Belfast

Our Air bnb in Belfast is lovely - a one bedroom, lounge room, kitchen & bathroom. It's only 2 miles from the Centre of Belfast. After a couple of days we worked out how to find it from various different directions! I spent 2 days in at PRONI (Public Record Office). I enjoyed looking at various original records related to all my families & the other Collum's. I'm pretty sure our McCollums (& the Cavan McCs) descended from the Antrim ones who served the Earls of Antrim,the McDonnells in 1500 - 1600s. I found a 1743 land record where Alexander, Earl of Antrim gave John McCollum LOTS of lands including in Clogher (Fermanagh & Tyrone area. On the 2nd day I went down to the cafe for an early lunch. I got chatting to a lady getting her lunch & she asked if I'd like to sit with her. I asked her about being at PRONI & she said she was a Genealogist & also did research for the Green Room & Letter to Ireland group!!!!! I am a member of this group & met Mike & Carina Collins when they were in Sydney & they are going to meet us off the cruise ship when we are in Cork on 11 July!!!!!! Jayne McGarvie & I had a great chat!! While I was at PRONI Warren enjoyed a day on the shop on Hop off bus as well as the Transport Museum. On our 2nd last day we went to the Ulster Folk Museum - great! Our last day was spent as a $2.50 day on the top of double-decker buses for 3 pounds! Beautiful sunny day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Riverside Farm Enniskillen

When we were here 6 years ago we stayed in the self-contained cottage on Riversidd Farm, 2 miles out of Enniskillen the main town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. I had been told about it by Vi Wiggins the very active lady on the Fermanagh Gold (genealogy) Interest List I belonged to. Molly & son Mark Fawcett who own the farm, B&B, caravan park, marina & are the most wonderfully warm & welcoming people. We stayed for 2 months on the farm in 2015 so coming back was like coming home! MOST of my Irish families lived within 15 miles of Enniskillen. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon just before my 'newly found' American (Boston) family! Carol is my 2nd cousin. She & husband Arthur & 3 adult children Paul, Cheryl & David were spending a week in Ireland seeing all they could! Carol's great-grandfather Patrick was my g-g-grandfather, Robert Collum's younger brother. When 8 of Robert's siblings went to America they changed their name to...
Read more

The other Collums

When I started researching my g-greatfather Robert Collum, I found another Robert S. Collum who was the Honorary Consul for Portugal who lived in various Sydney (posh!) addresses - all called 'Enniskillen' where my Collum's came from! He ended up living on a poultry farm in Herring Road Marsfield/Eastwood where I grew up! He married Emily Suttor, daughter of the Bathurst MP & there is a photograph on them in Freeman's Journal in the Mitchell Library. His father was Dr Robert Collum, born in 1814 in Enniskillen, who married Flora Nightingale  SANDEMAN from Scotland. The Sandeman's were a very (wealthy) influential family whose descendants were huge 'multi companies' of importers & exporters throughout the world eg tea plantations in (Ceylon) Sri Lanka, wine in Europe, spices Far East. Dr Robert & Flora had 15 children who all had SANDEMAN as their middle name (according to Scottish tradition). Dr Robert was in the British Army then Physician fo...
Read more

Last day in England

Image
A last day to get everything 7before the cruise & see some more of the places nearby. Over the weekend we'd looked up Podiatrists so Warren could get histoenails cut!!! Wondered about how to get there, appointments & the like. So we set off at 8.45 & walked to the end of our block. Across the road was the Royal Nail Salon with a youngish Chinese guy standing outside. Warren said to him 'do you cut toenails?'   Yes.  Can you cut mine? Now?  Yes! In we go - & out 5mins later with cut & filed nails - £5!!! Bargain! We walked the easy mile walk into the town centre. HUGE Maison Dieu grey stone building that takes up a whole block. Now Town Hall & Creative Arts Centre. It was founded by St Augustus in 9oos as a Monastery & Hospice. At Clarke's shoe shop Warren bought  pair of sandals. I got more lozenges, eye drops & Panadol for my 2nd cold of the trip! We then bought a Day Tripper bus ticket. First we went to Canterbury (34 m...
Read more