How do I find a graveyard or headstone inscription for an Irish ancestor?
Start from the townland and parish, because burial followed the parish more often than the county. Search Historic Graves, where community groups have surveyed more than 800 graveyards in the Republic with photographs and transcriptions of the stones, and IrishGraveyards.ie and DiscoverEverAfter, which publish surveys and plot maps for the grounds they manage. County genealogy centres hold further transcriptions, some of them on RootsIreland, and county local studies libraries hold older published surveys. Go in that order, online surveys first and local collections after. Be prepared for a plain result: many graves were never marked, many stones have fallen or worn smooth, and a family can be buried in a ground without any inscription surviving to say so.
Useful pages: The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · The 1926 Census guide · Coming home · Irish around the world · Plan your journey
Sources
- Historic Graves: community graveyard surveys, historicgraves.com
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