Ancestors in Cork? New online records lets you find graves

Hard-working volunteers at Skibbereen Heritage Centre have digitized the records of 89 graveyards around Cork, so far.

The records of these 89 County Cork graveyards amount to 45,500 burial records along with graveyard video tours and signs listing those deceased, all hosted on online by the Skibbereen Heritage Centre.

Work on this mammoth project began in the winter of 2019 and already the online repository has attracted visits from Diaspora and Irish at home in search of their family history.

Speaking to the local paper, Southern Star, Terri Kearney, the center manager said "We’re delighted to bring these records into the public domain,’ said center manager Terri Kearney.

The volunteers at the Skibbereen Heritage Centre transcribed the burial registers for some West Cork graveyards. The Skibbereen Funeral Register also records over 2,000 burials in various graveyards in the Skibbereen area and the Cape Clear Funeral Register is also included.

According to the center site "The information made available on this website includes burial details such as name, date of death, date of burial, and address. The original pages from the registers are also available to download in PDF format for all except the Skibbereen Funeral Register and Cape Clear burials."

Skibbereen Heritage Centre, Cork.

Kearney added that they've been inundated with online queries as well as people tuning in to watch tours of some of the 89 graveyards recorded.

"We are also getting a fantastic response from all over the world to our series of graveyard video tours," said Kearney. "As well as enabling the diaspora to connect with their ancestors’ burial places, these video tours mean a lot to local people."

The database also includes the results of a graveyard survey carried out some years ago with the support of the Heritage Council. The graveyards included in this survey are Caheragh Old Graveyard, Caheragh St Mary’s, Drimoleague, Drinagh, Creagh, Kilcoe, Aughadown as well as Abbeymahon and Chapel Lane Graveyards in Skibbereen.

The West Cork graveyards database and videos are available to view on SkibbHeritage.com.

Below watch a tour of the Chapel Lane graveyard, in Skibbereen: