Our first family trip is next July 2006. It will include a 2-night stay near Belfast. We will have a car and I want to explore the Lurgan area where my grandmother was born, and Belfast where she grew up. Her parents (my great-grandmother and great-grandfather) met and worked in a linen mill near Lurgan.

I just found some info in the 2001 Irish Tourist Board Ireland Guide. It says "Lurgan (an Lorgain, 'the strip of land') was once prosperous from the manufacture of damask linen at nearby Waringstown."

Can anybody tell me what Waringstown is like today? If there anything historical to see in town? Does anybody know any links where there is more info on the former linen industry in Waringstown?

During our visit in the area, I also want to take my family to see Hillsborough, the Belfast Botanic Gardens, and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra.

Thanks!

Waringstown is one of several places in the Lurgan area where there was a reasonably-developed linen industry. Do you know your ancestor worked in Waringstown, or are you just assuming it?

There's a reasonable account of the industry at http://www.geocities.com/craigavonhs...glinenind.html

Otherwise, googling on linen and Lurgan OR Craigavon will throw up a great deal more information than the rather misleading oversimplification the tourist board seems to be churning out.

flanneruk, what I know for sure is grandmother was born in Lurgan, and her sister, closest in age, was born specifically in Tannaghmore West, Lurgan. I also know great-grandmother and great-grandfather were linen workers (great-grandfather was a weaver) and they met and worked in the linen mill and their children were born in Lurgan (Tannaghmore West). However, no, I don't know for sure that the linen mill where they worked was actually in Waringstown!

This may be the only trip to Ireland which I am able to take together with my 2 daughters, who are now young adults in college, and we will be enjoying County Kerry, County Clare, County Mayo, and parts of the Republic of Ireland. I want to include those areas which are as close as I can determine to being part of my family's history. Yes, we could end up visiting the wrong village, but that's all right, I am sure we will enjoy whatever we find.

I have tried googling various combinations of words, but I'm not too good at it. I come up with miscellaneous things including b&bs and hotels, which I'm not looking for. Sometimes the wrong country comes up. Thanks for your link, I will check it out.

I have developed an interest in history since I have been travelling more in the last few years, and enjoy learning a bit of history before I visit a new country, even for countries where we have no ancestral ties.

Melissa:

I can't understand your problem. Simply type these words exactly as I write them, into the Google search line: linen Craigvon OR Lurgan

Not a hotel, B+B or car hire company for miles. But tons (some sensible, some nonsense) about the linen industry in that part of Ulster.

Now go to this address: http://tinyurl.com/7dbq2 You'll see that Tarraghmore is a pretty uncomfortable journey from Waringstown on foot. So try googling linen followed, one at a time, by the places closer to Tarraghmore (which was an adminstrative name, not a real village). Zooming, or moving the map up or down will help. Eventually you'll probably find references to linen mills closer - and therefore more likely to be where people worked. Assuming, of course, that your ancestors really did work in someone else's mill. Some homeworking persisted till the 19th century, and weavers went into Lurgan to sell it.

The Craigavon Museum has some stuff on its site, and some artefacts in its collection, about the local linen industry.

Not EXACTLY as I wrote them:

linen Craigavon OR Lurgan

Melissa,

I don't think there will be anything of interest for you in Waringstown. It is a small village but the mills have long gone.

The last working mill in the area was at Moygashel (where Linen green is) but I think it closed at Christmas. Sadly most Linen now comes from China.

You best bet would be the museums

Helen

Thanks, flanneruk and cambe. I will try your instructions, flanneruk.

Helen, I think you are right, I am better off just visiting the linen museums. Even the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, where we are going, has a weaving demonstration. There isn't really any way for me to be sure exactly which linen mill great-grandmother met great-grandfather in. But I do enjoy all the things I learn when researching, and I enjoy chatting with the nice people I meet here.

Yes, flanneruk, everyone is always amazed at the trouble I have on the computer. These new-fangled machines don't come easily to me. My young adult kids can't believe the things I don't know yet on my computer, but I learn something new now every week. Young folks were born to the computer world, and there are some older folks who just have a knack for it. Not me, the tecnical part taxes my brain, but I do so enjoy the creative part, the writing, and the actual learning.