My Roots - from Pub, to Rector, to Cemetery and more

I knew my grandfather Harron (mothers father) who I remember, was born in Ballintra, Donegal , about 11 miles from Donegal town. 

Sign in English and Irish.

 So Sunday afternoon we drove to the small hamlet of Ballintra.  Where does one go to speak to the locals in Ireland? - the Pub of course.

So we entered the local Pub, took a seat at the bar with the old guys "probably younger than I am :),  and ordered a Guinness.  The semi finals of the Rugby season was about to begin between Dublin and Mayo. 

The Bay Bush Bar

 I told them my grandfather was born in Ballintra.  They were quite interested.  One man in particular gave me the name and phone number of the Rector of the Church of Ireland (Anglican).

Church of Ireland, Ballintra

The other church in Ballintra is St. Brigids (Roman Catholic) and since I have great interest in her I decided to visit there next.

St Brigids

                              The only sign of Brigid here is this statue in the entryway.

So we went outside and sat of the church steps and I decided to call the Anglican Rector to see if I might meet him the next day.   He answered and I told him what i wanted.  He asked "Where are you now?"   I answered "On the steps of St Brigid's"  He answered in a shocked voice "That is the Roman Catholic Church"!  I told him I know that but was interested in seeing it.

He told us to come straight to his house which was only a few doors down.  He had just returned from a months vacation so we were very lucky with the timing.  He spent 2 hours with us.  He has the parish records dating back to 1603.  He not only had my grandfather's baptism, but his father and grandfather.  He also had marriage records.   He could not have been more helpful and then he said he would turn over what we had to a woman in the parish who loved to do genealogy and that she would see if she could find more on them.  I did learn that my grandfather came to the US the year after his father died.  My grandfather was 19 and seems to have come alone. Pretty gutsy.

The Rector asked me if I am Anglican.  And I told him I am a cradle Episcopalian which is true.  I did not elaborate my conversion to Catholicism.   He had some harsh words about the Anglican church in the US and said the US and Canada have led the splits in the Anglican Communion.  I didn't go there but suspect he is more in line with the breakaway more conservative Anglican groups in the US.

He then told us of the old Drumhome Cemetery where my relative are buried And we visited the next day.

Meanwhile  Barbara who owns the B and B where we are staying , had gotten on the phone and called local Harrons and found a match.   Mary Harron is married to one of my relatives and she has done extensive genealogy.  She came over that evening and we talked for some time and of course shared email addresses.  We each have a lot of material to share with each other.

So the hunt on my mothers side was very successful and we met such interesting people along the way.