To take the above pic we were able to walk across the lovely fields just adjacent to the castle, they are now open to the public to walk around but you have to mind because they have cows grazing in those fields as well. I am still learning how to get the most out of the camera but I usually manage to take a respectable shot. The shot below is a bit hazy as I didn’t charge up the camera batteries properly that morning – now I know how it can affect the photograph…

But it is still a nice family photo don’t you think…? that one was taken out the front of the castle; there’s a row of small cannons in the background which came from some battlefield in the 19th century. Arnold took some very nice shots which I shall steal from him and post them here; he has a much fancier camera – three in fact – than I have but that does not mean he always takes the best shots. I like to think I have a good eye for a scene.

I have ticked off several significant objectives that I planned along the way - the most important, for me personally, was visiting one of the ancestral homes of my ancestors in County Donegal and meeting my 3rd cousin who still maintains the estate in the family name since 1690. Visiting Brownhall was a dream I thought I would never achieve so I was ecstatic to arrive there after only reading and hearing about it from my family for so long.

 This past weekend I ticked another box when I got to visit Killymoon Castle in County Tyrone. This is the ancestral home of my Stewart forebears – who incidentally provide the connection with Brownhall through the marriage of Isabella Stewart to John Hamilton back in the 18th century. Killymoon is now a private residence so it was a bonus to hear it would be open to the public for Heritage Weekend here in Northern Ireland. It is the first time the castle has been opened to public viewing and the owners must be commended for their kindness and generosity in doing so. 

Wandering around the beautiful grounds and Nash-designed interior was certainly one more dream come true for me. To walk in the footsteps of your ancestors, to climb the very staircase they climbed, to stand and gaze at the same trees that they did all those years ago…I cannot tell you how incredible it feels. And how marvellous to be able to share it with my children.

The American Cemetery in Normandy, France; the battlefields of the Gallipolli peninsula in Turkey; the watery gravesite of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour to name but a few.

I have been around the Western Front battlefields in Northern France, The Somme and the American Cemetery and they are incredible in their silent power – for every cross on a grave there was a life lost and when you stand and see the sheer number of crosses it is almost incomprehensible to take in.

One other place which really hits you in the solar plexus is the basement of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva where the archives detail every single death in every single war since the Red Cross’s inception. You can walk around the room where the millions of little card indexes are housed behind glass – each card is a human being – each card old and yellowing. On many of those cards are not names of soldiers but merely details as so many were unidentified – but that is soon to change.

The archive holding the details of 20 million soldiers from 30 countries involved in WWI will soon be accessed for the first time since 1918 by historian Peter Barton.  Some of the records, in immaculate condition, refer to the sites of mass graves where the bodies of soldiers were piled alongside each other.

They give detailed directions about where they were dug – many have since been overgrown or built on – and include details which could lead to the identification of soldiers buried in them. ‘The emergence of this archive is hugely important,’ said Mr Barton. ‘It will change the way we look at World War One.

This archive has been hidden away – not deliberately – for 90 years, historians just did not know that this existed. Mr Barton, a First World War historian and author, stumbled across the records after being commissioned by the Australian government to find the identities of soldiers found at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles, France.  The trail led him to the Red Cross Museum in Geneva where he was given access to their basement. The records were passed to the Red Cross by the combatant countries at the end of the war.

The Red Cross acted as a go-between for the protagonists. Information was then copied and passed to the soldiers’ home countries but, according to Mr Barton, the UK’s copy of the data no longer exists, much of it having been destroyed in the Second World War. The same fate is believed to have befallen the records in France and Germany.

This new project will help to identify those whose families have spent the last 90 years wondering what happened to them; young men who went to war and disappeared into family folklore will now possibly be found…names can be printed on headstones at last.

They certainly deserve it.

Recently I have struck some luck as I have been contacted by two relations ( cousins ) and they have found me through my other site Hamilton Family History. One cousin is twice removed and the other is a girl my age that I went to school with when we were small. They are both from Mum’s side of the family – there’s hardly anyone left from Dad’s side unfortunately.

It’s great though to find people, family members, who you have lost contact with and who are working away at their family history as well. With any luck we will be able to share our info and put more pieces of the jigsaw together!

I started doing family research some years back; the trick is to talk to as many older relatives as soon as you can and write everything down as you go along. It is amazing the kinds of things that our older family members hang onto over the years and often, sadly, the valuable things they tend to chuck out.

For instance, my Mums auntie had a stash of photo’s that were taken during the first world war and yet when my grandmother died they got thrown out in the ‘clear out’. Lost forever those particular pictures but fortunately Mums sister managed to save even more items.

My advice is to ask your grandparents for any old photo’s and make copies of them. Even get them restored as the process these days can restore them to almost an almost new condition. Just remember; don’t throw anything out!.