Genealogy Forum NEWS
August, 1998
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Grown Up Style
Submitted by
The Arrival
GFS HUNT@aol.com
My great-grandmother, Mary Perry, was born in Ahoghill, parish of Ballymena, County Antrim, in June of 1840. She emigrated to the U.S. three months later. A photo of her on her 98th birthday graces a wall in my home, wearing the cameo at her throat that I was fortunate enough to inherit. Since I recently finished a book on all of the descendants of Mary's father Robert Perry, (and mother, Ellen Higgins Johnston, who I found out may have been Catholic) when friends of ours invited us to sail the Inner Hebrides of Scotland with them, I decided to leave the cruise early and visit Ahoghill to search my Perry roots.
I arrived in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland on the ferry from Scotland about two in the afternoon. After making my way all over the map (as well as all over the road!), I arrived in Ahoghill (rhymes with A-Cockle) around five and of course visited a graveyard I spotted on the way to the B&B where I was staying. No luck there, so I continued on to the lovely B&B farm about a mile or so west of Ahoghill. I was greeted by my charming hostess Margaret who expressed surprise that I had shown up! I asked her why, and she said because of the recent problems regarding the Orangemen march in Portadown, scheduled for the previous Monday, down the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown (but at that time cancelled; this was the following Monday, July 6). I told her that I had been on a boat all week and had not heard any news, so was unaware of any current "troubles". She then expressed concern that my car had a Dublin license plate. I explained that Dublin was the point of return of the car, but I was careful from then on to park it out of view on the farm and elsewhere in town. Her husband seemed strangely cold, refusing to even look at me, something that at first I attributed to his personality, but later realized that it may have been because he felt I had put his family in danger by parking that car in his driveway. Then, after they found out that I had inadvertently visited the Catholic graveyard, (AND had Catholic cousins!) their concern deepened. They suggested to me that I not go out after five p.m. as Ulster men were putting barricades across the road to protest the ban against the Portadown march.
I had seen the small cut saplings lying beside the road all over Ahoghill, but had assumed that it was just the summer pruning. These were the means by which the roads were barricaded! Later, upon leaving Ulster, I saw several that had been burned, I imagine by the "opposition".
Finding my Cousins
Since I have never done any research in Ireland, I had very little to go on regarding local records. I was reluctant to attempt driving in Ballymena, much less Belfast to visit their wonderful libraries, so was left with the local graveyards and phone book to do any research. Fortunately, with huge thanks to Margaret, I was promptly put in touch with the elder of the two Perry families in town, and arranged a meeting with them the next morning.
They turned out to be an absolutely delightful elderly couple, frequently commenting on how much I reminded them of "Great-Aunt Belle", whose vocation and living patterns were greatly similar to mine. They gave me their family genealogy book, with the generations back to the senior Perry's grandparent. After a short while all sorts of children, grandchildren, and cousins dropped by to meet "The Yank". I was then invited to view the farm where the grandfather had been born. By this time we had formed a hypothesis that that Perry grandfather and my Mary's father may have been brothers, so I was anxious to see the farm.
I had not been there very long when David, the son, and present inhabitant of the farm, invited me to stay for lunch. Needless to say, I was thrilled, as Ahoghill is so tiny it does not even claim a restaurant!
His wife, Beatrice and I hit it off famously right away, and their three children were just adorable. David walked me all around the house, showing me where it had been added on here and there. (I had wondered, when I drove into Ahoghill why no remnants of "old" buildings remained. It turned out that the original buildings have all been added onto and plastered over and are unrecognizable.) They heaped printed information on me and then invited me back for supper! After lunch David led me into town and showed me the church where his Perry branch was buried.
In the afternoon I sat in my room at the B&B and madly copied all the relevant information they had given to me onto my computer. By this time we had contacted another cousin, James Perry, who lives in Ballymena, and he arranged to come to the B&B at 9 pm to share his branch of the Perry family with me. (Another ancestral "brother", we thought.) It doesn't get dark until nearly 11 p.m., so it didn't seem THAT late!
On David's farm at supper, (Irish stew, brown bread, boiled potatoes, REAL milk right from the cow and her coddled cream topping for the dessert), we shared ancestral stories, family traits, and the Perry's ambitions for their children. They spoke of how sad it was that all the present Perry generation were attending college in England and were not coming home to Antrim, but that this was for the best. Their daughter, Anne, is considering S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University! I pondered, and was immediately grateful for, the fact that my childrens' lives are not dictated by politics.
After supper David led me back to the B&B, as he was concerned that some of the roads may be blocked. They were not, but about 9:20 p.m. I got a call from James Perry that he had attempted to enter Ahoghill, but could not get in because of the barricades. I was so disappointed and resentful of the "troubles" interfering with my family research! How much we take our American liberties for granted! But we spent about 1/2 hour on the phone and he promised me he would pick up my research where I had left off, photographing headstones, copying church records, etc.
I left Ahoghill the next morning for Co. Carlow, where my Catholic Nowlans originated. I was anxious to get out of Ulster with my "Dublin" car, but very satisfied that I had made the unexpected connections that I had with my Perry cousins. I felt terrible that I may have put my gracious hosts at the B&B in danger, and left with a greater appreciation at what our Ireland cousins have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. What a shame that this lovely country is so tainted with hatred and violence as we find ourselves on the verge of the 21st century! This is modern-day Christianity? One week later the three children in nearby Ballymoney were killed by a bomb as they slept. The act quelled the barricades, but what a shame it had to be that way.
I got a lot more out of my visit to my ancestral home that I had bargained for. A greater appreciation for our freedom of religion, of our political system, and of my family, both present and ancestral. My ancestors may have left Ahoghill, but Ahoghill will never leave me.
Marilyn Toole
July 16, 1998
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