Irish Graveyard Etiquette
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:31 pm
Irish Graveyard Etiquette
I have been spending a lot of time in the graveyards around Miltown Malbay photographing, deciphering and transcribing gravestone inscriptions on my annual holidays. I have asked a lot of questions about the graves and burials conducted in the West of Ireland. Is anyone familiar with any papers, books or reports written about the burial customs? I am referring to the older graveyards not the newer graveyards that are now found behind the churches.
Some things that I have been told is that the tradition was that the grave was dug and prepared by the neighbors of the deceased and that the neighbors knew the location of the family grave and that this was the family plot or vault for generations. When I find gravestones with the same surnames on gravestones next to each other; do you think I can expect that there is strong probability that there is a relation between the deceased families? I have used this theory and it has proven to be correct and has been documented by written records or family legend in some cases. The early gravestones with the deceased born in the 1700’s or early 1800’s are not as easily verified. Many times there are not any written records available.
Another feature that I have noticed and I have a number of examples regards the gravestone. If the stone is the same design and the epitaph is similar in the wording; did a particular family use the same stone cutter? In Killernan graveyard there are three O’Brien vertical gravestones within 20 feet of each other that are the same design and shape and surely made by the same stone cutter. Were the O’Brien’s of Killernan townland “keeping up” with the O’Brien’s of Dunsallagh and O’Brien’s Miltown Malbay. It certainly happens here in New York! Recently, I found a stone with the exact shape, size, symbols, and wording in the gable of a vault for the Sexton Family one in Killernan Graveyard and one in Kilbridget Graveyard. These are older vaults and I always suspected that the two families were related. The families are from different townlands a couple of miles apart. There are no written records for this early time period so I am after “Y”DNA to confirm this theory.
I would like to hear some genealogists and family historians’ view and experiences on this grave subject.
Slan,
Kevin J O’Brien
I have been spending a lot of time in the graveyards around Miltown Malbay photographing, deciphering and transcribing gravestone inscriptions on my annual holidays. I have asked a lot of questions about the graves and burials conducted in the West of Ireland. Is anyone familiar with any papers, books or reports written about the burial customs? I am referring to the older graveyards not the newer graveyards that are now found behind the churches.
Some things that I have been told is that the tradition was that the grave was dug and prepared by the neighbors of the deceased and that the neighbors knew the location of the family grave and that this was the family plot or vault for generations. When I find gravestones with the same surnames on gravestones next to each other; do you think I can expect that there is strong probability that there is a relation between the deceased families? I have used this theory and it has proven to be correct and has been documented by written records or family legend in some cases. The early gravestones with the deceased born in the 1700’s or early 1800’s are not as easily verified. Many times there are not any written records available.
Another feature that I have noticed and I have a number of examples regards the gravestone. If the stone is the same design and the epitaph is similar in the wording; did a particular family use the same stone cutter? In Killernan graveyard there are three O’Brien vertical gravestones within 20 feet of each other that are the same design and shape and surely made by the same stone cutter. Were the O’Brien’s of Killernan townland “keeping up” with the O’Brien’s of Dunsallagh and O’Brien’s Miltown Malbay. It certainly happens here in New York! Recently, I found a stone with the exact shape, size, symbols, and wording in the gable of a vault for the Sexton Family one in Killernan Graveyard and one in Kilbridget Graveyard. These are older vaults and I always suspected that the two families were related. The families are from different townlands a couple of miles apart. There are no written records for this early time period so I am after “Y”DNA to confirm this theory.
I would like to hear some genealogists and family historians’ view and experiences on this grave subject.
Slan,
Kevin J O’Brien