The following is only tangentially connected to the Irish cemetery discussion, but I concur that the headstones are not proof of who's buried somewhere. I know that a seller of headstones will consider how many people are expected to go into a plot before deciding how much space can be allotted to the first name that goes on a stone. So if more people get added to the plot than were originally planned, there's not enough room to fit the added names in. Not that I know that such planning went into headstone inscriptions going back hundreds of years ago, but you can see how if there's an unpredictable number of people who can be added to a plot, there's no easy way to plan whose name will go on there. And then there's this issue in my family: My great-aunt had her and her husband's names engraved on the headstone on the plot she intended them to be buried in, which was next to her parents in the cemetery. However, she died before he did, so when it came time to bury her, he said, "We'll be buried with my family." So she was buried in another area of the cemetery, and he joined her a few years later. Their names are on both headstones. No one's gotten around to removing their names from the place where they're not buried. It's pretty expensive to do so, and no one else has needed that space yet. So a name on a headstone doesn't necessarily mean the body's down below. On 9/21/06 2:34 PM, "Janet Crawford" <reojan@gmail.com> wrote: > Well, that's another problem, Beth. Not all ARE on the headstone. In > fact, sometimes very few of them are on there...but they are down > there. > > Janet > > On 9/21/06, Beth Glaser <eaglaser@ix.netcom.com> wrote: >> With the cost of headstones being a bit pricy for some it makes sense to >> have one real nice one for an area or family plot and to have all the names >> put on the one stone. I've seen that a lot looking for my family in Irish >> Catholic cemeteries in New York. That plus after a certain number of years >> because of decomposition you can stack coffins. After finding some of my >> family in New York the care takers there told me 1. I had family there. 2. >> There was still room in a few of the family plots. and 3. I owed upkeep >> costs on the plot. If I could show direct relationship to the past owner I >> could "move in". I came back to Los Angeles and told my New York husband we >> had property right next to where he grew up. He asked about the >> "neighborhood" so I read off a few names and he said it sounded good to him. >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "kaye vernon" <kjvernon@bigpond.net.au> >> To: <irl-cork@rootsweb.com> >> Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 12:23 AM >> Subject: Re: (CORK) Where do I look? >> >> >>> well surely they wouldnt all be buried in the same grave........it would >>> be >>> mighty crowded. >>> Kaye >>> www.bananatv.com/familytreechecklist.htm >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>> IRL-CORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >>> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> IRL-CORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >> in the subject and the body of the message >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRL-CORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message