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Monamolin cemeteries--Church of Ireland or Roman Catholic

Monamolin (Wexford)

I discovered (thru the Northern Wexford Historical Society site) cemetery and gravestone information that might be my ancestors. The names (by naming tradition) and dates (1820ish on) fit with projections from my known ancestors, born 1789, 1795 and 1796. My question comes from the graves being in the CoI cemetery, not the RC one, which is contrary to all I've ever known about family traditions. Could it be they were buried in the CoI cemetery because of time, urgency, or other factors? Or is this a deal breaker?

Thanks so much to all!

...

ARedmond

2 replies

Many of the old Graveyards attached to old CofI churches or ruins, or even where no sign of an old church survives, were regarded historic consecrated sites dating back before the reformation, considered holy by all Christians in the area, so anyone from the area would have had burial rights.

The other factor that come in play is that before relaxation of the last of the penal laws in the late 1820s there were very few Catholic Chapels and attached Graveyards, so there was often no option but burial in CofI graveyards - where there was often payments required and restrictions on .prayers etc. In this case 1st Edition OS maps dated c1840 show the Catholic chapel at Monamolin but no attached graveyard, the CofI church is shown with a (small) graveyard slightly to the west.

Bear in mind that these graveyard survey options generally list surviving legible memorials only and many burials for ordinary people would have had small, possibly wooden, grave markers which likely would not survive very long, or often no marker at all.

Added - for reference - an extract from "Memorials of the Dead" survey by Brian J. Cantwell 1981/83 on Monamolin C of I graveyard (my highlighting) :

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Shane, thanks so much for the quick response and solid, on-target information. The 23 gravestones in the Monamolin OLD Catholic cemetery range from 1824 to 1921 (https://northwexfordhistoricalsociety.com/graveyard/monamolin-old-catholic-graveyard/) , while the OLD CofI graveyard goes back to 1743.  Even though "what religion" is so often a first question in Irish genealogy, now I know not to make assumptions. The CofI graveyard is not to be dismissed, despite family religion traditions.

BTW, you helped me years ago, figuring out that what was transcribed as "Gulid" was actually a distorted abbreviation "Guliel" for Latin Gulielmust/William. So thanks, again!

ARedmond

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