Many people are interested in tracing the steps of theirancestors, but most don’t take it as far as Tom Fremantle ofEngland.

Since Sept. 1, Fremantle has trekked from Mexico through Texasand Louisiana to Mississippi, where he stopped Wednesday andThursday.

Fremantle, a 35-year-old writer and public speaker, came throughLincoln County with his mule, Browny, while making a 2,500 miletrip his ancestor, Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle made in 1863 at theheight of the Civil War.

“I’m just following his route and keeping a diary about it alongthe way,” Fremantle said about his great-great-cousin, who alsokept a diary of his trip over 130 years ago.

The historian Walter Lord called Lt. Col. Fremantle’s diary “afascinating mirror” of that period of history, and the youngerFremantle hopes the book he has published after his journey ends inNew York will receive similar reviews.

The book will be his second, with his first coming after a12,750-mile bicycle trip a few years ago.

“I was a journalist for eight years, then I rode a bicycle fromEngland to Australia and after that wrote a book and it has allspiraled off from that,” he said about his journeys.

His bicycle trip was much different, though, from his tripwalking with the pack mule, which he borrowed from a goat herder inTexas, he said.

“With the mule, it’s a bit tougher because you have to find aplace for her to graze, whereas the I could just throw the bicyclepretty much anywhere,” Fremantle said. “It’s still a pretty cheapway to travel.”

Fremantle and his companion have slept at a variety ofestablishments during the past month, anywhere from his tent tostrangers’ homes to barns to a cotton gin and a few family-ownedhotels.

In Brookhaven, he found a local motel was a great place to spenda couple of nights resting his feet and allowing Browny to munch onsome brush nearby, before heading to Monticello and Laurel.

“I have to look after Browny. She’s as important to the trip asme,” he said, adding that he keeps medical supplies for her in thepacks she carries on her back.

The biggest difference he has noticed between his bicycling tripand his walking trip has been the wear on his feet.

“My feet were very tender at first, but now they’re like camel’sfeet,” he said.

Fremantle has already went through one pair of boots thateventually split and had to be replaced because they were notwaterproof.

He isn’t about to stop walking for too long, though, because heonly average about three miles an hour and hopes to make it toAtlanta by Christmas to be reunited with his two-year-old daughter,then to New York by April or May.

Fremantle’s curiosity did not allow him to rest his feet forvery long in Brookhaven, either, as he spent most of Thursdayexploring the area.

“I wandered around downtown Brookhaven and looked at thehistorical markers,” he commented. “It was very interesting.There’s a lot of towns where the downtown area is dead, but herethe downtown still has lots of life.”

Fremantle has found much enjoyment in his time spent in theSouthern part of the United States.

“It’s been great. Southern hospitality has certainly lived up toits name,” he said.

He plans to tell his family about his Southern adventures viahis website www.mini-mule.co.uk

The website also allows people to donate to charities he’sraising money for on his trip. He hopes to be able to raise enoughmoney to buy a community care minibus for St. John Ambulance, theUnited Kingdom’s leading first-aid charity, and collegescholarships for children at the Covenant House New York, a shelterfor homeless and runaway kids as well as a community resourcecenter.