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!

 

Family History Trip Ireland Part I

The day after Easter was our big family trip that we had been planning for a couple of months,

We flew out of SLC in the afternoon and flew eight hours into Amsterdam.  It was 10:30 when we arrived.  We were hoping to get out and see the tulip fields but our plane left SLC late and our time got eaten up so we were not able to leave the airport.  We ended up wandering around the shops and buying a few treats.

Rick loves different cheeses and bought a few which sadly we didn't end up eating😕

But we for sure ate the sweets!😉

I bought some beautiful tulips to take to our home in Ireland.

I thought it was a whopping deal of 10 stirling but when I got to the checkout they were 50 bucks!

At that point I just gulped and said "ok".  

They really did make TWO beautiful vases for our kitchen and living area throughout the week.

                                 Our view of the amazing tulip fields of Amsterdam!  Such bright colors.

Seeing them from the air was a little consolation that we did not get to see them from the ground.

After arriving in Belfast and getting our cars we drove into a small town called Moira where we had rented a very nice home from airbnb.   We each had our own room and there was a large kitchen and plenty of living space.  There was a nice jacuzzi in the backyard that sadly I only used once. 

The first night there it was pouring rain.  We drove into Moira but the pub that we were going to eat at stopped serving food at 8pm.  It was shortly after 8 and so they suggested an Indian restaurant just steps from their place.  We ate at the Masala Hut and the food was REALLY flavorful and delicious!  The service was really great, as well!

The next morning the rain had stopped and we drove out first to Shannaghan and Kilkinnamurry to see the family history sights from George Trusdale and Elizabeth Paxton.  These two places are listed on their marriage certificate of where they were living at the time.

This is the Kilwinning church where they were most likely married.

A man named Ivan stopped and spoke with us about the graveyard and the area.

He was very nice and it was a good start to putting on our "Irish Ears." HAHA!

next we drove over to the Drumgooland Church where the records show that the Paxtons were baptized.  We never found any records for Eliza but found some for her siblings.  We know they didn't start taking records until after she was born...thus no records.  

Brach and Kendra and their kids also came on the trip. 

They were staying in an airbnb really close to the family history sights and joined us in the graveyard.

Right away the kids caught a couple of frogs that Aunt Kathy had spotted.  

Oh my goodness!  They are so cute!

Brach, Kendra and Chloe inside the Drumgooland Church.

Brady and his frog.

We found two significant gravestones in Drumballyroney.

Two brothers Paxtons and their wives. We are still trying to figure out how they fit into the family.

Afterwards we stopped for a bite of lunch at Square One restaurant.

The adults enjoyed their food but sadly the kids did not...except or Rafe who had the BEST noodles and carbonara sauce!

For dessert we had scones with cream and jam...YUM!

Next we stopped at the Drumballyroney Church and had fun looking through the graveyard there.

It was full of names that are part of the Trusdale family.

From the graveyard we kept hearing a donkey braying. 

Grandpa, Brach and the kids went to go find him and had a good time interacting with the donkey.😁

This was a fun old telephone booth that we had toilet pictures in.

Also, Rafe wanted to stop on this bridge for a picture.

He's so cute!

And another of Rafe with the sunset behind him.

I love this picture!

Just as these was going down we pulled back into the small church at Kilwinning so the Bomans could see it.  Here's a cute picture of them in front of the church.

Afterwards, we drove south to see their airbnb.  The kids were excited to show me their rooms!  This place had a jacuzzi outside and the family had fun using it!  

We left them there and headed back to our own place in Moira for the night.

We had a good night's rest ready for the next full day!

We left the house around ten the next morning to make our way north.

Our first stop was The Dark Hedges.  A place where the movie Game of Thrones has filmed.

This was the entrance.

On our way to the hedges we stopped at this beautiful blooming tree to take some pictures.

While we were here Rick found someone's personal cards on the ground.  (credit, ID, and health)

We had no idea how to get a hold of said person.  Rick noticed a phone number on the health ID card and called it.  He was able to talk to someone from there who in turn contacted the owner.  Luckily, they were still in the parking lot and were able to come back to meet us.  Funny story...When the man of the wife called one of the first things he asked Rick was, "what are you wearing?" to be able to find us.  What was funny was the man started giggling because of the question and giggled through the rest of the phone call.

Anyway, long story but we were able to meet up with the owners (who were from the Netherlands), and they were so thankful to receive their cards back.  We even took a picture together.

This is not the picture🤣

This was a cool fallen tree that we had to get a picture of:)

We walked about fifteen more minute through the hedges which are a row of cool trees marking the entrance to an old manor home.  It was a really pretty walk.

This is the picture with the Dutch family

How cool is this old broken tree!?!

After the Dark Hedges we drove up to the coast to the Giant's Causeway.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time here but enjoyed walking along the rocks and enjoying the view.

Trent and Kathy loved finding stuff int he tide pools.

Greg and Brad...

After our time at the Causeway we drove a few miles to the east to get to Carrick a Rede Bridge.

I had wanted to come to this bridge theist time we were in Ireland but it was closed because of Covid.

We were able to join up with the Bomans at this point and we all had a really nice hike to the bridge.  There were some beautiful coastal views along the way.  We sure loved being with th4e Bomans.  

These kids are so fun!

The bridge itself was a swinging bridge made years ago by the fisherman in the area.  It connects to a little island where they would store their fishing gear and fish from.  It afforded such beautiful views.  

Here we are on the bridge.

And here is a picture of the bridge behind us.

Afterwards we stopped at Whitepark Bay where Trent and Kathy and Rick walked down to get some shells and pictures.  My knees were not willing to walk down the long path to get there.👎

After that we were ready for some dinner so we stopped in a pub called Fullerton Arms in a little town called Ballintoy.  We enjoyed dinner and dessert.  One notable thing that happened here is that Rick accidentally put a dent in the car while he was parking.  In the long run it cost us $2,000!😡

Just about every night in Ireland (and Scotland I might add) Trent and Rick had Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.  By the end of our trip they were ready for a new dessert! HAHA!