Family History Trip Scotland Part I

On Monday, May 1st we left our beautiful home in Moira and went to Dublin Airport for our short flight to Scotland.  We flew Easy Jet Airlines and it went quite smoothly.  It was just a short flight of 50 minutes and then we were there.  

After getting our cars we drove straight to Kilwinning to meet up with one of Darla's friends who lives in Scotland.  We met up with Jean for a nice lunch at a place called The Corner House.  

We all had good food and at the end since it was Ruth' birthday the staff brought out a flaming cake.

When I say flaming you can see that the candle on that thing was clearly some type of firework!

It was kinda scary actually!  We sang happy birthday and got to celebrate her just a little bit.🎂

From there we drove over to the Kilwinning Abbey Church to meet up with some nice people who agreed to give us a tour and teach us a little about the place.

One interesting thing we learned is that Baby William (George and Elizabeth's first born son who died at the tender age of 1 rom whooping cough) was buried in the cemetery.  Well, we had known that he was buried there because of the death record but we had never found a headstone.  We were told that it is most likely that since George and Elizabeth were poor that little William probably was buried at the foot of someone (even a stranger) who had died around the same time.  That's how it was done in those days.

These are the people who so generously gave of their time to help us.

Jennifer, 

Our group at the Kilwinning Abbey Church.

The runs of the old Abbey.

That night we ate at a nice restaurant called Maggie's Bar and Grill in Kilmarnock where we were staying for the night.

I had steak pie.  The pastry on top was so delicious and crispy!

The next morning we got up early to meet Hugh, a distant relative that lives there close to Kilmarnock.

He said his nickname was Shug and that only his mother called him Hugh.  Haha!

He is related to us through George and Elizabeth's daughter, Mary, who had married an Andrew McCann after her first husband had died.  Hugh's great grandfather, who did not make it to America, was a brother to Andrew.  Anyhow...that's the relation.  We were so grateful that he took the time to spend the day with us.  And he was very happy to do it!

He took us out to a couple of places where George and Elizabeth had lived.  Two spots in Fegushill and one place in the Five Roads area.

After our stop there it was time for lunch so we stopped at Dumfries House. 

We were able to have a nice luncheon in the little restaurant there and then take a walk around the beautiful grounds.

I had a scone with the infamous clotted cream (which is very much like cream cheese, who knew?)

with jam and butter.  It was tasty!

Here are som pictures from the grounds there at Dumfries House.

Our next stop was in the beautiful old town of Lugar.

This is where George and Elizabeth lived for a number of years before they moved to the US.

He was a coal miner here.

This is the little church that they would have gone to.  The church's clerk, Darren, met us there and let us look at some old records he had found.  We found an old baptism record of Mary and James in this old book.  It was kind of neat to see.  

Darren was very generous with his time and showed us all around the church and it's grounds.

Just before we were ready to leave I was sitting on a bench talking with Larry.  Ruth came to sit by me when as soon as she did the whole bench gave way and we fell over backwards...in slow motion.

HaHa!  Luckily neither of us wa short but I can't say as much for the bench.  It had completely rusted out and was in no way a bench that was safe to sit on.  Especially with two large ladies on it.

We gave Darren some money to replace the bench.  

He texted later and said he wanted to put an inscription on the new bench.  That was super nice of him!

We talked with the group and decided on "In memory of the George and Elizabeth Trusdale Family" 

 

Family History Trip to Ireland Part II

On Friday morning Rick and I and Trent and Kathy drove out to a beautiful area on the eastern coast to a little town called Killinchy to attend a breadmakiing class.  Darla and Larry were supposed to come along but Darla woke up feeling very sick with vertigo and needed to stay back and get to a doctor. (This vertigo would stay with her throughout the whole trip with some days better than others and really affected her ability to do certain things.)

Anyhow, we drove to Tracey's Farmhouse Kitchen for a fun morning cooking up different types of Irish bread. 

The farmhouse was in this cute little thatched house that was originally built back in the 1600's.

Tracy was our cooking instructor.  She welcomed us with some bratton bread and herbal tea.

