Irish Burials

[stellastar]

Hi I'm new so I hope I'm doing this properly!
I have recently discovered that my grandparents are buried in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin. However they are in different graves and seem to have been buried with strangers. My grandfather was buried in 1946 in a grave with 7 members of another family. My grandmother was buried fairly recently,1970, and is in a grave with one family member (an in-law) and a stranger. I have never heard of this practice before and it was quite a shocking discovery. Does anyone else have experience of this or know why this happened? I would be very grateful for any information anyone can give me. Many thanks!

[Elwyn Soutter]

I have come across this quite a few times. I think it can depend on whether you bought the whole grave or just one burial spot. And sometimes the apparent strangers aren’t strangers. It’s just you don’t know the relationship.

Why not ring or e-mail the cemetery and ask them if they can comment on the arrangements. Was grave sharing common, and why etc?

[ourgang]

Another possibility, which I know from another graveyard Deans Grange (many years ago). If they were members of two different religions. Roman Catholics were buried in one section and Protestants were buried in another. In our family we have the Protestant husband buried with his parents in the "Protestant side" of the graveyard.

[dathai]

as far as i know there was a five year limit to buy out the grave if not paid for within this time it remained the property of prospect cemetery. my great great grandfather died in 1881 upon finding his grave i discovered that he had a 24 yr old son killed in a building accident in 1859 which i did'nt know about upon further investigation i discovered that this 24 yr old was actually the grave owner, but prior to the sons burial there were 7 burials in one week in  the 1840s either famine or epidemic related.there were 14 burials in all 7 were my ancestors after 1859 also found a child relative from another branch buried 1903 lay on her own in that grave for 100 years grave only sold around 2002 to another family, i think they may be referred to as common or paupers graves.

[craggagh]

Hello -

My  great grandfather is buried in Glasnevin in a grave with three strangers - they were all from St Patrick's House, I believe.

craggagh.

[KD146]

I found quite a few relatives buried in Glasnevin during the nineteenth century, who share their plots with complete strangers.  Some of those were infant children, buried remote from their parents, with complete strangers.  There is something quite sad in that.

In another case, my great great grandfather lay alone in a grave for nearly a hundred years, until two brothers, complete strangers, were buried with him in recent years.  I was very disappointed when I found the grave, to see a modern headstone to the two brothers, with no mention of my poor great great grandfather who lies forgotten beneath.  I think I preferred where there was no gravestone at all.  It's like my great great grandfather has no claim at all to his own grave!