19/52 - Finding my Irish Great Grandparents
My grandmother Sarah McEvoy was the only grandparent I ever knew. Prior to our trip to Ireland, I did a lot of work to flesh out the Irish side of our family tree. I’ve logged some of that information here:
16/52 - Pieces of an Irish Puzzle - 1
12/52 - Angela’s Ashes Averted
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Sarah
My grandmother was one of 11. She lived in a 3-room home in a township named Graigueafulla, near Clonaslee, in Laois County (pronounced Leesh). Her parents (my great-grandparents) were Martin McEvoy (1845-1917) and Catherine Brien (1859-1935). They had 11 children:
Patrick McEvoy (1881–?)
Martin McEvoy (1883–1913)
Joseph McEvoy (1886–1930)
Edward McEvoy (1887–1947)
Mary McEvoy (1889–1986)
Margaret McEvoy (1890–1981)
Sarah Anne McEvoy (1892–1967)
Michael McEvoy (1894–1967)
Kathleen McEvoy (1895–1973)
Elizabeth McEvoy (1897–1971)
George McEvoy (1900–?)
One of the things I hoped to find out on my trip to Ireland was where my great-grandparents -- Martin and Catherine -- were buried. This is a more challenging task than might be immediately apparent because many of the older tombstones in Ireland were made of very porous stone, and many of the inscriptions -- even on pretty recent stones -- have worn off.
Another problem was highlighted to me by Sinead Holland, the Local History expert at the Portlaoise Public Library. She said that there were no individual markers in many older cemeteries, particularly among poorer people. Instead, there were often small plots marked by an uninscribed stone, with family identifications a question purely of local knowledge. On top of this, there are a LOT of tiny graveyards. A survey of all burial grounds in Laois was carried out in 2011. A total of 208 burial grounds were recorded.
A lot of the available information on cemeteries has been gathered here: https://historicgraves.com/. The late Dr. Jane Lyons did incredible work recording grave inscriptions and locations here: https://www.from-ireland.net/. But I couldn’t find Martin and/or Catherine in either place.
Mary Glenn and I walked up and down the rows at the St. Manman Cemetery (RC Church in Clonaslee) and St. Brigid’s Cemetery in Rosenalis to no avail. Back at our B&B that night, I had pretty much decided that given the remaining 206 burial grounds in the county and the lack of inscriptions on tombstones, my quest for Martin and Catherine's final resting place would be for naught.
Enter Ann McEvoy, the wife of one of Martin's grandsons, whom I discovered on the fun Laois People Worldwide Facebook group. [Note: I'm less engaged with Facebook than I once was, but the genealogy groups are great and an exception.] Ann nosed around and told me that her husband's parents and grandparents (the elusive Martin and Catherine) were buried at the Rearymore Cemetery.
I discovered a LOT about Rearymore at the Historicgraves website (https://historicgraves.com/graveyard/reary-more/la-rrmr)
The graveyard is in a rural area, accessed from a local road. Graveyard contains ruins of a medieval church, marked on an 1841 OS map as 'Rearymore Church (in ruins) and Graveyard'. Ruins simply consist of a portion of west gable and north wall; three Early Christian cross-slabs were formerly located at the northwest angle of the church, now moved to Rosenallis RC Church. Graveyard contains 18th to 20th century headstones and celtic style crosses; in varying conditions, some leaning or badly worn. Graveyard has a sub-rectangular shape measuring 69m north-south by 48m east-west; the boundary stone wall intact, and measures 1.5m high. No paths; access via gate and stile steps. Ground surface uneven.
The site also contains a link to a remarkable document: a 1980s survey of mortuary monument inscriptions by Mr. Ian Lee and pupils of Reary National School, edited and uploaded by Niamh-Denise Griffith. The document is here: https://laois.ie/wp-content/uploads/Rearymore-Cemetery-submission-for-Laois-Heritage-website.pdf. Because of its size, it takes a bit to load.
During the 1980s, the school's pupils transcribed tombstone inscriptions. Even if I wasn't an amateur genealogist, I think this would be a fantastic idea for a school project: a) it preserves a history that is increasingly fading due to the condition of the tombstones, and b) it is such an exciting and hands-on way to get students to think about and understand local history. I wish more schools would take up projects like this. The project is doubly cool because Niamh-Denise Griffith included the original handwritten notes by each student (hence the file size).
Four stones in the cemetery are explicitly linked to McEvoys, but none have direct inscriptions for Catherine and Martin. But I was sure that Ann was right because, as I looked at the map, the cemetery is less than ¾ of a mile from the land in Graigueafulla where my grandmother and her parents lived.
So we headed out there. Sometimes, the more rural Irish roads can be a challenge for those from the US. One fantastic thing I have found is that even the tiniest "road" in Ireland has usually been tracked down some time or other by Google Street View. So, after a review at Street View and determining that we would be "somewhat" OK in our rental car, we headed out.
Here is what we found. I love the fact that there were three ewes and 6 lambs in the cemetery who were very suspicious of us.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pjqrVQZfB4oQxuRHA
Most notably, this particular contemporary marker is all the proof I need.
As an aside, I particularly like the stone I saw, which starts off with a phrase that was always a catchphrase for my mom and grandmother: "It is a holy and a wholesome thought…"
Very cool. Thank you, Ann.
