The Graveyards of Ballinhassig

The search for one's ancestors almost inevitably leads one through a graveyard or two.  One of my first breakthroughs in my search came in a graveyard in Brooklyn, so it was natural to start my search in Ballinhassig by visiting the local graveyards.

The information to be gleaned from graveyards is scant:  name, date of death, perhaps age, perhaps date of birth, perhaps the names of immediate relations if they are also buried in the same place.  It is information that can hopefully be put together with other pieces to fill out a story or answer a question.   For example, when I found the grave of my great great grandfather Cornelius in Brooklyn, the date of death on the tombstone allowed me to determine which of the three death certificates for a Cornelius Mahoney I had uncovered was actually his. 

There are three graveyards in Ballinhassig.  The first and oldest is the Ballinaboy Cemetery, located just on the outskirts of the Ballinhassig village.

This one proved to be something of a disappointment.  I had thought that the older tombstones might yield interesting information, but the simple fact was that time and the elements had pretty much erased all the information on the old tombstones, so I got nothing of value from this graveyard other than a short walk through a thoroughly-misted past.

I then went to the Goggins Hill church and graveyard.

I thought this would be a good possibility since the church had been built in 1821.

Yet, strangely, even though the church itself is very old, virtually all the tombstones in the graveyard surrounding it date from the 20th century.  I don't know whether the older graves had been supplanted by the newer ones or whether they didn't start the cemetery until long after the church was built.  The relatively newer graves, while not providing anything of real value for my search, did provide some interesting hints.  There were a number of 20th Century O'Mahonys and Duggans buried here, as well as one Duggan nee O'Keeffe -- O'Keeffe being another surname that has cropped up in my searches (my guess is that Cornelius had a sister who married a Daniel O'Keeffe, and their son, Daniel JA O'Keeffe emigrated to the US and settled in San Francisco).

Finally, I stopped by the Ballyheada Cemetery, located around the Church of the Sacred Heart.

It was pretty much more of the same: mostly 20th century tombstones, but with a significant number of Duggans, O'Mahonys and O'Keeffes among them.  One particular set of tombstones stood out.

O'Mahonys buried right next to Duggans.  Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that both gravesites show evidence of someone having visited them fairly recently.

I need to find and talk to the folks who are leaving the flowers.