Elsie Berner's Killyleagh words - from the Northern Whig, 1930s & 1940s

Back in May 2010, a friend introduced me to two renowned ladies from Killyleagh - Elsie Berner and Zena McAllister. I spent an afternoon with them at Killyleagh Parish Church where Elsie was so active, and they gave me a monument-by-monument guided tour of the interior.

Both ladies were very exercised by the loss of heritage in the town, including of old Ulster-Scots street names which had been gentrified/Anglicised during their lifetimes (here is a post I wrote about those street names, from shortly after my afternoon with Elsie and Zena).

They both sent me things in the post a short time later. Zena's was information about the Traill family who came from Scotland and lived at Tullykin / Tullychin near Killyleagh in the 1600s. Elsie's was an envelope with a collection of clippings of the some of the famous word lists which were published in the letters pages of the Northern Whig newspaper, she thought from the 1930s and 1940s. I found them again just yesterday while looking for something else. Here they all are. 

One of the reasons I keep posting here is that so many people have been generous with me and have taken time to inform me, and have shared their knowledge with me. I like to keep the sharing going and to make connections with people around the world who are digging and learning too.