Today I attended the launch of a wonderful project by the Baconstown Heritage Group – enfieldgraveyards.com. Below is a little information about the project.

A small community organisation – Baconstown Heritage Group – has for over ten years in a quiet and steadfast manner undertaken the project of transcribing, mapping and photographing headstones in the graveyards of the Enfield Credit Union Common Bond area.

It comprises of the parishes of Balyna, part of Carbury and of Newtown in Co. Kildare and the parishes of Enfield/Rathmolyon; Longwood/Killyon; Coole/Summerhill and Clonard in Co. Meath.

Twice a week and for almost every week of the past decade, this dedicated group has cleared undergrowth, battled erosion and used their proficiency in latin, old Irish and knowledge of symbols and signs, to transcribe and decipher the headstones in all these 28 graveyards.

This information was then collated and inputted into a database, which is now freely available and searchable on the website www.enfieldgraveyards.com. Anyone searching for their roots will be able to search the database by family name or graveyard and not only find the details of births and deaths, but a photograph and the exact location of the headstone.

The project was sponsored by Enfield Credit Union. Further sponsorship was received from the Heritage Council of Ireland. Training and guidance was provided by the Heritage Officers in Meath and Kildare.

Visit the site at www.enfieldgraveyards.com