David Campbell <[email protected]> asked: >Another question in the same vein is "What were the burial practices of >the rural Irish before the Famine other than in church cemetaries?" In >tracing my ancestors there are no records of their burial sites before >the mid 19th century. Has anyone researched this question? I don't know off hand what research has been done, but in researching the townland where my Lane ancestors lived in Innishannon I found that there was an old burial ground shown on the 19th century ordnance survey maps. It is still marked on the present day OS maps but if you go there you will find that it is no more than an uncultivated patch in the middle of some sugar beet fields. There are no stones nor walls, but the farmers all know where it is and simply plow around it. -dja