AS THEY WERE: Irish graves

When you set out to research your family, and then find that that leads to helping others research theirs, it suddenly starts to snowball... who can resist adding just a little more, or finding the link to the family you knew the name of, but weren't quite sure whether they were related or not?

It helps that you know not only the names, but the parish, and the history and the details that others are searching for...what to do then?

If your name is John Mayer, you decide to help others, who may never be able to visit the homeland of their ancestors and before too long, your kind deed has become far greater than you imagined...

Meet John Mayer.. the author of THE FAMILIES OF KILMALEY PARISH A 200 Year review...

John is a member of Clare Roots Society and as such has contributed a great deal for the benefit of others. Look on the Clare Library site, genealogy, to see his contribution of photographs and inscriptions of the gravestones of Kilmaley cemetery.

John's Irish connection began in Kilmaley Parish and so, on frequent family visits, he decided to explore the history of not only his own family, but that of 200 families within the parish. The result is the massive tome you see in this photo, which encompasses dates and photos ( where possible) of people or gravestones, of details of connections to other families and so much more, much of which has helped me in my own research within Kilmaley Parish.

For full details of his book, and where to purchase, you can see my earlier article at

http://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

John covers families from FURROOR, KILCLOGHER, KILLANIV, KINTURK and all the towns and villages encompassed within those townlands...

John's experiences when visiting the land of his mother's family stayed with him... just to quote a little of these..

"As a six year old boy growing up in Chicago, Kilmaley was such a different world to me. In those days my uncle's home was still thatched and I would get water for my grandmother at Sharry's Well. Going to the creamery at Tobin's was a great adventure. Whether I was heading there by horse and cart from John Hehir's in Feighroe, or on a big shiny new tractor from Patsy McMahon's in Lecarrow More, life couldn't get better."

For details on the book www.lulu.com and search for Kilmaley, or use this tiny URL to go directly.

http://tinyurl.com/7jjlxxu

Now, if only all Parishes were so fortunate... be sure to let John know where you heard about his book.

From a very satisfied researcher....

Liz Haren Nov 27, 2011

"Yay! I just got my Kilmaley book!! It is huge!!! And it has my Haren's all over it. I'm thrilled. "

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

'SAVE THE FORMER CHURCH OF IRELAND GRAVEYARD' KILRUSH

One more project for this week!! Paul O Brien who will speak to us this Thursday is looking for volunteers this Saturday morning, 21st January, 2012

Subject: 'Save the former Church of Ireland Graveyard'

From Paul: Hopefully, some members of the Clare Roots Society may be interested in the following project that the Kilrush Local History Group is currently undertaking. I attach some photographs of the graveyard. These photos illustrate the terrible condition of the graveyard.

Most importantly we need VOLUNTEERS!

A tidy-up of the CoI graveyard, Kilrush is taking place next Sat morning 21 Jan. At 10am.

Please bring some of the following: Gloves, wellies, black bags, clippers, securtares, watering can, soft brush and dry cloths. Camera is optional.

All are welcome.

Kind Regards,

Paul O'Brien

(Kilrush Local History Group)

Thursday, 12 January 2012

HISTORIC GRAVES | THE ON-LINE GRAVES AND GRAVEYARDS FINDER

Courtesy of Clara Hoyne

HISTORIC GRAVES | THE ON-LINE GRAVES AND GRAVEYARDS FINDER

May be of interest:

http://www.historicgraves.ie/

There are a number of counties in this site, inc Cork, Kilkenny and Waterford with a selection of graveyards from those counties. In the one graveyard I "visited" there were only a few inscriptions indexed but you could zoom in on even a very hard to read stone.

Clara

FOOTNOTE:

This is a great site. Be sure to read the terms and conditions and respect them. Access is free, as this a community effort, something many of you are also involved in. I would suggest that you make yourself a cuppa and delve to your heart's content. There are a limited number of graveyards as yet, but many more to come. There are some very interesting blogs, also stories about certain areas and a map that shows you where they have covered so far. Cemetery details are quite precise, so well worth copying down if you are lucky enough to not only find a grave that you were seeking, but perhaps able to go actually look for it.

We are very fortunate to have so much available to all of us through the work of volunteers.

Here are just a few other sites of graveyard photos...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59366723@N07/5449548340/ (Jane Lyons)

http://www.igp-web.com/laois/marker.htm (Jim Cassidy)

http://www.from-ireland.net/grave-transcriptions/all (Jane Lyons)

http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/index.htm ( Christina Hunt and many others... go here and then search by county for gravestones)

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/archaeology/graveyards.htm

There are many more... search for gravestones, Ireland and settle in for the day...

Crissouli

Saturday, 19 November 2011

CLARE ROOTS SOCIETY Drumcliff Stage 2 (Calvary Section)

Clare Roots Society under the direction of John Bradley are about to commence stage 2 (Calvary) of recording the gravestones.

This will entail:

Receiving a map of your section.

Photographing Gravestones:

Transcribing inscriptions to a word document.

Returning to manually recording unreadable headstones.

We need approximately 11 individual (or couples) willing to take on a section of 50 graves approximately. A brief session will take place for all participants prior to commencing. We would hope to have it completed by the end of January. You would carry out the recording at a suitable time to yourself.

Unfortunately Clare County Council have mislaid 10 years of records within this section of the Cemetery so our work will be of immense value to future generations.

You can view our previous work with regard to Drumcliff at:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/graves/drumcliff_old_graveyard_ennis.htm

Thanking all in advance:

Clara Hoyne.

N.B. Don't forget the fantastic book on Drumcliff Cemetery is available through the Clare Roots Society as per

http://clareroots.org/index.php/2011-06-29-19-06-17/publications

You can read all about it on the above link. It is far more than a list of names...

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

GRAVESTONE INSCRIPTIONS CLARE CASTLE/ BALLYEA

We often complain about the lack of records for Irish research, but now there is so much being released due to the work of volunteers, as well as some of the paid sites.

As many of you know, I'm involved with Clare Roots Society and am so pleased to be associated with this hard working group. One of the most recent achievements has been the documenting of around 2,000 records from the Clare Castle/Ballyea churches... see full details below.

This book looks to be going to it's second print, which is fantastic... it sells for €10 plus postage, and was under €5 to post to Australia...

However, to go ahead with the second print, we really need names of those who genuinely would like a copy of the book. If you are one of those, could you please contact Clara Hoyne, secretary of the CRS (Clare Roots Society) at

Clara Hoyne <secretary@clareroots.org>

Clara will be able to help you with further details. Perhaps you could also tell Clara where you heard about this book.

Clare Castle / Ballyea – The Parish Remembers

2 November 2011 saw the launch of a book written and compiled by Eric Shaw entitled Clare Castle / Ballyea – The Parish Remembers. In conjunction with Clare Roots Society, Eric has documented all the readable gravestone inscriptions in Clare Abbey, Clare Hill, Killoo, Killone, and Ballyea & Clare Castle Churches. These amount to about 2,000 records, some dating from the late 1600s. The book will help to preserve the inscriptions and to make them available for family history research. It will also help to draw visitors and fits in with development plans to promote the attractions of the Parish.

Monday, 7 November 2011

IRISH CHATTER - County Kerry

Ireland - County Kerry burials database

Over 70,000 burials records for County Kerry in Ireland can now be searched online. The original burial registers for over 140 cemeteries have been digitised.
http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/index.aspx