The research portion of the trip has come to an end. On Friday, Mirta had an appointment at St. Malachy's College and Sherry and Lila headed to the Linen Hall Library. Jeannette was able to connect to a cousin in England based on the DNA results from Thursday's NIFHS session.
The group enjoyed a final dinner at the James Street Bar and Grill on Friday night with departures beginning early Saturday morning. Mag, Bridget and Mirta, were returning home and had a 5:30 a.m. bus from Belfast to the Dublin Airport. They all had their COVID tests yesterday and were ready to go. Sherry, Diann and their husbands had arranged for a car service to take them to Ballymena where they planned to visit the McKillen's Shoe Store, owned by one of Sherry's ancestors. They were then headed to County Cork. Jeannette rented a car and was headed to Warrenpoint in South Down. Tomorrow she plans to attend Mass at the church were her ancestor was baptized and discovered the priest is named McCartney...the same as her ancestor. Three of the people from the Dublin trip were also out this week into the local areas. I'm looking forward to hearing about their experience.
If you are considering a research trip with me to Ireland, I do encourage you to plan to visit the area where your ancestors lived. There are likely people in the area of your surname that might be your cousins (I always travel now with a few DNA kits). You never know what local resources you might find in the County Library or Archives.
So this is the end of the May Research Trips. I'm here until Wednesday...planning to do some of my own research for a couple of days. If the blogs of the past two weeks have whetted your appetite for a research trip, there are still a few spaces left for October. I'm planning for an October trip in 2023 which, honestly, might be my last one. We'll have to see how they go.
Thanks for following my blog, and Happy Hunting!
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