I had learned from a local historian which cemetery my great-grandparents were buried in when I was visiting the West Cork area in 1997. I arrived at the cemetery only to be told by the caretaker that there was one person in the parish who had known something about every single person buried in that cemetery, but he had died "a fortnight ago." OHHHHHHH!!!!!!! To have missed someone by two weeks! I learned that he had taken all of his information with him and that information on burials was not required in that area of Co. Cork until 1934. After that time, there would have been information on people buried in that cemetery. Information had to be sent to some type of central office. So, to my way of thinking, if you find any information at all in the 1800's about family burials, you have found more than many of us will find. Most of my families had no stone so no information was ever recorded. Perhaps because Ireland was more rural than many parts of the U.S. the records are not the same. Actually, in rural parts of the US there is nothing written about early burials. Jan