Re: Funstons of Pettigo, Co. Donegal
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In reply to:
Re: Funstons of Pettigo, Co. Donegal
12/26/01
Hi John
Many thanks for replying to my e-mail. I was interested to hear that you were writing a book about the funston family in pettigo. I happened to spend some tremendous times at my aunts and uncles homes in the pettigo area up until the recent troubles began in Northern Ireland, in the early seventies. I have many relatives still residing in the pettigo/County Fermanagh area. I myself was born in Scotland,the youngest son of five children. My father, Robert Samuel Funston was born at carntresie(pettigo) in 1920 and was the second youngest child of eight,(six brothers and two sisters). All of my father's brother's and sisters remained in Ireland. My father left in 1939 to sign up for the British army at the outbreak of the second world war. I do return at least twice a year to the pettigo/kesh area, where i still have many relatives living. Sadly only one of my father's immediate family is still alive, that is my aunt Mary Quinn (nee Funston), who lives on the boa island(about five miles from pettigo town). Pettigo, if you have never visited is a quaint little place with one half of the the town in Northern Ireland and the other half in the Irish republic, seperated only by a small river which used to have an abundance of Brown trout which my older brother Robert caught regularly and was served up to our visiting family when we stayed with our relatives.I would be grateful if you could keep in touch with myself and i would be more than happy to help you with any information that you would need for your book.E-Mail myself at [email protected] and we can exchange some family(albeit,many times removed), gossip. Hope to hear from you soon. Slangivar(cheers in gaelic).David.