Busy week

We have have had a busy week here in Moira, boys and I went for a 60 km bike ride through the country with our host Raymond on Tuesday, yesterday we were in Belfast at transportation and cultural centre and today researching my family history in Ballygawley. Again thanks to Raymond,I mentioned that I had family from the area and he took it upon himself to make some calls to a local church and dig into my maternal grandmothers maiden name Hopper. Today he volunteered to drive us there, we had a chance to meet the Reverend Cooper at Ballygawley Presbyterian church. We met with several local elders of the community and listened their stories of Hoppers and where they may have lived, we were also allowed to flip through the baptism and marriage records from mid 1800's. We travelled through the country and visited a few possible hopper farms, a couple of churches and spotted a couple hopper gravestones from that era. It is a very cool feeling to walk in a building or see the land that possibly your ancestors have been at 200 years ago. It is tough to imagine the circumstances that would make you leave these areas of the world to travel 6 weeks by ship to an unknown place with part of your family and all your required belongings. Brave people! Anyway has been an incredible week here and I would like to extend thanks again to Raymond he has made this week very unforgettable for us!