John's blog

Historic Graves - The Project 2012

By John | Tuesday, January 10, 2012

There are over 3600 historic graveyards in Ireland with 1400 years of history carved into stone. In the past year we have helped survey 6734 graves in 79 graveyards and collaborated with 20 community groups, 7 local authorities and 6 Leader companies. 

We are a grassroots project. We leverage technology for community and economic development through hyperlocal heritage engagement. We capture local stories of place in local voices and we embed them in place.

We have built digital toolsets for community development and this booklet outlines our approach for 2012. We seek partners for collaboration and funding. 

A pdf version of this document can be downloaded here (HistoricGraves 2012) and if you wish to get in touch please contact John (john@historicgraves.ie). Read more »

How-to Signup to Become a Transcriber

By | Wednesday, May 8, 2013

 

A short video showing how to signup and become a member of the Historic Graves website and project. Read more »

Video of rubbings in Shanrahan, Co. Tipperary, and a very fine headstone

By John | Sunday, April 7, 2013

 

Under the shadow of the Knockmealdowns Tony & Mark took to the recording of the graveyards of south Tipperary like ducks to water. Mark is a geographer and Tony a retired builder so they both had a strong spatial sense and a tidy approach to dealing with paperwork.

This video shows the lads doing their first newsprint rubbing in Shanrahan graveyard. The group of graveyards from Newcastle, Tubrid and Shanrahan have a distinctive iconography of carving in the tympanum (top part of headstone). Common motifs in the Arma Christi headstones are the Pillar on which Our Lord was scourged entwined with the rope which bound him and this is clearly seen in the rubbing. Read more »

Search by Stonecutter

By | Tuesday, April 2, 2013

As we work with community groups around the country one of our main aims to track the different stonecutters who have worked in Ireland. We record the carved grave memorials by geotagged photo and database record sheets always taking care to record the stonemason/cutter if they have signed their work.

We can now search the Historic Graves database for stonecutter/stonemason in the Family Search view http://historicgraves.com/familysearch. Read more »

Stonecutters, stone masons and stone carvers - some Irish sources

By John | Saturday, September 15, 2012

As we record grave memorials throughout the country we come across the names of the stonecarvers and cutters who made them. Sometimes a signature (in full or initials) is found below the upper carvings and sometimes at the base of the stone. We have come across Bolster, Beary, Keane and Dack, amongst many others, and as the project develops we will pursue other historic sources to research these tradesmen. Read more »

Qr Codes in Historic Graveyards

By John | Thursday, September 6, 2012

QR codes are square barcodes which when scanned with a smartphone open a webpage. You need a QR code generator and a QR code reader to make it work. A funeral director in Dorset, England, is now offering to add QR codes to grave memorials for £95 and has garnered a lot of media interest as a result. Read more »

Pioneers in Irish Graveyard Recording - Robert M Chapple

By John | Tuesday, September 4, 2012

This blog post is one of a series about people who have been working in historic graveyard research in Ireland. Previously we wrote about Dr. Jane Lyons (http://historicgraves.ie/blog/miscellanea/pioneers-irish-graveyard-recording-dr-jane-lyons) who pioneered publishing graveyard data to the internet while this post is about archaeologist Robert M Chapple. Read more »

A Happy Encounter at Inch, Co. Cork

By John | Thursday, August 16, 2012

We have over 10,000 grave memorials recorded in the last year and we have to move servers very soon as we are topping 30GB of online data. Our work is fascinating and rewarding every day and today we got an email to say thanks to one of our volunteer partners (take a bow lads http://historicgraves.ie/graveyard/inch/co-inch) and thanks to SECAD for supporting the project. Read more »

Headstones and stories from Abington, Murroe, Limerick - 'If Virtue be a Blessing Great'

By | Thursday, August 16, 2012

Following yesterdays storm we started work in Abington graveyard this morning. We are training members of  the Murroe community (http://www.murroe.net/) to survey and record their historic graveyards as part of the Ballyhoura Historic Graves Project (http://visitballyhoura.com/index.php/home/) funded by LEADER. About a month ago we worked together in Clonkeen (http://historicgraves.ie/graveyard/clonkeen/li-clkn) graveyard and now we have reached the flagship graveyard of Abington (http://historicgraves.ie/graveyard/abington/li-abgn). Read more »

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