not usually there, but happaned to be there at that time, waiting for the grasscutters. He let us in the church so we could have a look. The church is organised not with benches row by row from front to back, but the congregation is organised in separate sections: individual family pews. Like boxes. Under the benches are heaters. There is also an upper level which is slightly slanted towards the front so that the people sitting up there could see the reverend.
April 11th
(Guy's, my French Canadian grandpa, 81st birthday!)
This was the day we were to find where my grandpa Kinnear comes from. The B&B lady, Maeve is her name, told us where we could find Hutton's pub! My mom said this pub was owned by distant relatives. So I figure they would be able to help us locate my grandpa's place. It really is like a treasure hunt, have a few clues to help us get started in finding my grandpa's old farm. No address on hand. All I knew whas that it was outside of Down Patrick! Luckily my mom called that morning to give us another very useful hint: my grandpa used to call the area he lived in Woodgrange. Headed towards Hutton's pub, which is about 5 mins outside of DownPatrick and found a huge old mill. Went in there, it's now renovated into a wedding/hotel venue. The gal in there told us where we could find Hutton's pub. Went over there to meet a distant cousin called Margaret Dickson, on my grandad's mother's side. They have a pretty fancy house with an electric gate at the front of the drive with an intercom system and all! She was very friendly and invited us in. She told us where we could find grampa's place and called on another relative of ours called Tommy Taylor. He lives in the area of Woodgrange too! Tommy Taylor's wife invited us over at 5:30 when her husband Tommy would finish work. After a wee visit with Margaret, her father William and daughter Anna, we went to look for grandpa's house. It's next to the church down the road in Woodgrange. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to go into it as some folks recently bought the place and built a new house on top of the old one. The new owers weren't around. But it was neat enough to see the place from the outside. Lots of old farm buildings are still standing.
Had a nap across the road from it, in the car.
Visited the County Down museum which is quite the museum...lots of money must have gone into it because it really goes into lots of detail of the town and area from the beginning of time. We then paid a visit to St. Patrick's grave! Well, his body is probably not there, but there is a huge stone with his name on it.
Went back to Woodgrange to visit Tommy Taylor and his wife. They were so friendly! We had a really sweet visit with the both of them. They have a piano and. Tommy asked me to play a a lively tune on it, so I played Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. He then played a couple of tunes on his mouth organ and his wife sang us the: "If you're Irish come into the parlour" song. They have a cozy home and the fire was on in the fireplace. He reminded me of my grandpa a little...same colouring in the face and nice light eyes. They told us where we could find the cemetary where my grandpa's mother and his two sisters were buried.
It's a sad story. One sister was ages 9, she died of pneumonia because she fell in the pond but didn't tell her folks for fear of them getting mad at her...so she kept the secret to herself and took ill! The other sister was 4. She died because she was kicked by a horse. Those were probably not the easiest of days. A few other members are also buried in the same plot. We went to town to find the Non-Subscribing Protestant church where they are buried. And fortunately a man was in the church...he's not usually there, but happaned to be there at that time, waiting for the grasscutters. He let us in the church so we could have a look. The church is organised not with benches row by row from front to back, but the congregation is organised in separate sections: individual family pews. Like boxes. Under the benches are heaters. There is also an upper level which is slightly slanted towards the front so that the people sitting up there could see the reverend.
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