The free database includes searchable details of more than 65,000 people interred between 1905 and 2005 in 33 of the burial grounds in the council's care in North County Dublin. The site is searchable by name and graveyard. Search returns provide date of interment, area of last residence, and precise grave plot identifiers plus, in most cases, a link to a clear image of the register entry. The oldest burial record dates to 1877 and the most recent to 2013.Additionally, the online guide includes an overview of the history, notable burials and epitaphs of each graveyard, location maps, photographs and, where they exist, historical plot maps and drawings.
Interment registers per specific graveyard can also be downloaded in pdf format.
Brief location details are provided of some 22 private cemeteries in Fingal.
The Council's Burial Grounds team and Local Studies & Archives service have worked together to create the new guide. The project began as a conservation exercise to digitise the hand-drawn maps and sketches of the graveyards, many of which were in poor condition. It then expanded to include the digitisation of all the burial registers as back up copies. From there, the scans were indexed, and an online database and website created.
It has taken several years to bring the evolving project to fruition, and it's been worth the wait. The resulting guide is of a high standard, well-designed and full of information – a blueprint for other councils or church parishes to follow, I hope.