Assistance with RootsIreland Burial Record...

Thomas from Presence

Hi all,

From the early 19th century I can say that my paternal line family have been catholic. I've found the attached burial record from RootsIreland which is fairly vague.

It shows a William Brunkard buried on 5 March 1836 in Kilsallaghan which is a protestant church - incidentally where the late Brian Lenihan is buried.

So the possible conclusions are:

1. William was a protestant and was buried in a protestant graveyard for a protestant people

2. It was the case that deaths were recorded by the local rector irregardless of religion and the record refers to a death but not necessarily a burial

3. It was the case that catholics could be buried in a protestant cemetery

4. The record is a false transcription or a misclassified one

What do you think guys? I'll probably visit the RCL to check on point 4 but it it's interesting.

pinkypinky

Thomas from Presence wrote: »

Hi all,

From the early 19th century I can say that my paternal line family have been catholic. I've found the attached burial record from RootsIreland which is fairly vague.

It shows a William Brunkard buried on 5 March 1836 in Kilsallaghan which is a protestant church - incidentally where the late Brian Lenihan is buried.

So the possible conclusions are:

1. William was a protestant and was buried in a protestant graveyard for a protestant people

2. It was the case that deaths were recorded by the local rector irregardless of religion and the record refers to a death but not necessarily a burial

3. It was the case that catholics could be buried in a protestant cemetery

4. The record is a false transcription or a misclassified one

What do you think guys? I'll probably visit the RCL to check on point 4 but it it's interesting.

Almost certainly no3. RCs didn't usually have burial grounds at that date. Lots of RCs in CoI graveyards.

leck

I presume it was an infant death as age is given as 0. I'm guessing you don't have a birth record? I don't have a subscription to rootsireland but when I searched for "brunkard, william, 1837" it came up with one hit for birth/baptism.

shanew

I suspect the age zero is possibly the equivalent of an N/R - i.e. not recorded

L1011

shanew wrote: »

I suspect the age zero is possibly the equivalent of an N/R - i.e. not recorded

Very bad transcription standards if it is, though.

Thomas from Presence

@Leck I think @ShaneW might be right there. Such are the limitations of that silly website that this is quite likely. There was a William in 1819 and another at 1821 from the same parents so I suspect the former didn't make it. There was one other William from 1767 so that's also a possibility.

@pinkypinky - that's very interesting. In that part of County Dublin there are plenty of graveyards that have been used by family members from at least the mid 19th century - old disused churchyards in the main. It's good to know that there was no stigma in being buried in protestant churchyards given the situation at the time.

KildareFan

Catholics were allowed to be buried in CoI churchyards, but were sometimes prevented from reading prayers at the burial. There was an incident in one of the Dublin CoI cemeteries where the congregation were refused permission to say prayers at the burial of a prominent individual [will have to check which one] and this led to the establishment of the first catholic cemetery in Dublin at Goldenbridge & then Glasnevin.

Thomas from Presence

KildareFan wrote: »

Catholics were allowed to be buried in CoI churchyards, but were sometimes prevented from reading prayers at the burial. There was an incident in one of the Dublin CoI cemeteries where the congregation were refused permission to say prayers at the burial of a prominent individual [will have to check which one] and this led to the establishment of the first catholic cemetery in Dublin at Goldenbridge & then Glasnevin.

Of course! That happened at St. Kevin's which is now a little park off Wexford Street in Dublin. It's interesting because the burial records of COI parishes are never really spoken about as for catholic deaths when they could make a massive difference to dating them.

pinkypinky

Well, the problem is that most registers don't differentiate between the denominations, so unless you're sure a person was X religion, you don't have anything to go on.

Thomas from Presence

pinkypinky wrote: »

Well, the problem is that most registers don't differentiate between the denominations, so unless you're sure a person was X religion, you don't have anything to go on.

Absolutely but if you had a church baptism and an approximate date of death (i.e. in Tithes but not in Griffiths or removed from a revision book at a certain date) you'd win a burial place and a date of death so it's worth a rummage. Particularly if it's an awkward name like mine