Thursday, 12 October 2023

Bad news: 700,000+ Glasnevin burials on FindAGrave to be deleted

It was probably inevitable, but from a family historian's perspective, it's bad news. The newly uploaded tranche of burial records relating to Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, are to be removed from the free to access FindAGrave database.

I understand this move follows pressure from Dublin Cemeteries Trust, the organisation that 'oversees the staff of almost 100 staff across five locations in the delivery of two core services: Funeral Services and Heritage & Education Services'*, and generates income from the sale of its burial records. Researchers will not be surprised they were somewhat miffed when the records started appearing on the FAG site during September, potentially diverting a significant stream of income away from their coffers.

During that month, the number of records on the FAG database relating to cemeteries in the care of DCT rose from fewer than 50,000 to more than 755,000

The records are still online as I type, but I imagine their removal will be faster than their upload.


*quote from DCT website