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Castleconnor graveyards

SligoCastleconor (Sligo)

Hi,

I have recently traced my ancestors to the castleconnor parish. Some living in Farrangarode and others around the knockbrack and emlymoran area. Currently I am looking for graveyards. Today I visited the Killanly church area. I know that this a COI but I notice alot of the names in the graveyard apprered to be RC decent. There are two graveyards outside the walls of the church, the recent one which is still in use and the very old one down the hill. Does anybody have any information on these graveyards? Were catholic people buried here even though it was COI, as my great grandfather and great great grandfather both died in the farrangarode region. Would they have been buried in the parish church in corbally? They would both have died between 1900-1921. Does anybody know of a graveyard in knockbrack region on the border with mayo?

 

Hope somebody can help

 

Paul

IrelandXO member

8 replies

Paul,

 

I have no specific information about these graveyards but as to RC burials in COI gravyeards, that is common in many parts of Ireland. Broadly speaking it dates back to the times when, as a result of the penal laws, the RC church often didn't have a graveyard (or a church) and so they had to use the COI graveyard, as they had a virtual monopoly. After those laws were lifted, some remained shared graveyards for various reasons and some people sometimes continued to use the COI graveyard because by then they had a family plot there.

Elwyn

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks for the quick response,

On another note do you know if the parish baptisms registers are availible to view in the parish church? I would love to get a look as at present I have to pay and its very hit and miss as I need to see the parents names before I can confirm if the person baptised is a relative or not. Do you have much knowledge on the castleconnor area? Even a link or contact details for anybody who would

IrelandXO member

Hi Paul,

Yes the one's you speak of outiside the wall...are people from the Castleconner RC Church.  I have been there and been to many of the cemetaries around there.

 

Yes you can go to Castleconner RC church and speak to the parish priest.

 

My relatives are from the Tullylinn area so I've been all around that area.

 

Emily

emilyboland

Hi Emily,

 

Thanks for your response. Do you mind me asking what other graveyards are in the area? If so where abouts. At Killanly the number of plots there seems rather small for the number of people who used to live in the area over the past 200 years. Did you actually get to look at the records in the church? I was thinking about ringing the church today and seeing if they would let me

IrelandXO member

Hi Emily,

 

Thanks for your response. Do you mind me asking what other graveyards are in the area? If so where abouts. At Killanly the number of plots there seems rather small for the number of people who used to live in the area over the past 200 years. Did you actually get to look at the records in the church? I was thinking about ringing the church today and seeing if they would let me

IrelandXO member

Hi Emily,

 

Thanks for your response. Do you mind me asking what other graveyards are in the area? If so where abouts. At Killanly the number of plots there seems rather small for the number of people who used to live in the area over the past 200 years. Did you actually get to look at the records in the church? I was thinking about ringing the church today and seeing if they would let me

IrelandXO member

Hi Paul, I drove to every one I could find in the area, I don't have my notes and pictures in front of me now.  I did not find my relatives at all and soon realized either they did not ever have markers or they were gone and there really isn't anywhere to find written where they were buried. The Priest pulled the record for my grandfather from a computer printout so I did not see the old records. He gave me a certified baptismal for my grandfather since there was not a birth cert in the records office in Sligo.  The best information I found in the area was at the Castlebar Library in Mayo.  There is a computer where you can search all the old newspapers by a key word and I was very surprised to find many articles with my relatives mentioned.  

emilyboland

Paul,

The RC church generally only records baptisms and marriages. Not burials (though you do occasionally find parish records where a priest here and there did so for a few years. However that is fairly rare). The Church of Ireland does record burials (It?s about the only denomination that does), but only for their members, so in a shared churchyard, you are unlikely to find a burial of another denomination in the COI burial records.

As Emily has said, the majority of people could not afford gravestones, and were buried in unmarked graves. You will sometimes find an undertaker or graveyard custodian with a plan of where the graves are, and who is in them, but such records don?t often go back to the 19th century.

 

Elwyn

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

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