After that we got our hands dirty making up bread.  We made three types of bread.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread, Wheaton Bread and Potato Bread.

She also showed us how to make a focaccia bread with the soda bread recipe.

This was really an enjoyable experience being in someone's home and interacting with other people learning something new.  We all loved it!

After cooking up the bread we were able to sit and eat up the bread and even have a little cream cake alongside the bread:)

After our time in Killenchy we drove north to Belfast.  We got to go into the famous St. George's Market.  It is an old market that's been running on that sight since 1604.  It had food, crafts, antiques, and more!

It was a super fun way to start our day in the city and to find some fun souvenirs AND some delicious food!

Rick in a cute Irish hat...

When Rick saw this Al Parmesan booth he knew exactly what he was having for lunch.

It was cool to watch the vendors make his mac and cheese by scraping a pile of cheese on the big cheese wheel, add hot noodles and then a hot white sauce with bacon and mix it all together.  It was so rich and cheesy.  I had two bites and that was enough for me!  He LOVED it!

I ended up having a most delicious ham and cheese crepe.  MMMmmm it was good!

This man was making a breakfast sandwich and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how big it was!

He had a bun on the bottom, then sliced two sausages and put them on the bun, then loaded about eight inches of bacon on top of that, then added two fried eggs, and then topped it off with the top bun.  

It was a GIANT sandwich and was a sight to behold.  

We stopped at this little lady's place TWICE! Haha!

Some pastries for there and some pastries for later!😋

I thought these meringues were so pretty I had to get a picture.

Trent and Kathy got a crepe, as well.

After the market we found a parking spot outside a souvenir store to buy some things to take home.

Kathy could not pass up a souvenir store on this trip!  HAHA!

Some sights around the city....

We were able to grab a black taxi tour and learn about the "troubles" of Northern Ireland.

It was interesting to learn about.

We were able to stop at the peace wall and write our messages of peace.

The last place we stopped was the beautiful cathedral on the Catholic side of the wall.

After the tour we drove to Banbridge to have dinner at Jingles Restaurant.  Banbridge is where George and Elizabeth Truesdale recorded their marriage so we thought it fitting to have at least one meal there in commemoration.

Brach and Kendra had come here their first night into town and recommended it.

The owner was so accomodating to us and even though we did not have an appointment got us right in with little wait.  The food was very good and I believe this was the boys' favorite place for sticky toffee pudding.  It was LOADED with carmel sauce!

Cheers to you George and Eliza!!

The next day was Sunday and we were able to catch a Sacrament meeting in Lisburn.  It was a wonderful meeting with the youth giving talks and thoughts on their recent trip to the Preston Temple.

What a valiant group of Young Men and Young Women!

After Sacrament Meeting we headed over to the Drumballyroney Church to take in the Worship Service there.  The pastor spoke of the need to bring in more people.  It is a big beautiful church but not very many people.  As the years go by fewer and fewer people are going to church.  It is sad....

After the services we were able to meet up with William, the records clerk, to look through some very old books for baptismal records.  It was very nice of him to help us with gathering Trusdale names for family history.  He then took us out to the graveyard to show us where some of the Trundles would have been buried according to his book and map.

This is a picture of the Boys Brigade that were having a special ceremony that afternoon.

The boys Brigade is much like the Boy Scouts.  They all looked so cute in their uniforms.

That afternoon we drove over to the Ballyward Church where more Trusdales had been buried.

That evening we met with a man named of Graham Truesdale in his home to talk about family history.  Not much really came of that meeting but it was nice.

After that we drove around to find a few more places where the Paxtons and Trusdales were tenants.

It was a nice afternoon.  We got home just after dark and had a Sunday dinner of leftovers.

This was the last full day of our time in Ireland and it felt like we were busy all of the time!  Every night we got home past 9:00 so we didn't have much time for just visiting at the home.  I wanted to use the fireplace and just enjoy being in the home but for this trip it was not to be.

The next morning we all packed up our stuff, cleaned out the fridge and headed out to the airport for our trip to Scotland!