Well, speaking as a fellow American, I’ve only studied less than two dozen cemeteries here in Ireland thus but I have come across older cemeteries certainly. I have 13 others I've shot and begun transcribing, in varying stages of completion, and the older stones I’ve photographed, dating from the 1700s and 1800s can often be very hard to read so it’s taking time to decipher. A lot of them I can’t even read with the naked eye and instead rely on my digital computer software to help me make out what they say. Even so, reading a single stone can sometimes take me the better part of an hour, sometimes more, but I stick with it because I know they’ll only continue to deteriorate. This was an extremely impoverished country for most of its history (I read somewhere recently Ireland has suffered arguably the longest repressive foreign occupation in history) and many of my own family members are in unmarked plots, not because everyone figured they’d remember who was buried where but because they couldn’t afford markers, or markers that would stand the test of time. You’ll see even in more recent times, for example, in this particular cemetery (Mevagh), that a number of markers were handwritten. Most of we Americans don’t really appreciate the fact that, pre-EU, this country was considered to be a Third World country. Additionally, many of the death registers have been lost, damaged or destroyed over the years. What I have come across mostly though, and I’m guessing that it’s because of the winds, boggy soil and wet conditions, is that many of the older gravestones have been fallen face down, or partially or even completely submerged. Many have literally sunk below the surface of the ground and are nothing more than lumps in nettle-ridden, overgrown grass. Perhaps the fact that it’s an island may also account for the extreme weathering of existing stones. I’ve seen stones as recent as the 1980s and 1990s that are barely legible anymore due to (I’m guessing) airborne sand and debris in the wind. The faces of the stones just wear off. But these are just guesses on my part. That’s actually why, albeit temporarily, I’ve joined the folks who, like Jane (who moderates Y-IRL and has contributed a mind-boggling amount of data via her website for us amateur genealogists) feel the urgency to preserve the information on these decaying stones. Some may not seem old now but they sure will to the generations who follow us, who’ll never otherwise get a chance to read and/or see these stones in legible condition. Fortunately, I'm pretty certain that, if only for its Catholic origins, the Irish don't mess with their cemeteries, they don't re-site them or re-use the stones. :o) Siobhán ----- Original Message ---- From: Jane Ward <[email protected]> To: IRL-CO-Donegal <[email protected]>; IRL-Donegal - List <[email protected]>; IRL-Donegaleire-L <[email protected]>; hiflyte <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 8:57:48 PM Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] Mevagh Church Graveyard - Cty Donegal A question, from an ignorant American. All of the graves seem to be fairly recent. What happened to earlier burials? Older graveyards? Our local cemeteries in Michigan go back to the 1850's and I'm sure I've seen earlier gravestones on our travels. Have the stones been re-used? melted away from acid-rain? or no-one thought it necessary to mark the graves since "everyone" knew where they were? --- On Wed, 7/2/08, hiflyte <[email protected]> wrote: > From: hiflyte <[email protected]> > Subject: [DONEGALEIRE] Mevagh Church Graveyard - Cty Donegal > To: "IRL-CO-Donegal" <[email protected]>, "IRL-Donegal - List" <[email protected]>, "IRL-Donegaleire-L" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 11:54 AM > List Members, > > Another gem from our roving Irish reporter --- > > Siobhán, Gallagher has contributed the cemetery file for > Mevagh Church > Graveyard in Cty Donegal. > > "Mevagh Church Graveyard is located on Co. Donegal’s > northern coastline > on an > unnamed road (unnamed according to my GPS anyway), along > the signposted > Atlantic > Drive in Rosapenna, GPS coordinates N55.21062, > W7.81094" > > I wish to thank Siobhán for this addition to the website. > > You can view the file at: > http://tinyurl.com/57w5zv > > The file will be uploaded to the IGPA /Donegal website --- > soon. > http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ > > Have a nice day > Bob > Cdn > > When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific > text to which you are replying, removing the rest of the > digest from your reply. Also, remember to change the > subject of your reply so that it coincides with the message > subject to which you are replying. > > TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED > ARCHIVES AT > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ > > > TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE > SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES AT > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE > > > SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: > Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ > Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ > Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific text to which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. Also, remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the message subject to which you are replying. TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Very few of my ancestors graves have stones. Does than make them repressed and impoverished? I think not. Naw - they were just too mean to waste the money on a headstone. (And when they did, all they said was "The Brewsters of Dromore". Yea thanks, folks.) Actually, I don't often get cross with what is said in this list but I do object to my country being called a Third World Country pre EU. Simmer simmer. Try to remember that some Irish people frequent these lists too. Boyd Gray http://familytrees.genopro.com/boydgray26/Boyd/default.htm -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Siobhan Sent: 02 July 2008 22:24 To: [email protected]; IRL-CO-Donegal; IRL-Donegal - List; IRL-Donegaleire-L; hiflyte Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] Mevagh Church Graveyard - Cty Donegal Well, speaking as a fellow American, I’ve only studied less than two dozen cemeteries here in Ireland thus but I have come across older cemeteries certainly. I have 13 others I've shot and begun transcribing, in varying stages of completion, and the older stones I’ve photographed, dating from the 1700s and 1800s can often be very hard to read so it’s taking time to decipher. A lot of them I can’t even read with the naked eye and instead rely on my digital computer software to help me make out what they say. Even so, reading a single stone can sometimes take me the better part of an hour, sometimes more, but I stick with it because I know they’ll only continue to deteriorate. This was an extremely impoverished country for most of its history (I read somewhere recently Ireland has suffered arguably the longest repressive foreign occupation in history) and many of my own family members are in unmarked plots, not because everyone figured they’d remember who was buried where but because they couldn’t afford markers, or markers that would stand the test of time. You’ll see even in more recent times, for example, in this particular cemetery (Mevagh), that a number of markers were handwritten. Most of we Americans don’t really appreciate the fact that, pre-EU, this country was considered to be a Third World country. Additionally, many of the death registers have been lost, damaged or destroyed over the years. What I have come across mostly though, and I’m guessing that it’s because of the winds, boggy soil and wet conditions, is that many of the older gravestones have been fallen face down, or partially or even completely submerged. Many have literally sunk below the surface of the ground and are nothing more than lumps in nettle-ridden, overgrown grass. Perhaps the fact that it’s an island may also account for the extreme weathering of existing stones. I’ve seen stones as recent as the 1980s and 1990s that are barely legible anymore due to (I’m guessing) airborne sand and debris in the wind. The faces of the stones just wear off. But these are just guesses on my part. That’s actually why, albeit temporarily, I’ve joined the folks who, like Jane (who moderates Y-IRL and has contributed a mind-boggling amount of data via her website for us amateur genealogists) feel the urgency to preserve the information on these decaying stones. Some may not seem old now but they sure will to the generations who follow us, who’ll never otherwise get a chance to read and/or see these stones in legible condition. Fortunately, I'm pretty certain that, if only for its Catholic origins, the Irish don't mess with their cemeteries, they don't re-site them or re-use the stones. :o) Siobhán ----- Original Message ---- From: Jane Ward <[email protected]> To: IRL-CO-Donegal <[email protected]>; IRL-Donegal - List <[email protected]>; IRL-Donegaleire-L <[email protected]>; hiflyte <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 8:57:48 PM Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] Mevagh Church Graveyard - Cty Donegal A question, from an ignorant American. All of the graves seem to be fairly recent. What happened to earlier burials? Older graveyards? Our local cemeteries in Michigan go back to the 1850's and I'm sure I've seen earlier gravestones on our travels. Have the stones been re-used? melted away from acid-rain? or no-one thought it necessary to mark the graves since "everyone" knew where they were? --- On Wed, 7/2/08, hiflyte <[email protected]> wrote: > From: hiflyte <[email protected]> > Subject: [DONEGALEIRE] Mevagh Church Graveyard - Cty Donegal > To: "IRL-CO-Donegal" <[email protected]>, "IRL-Donegal - > List" <[email protected]>, "IRL-Donegaleire-L" > <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 11:54 AM List Members, > > Another gem from our roving Irish reporter --- > > Siobhán, Gallagher has contributed the cemetery file for Mevagh Church > Graveyard in Cty Donegal. > > "Mevagh Church Graveyard is located on Co. Donegal’s northern > coastline on an unnamed road (unnamed according to my GPS anyway), > along the signposted Atlantic Drive in Rosapenna, GPS coordinates > N55.21062, W7.81094" > > I wish to thank Siobhán for this addition to the website. > > You can view the file at: > http://tinyurl.com/57w5zv > > The file will be uploaded to the IGPA /Donegal website --- soon. > http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ > > Have a nice day > Bob > Cdn > > When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific text to which > you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. > Also, remember to change the subject of your reply so that it > coincides with the message subject to which you are replying. > > TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED ARCHIVES AT > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ > > > TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE SEARCHABLE > ARCHIVES AT > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE > > > SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: > Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ > Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ > Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific text to which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. Also, remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the message subject to which you are replying. TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific text to which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. Also, remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the message subject to which you are replying. TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Siobhan . If you take a piece of Chalk and rub it across the engravings they stand out . Laurie "A lot of them I can’t even read with the naked eye and instead rely on my digital computer software to help me make out what they say. Even so, reading a single stone can sometimes take me the better part of an hour, sometimes more, but I stick with it because I know they’ll only continue to deteriorate."