Turf smoke settles into wool, into walls, into the grain of everything everywhere. The door opens at Portmore Townland, wet reed entering with whoever checked the sheep. Bog myrtle crushed along field edges, its citrus-pine resin on cuffs, on apron corners, marking the morning's path from Ballinderry Lower where the Lewsleys hold their ground.
ANCESTORS: Stray Notation; Armagh Parish 1799 (Catholic)
Every now and then, one stumbles on an extra detail that brings an ancestral family story into clearer focus and sheds light on a life so far removed from our own. We glimpse what they endured, and that can draw us closer to them and their lived experience.