There is an historic gem at our feet - the cemetery on the Pier Road in Bearna dates back hundreds of years.

And, in fact, the site used to extend even further east, which was evident from the remains found during excavations of the road some years ago.

The grave stones that have survived tell a great deal about the people who used to live in the community. Sadly, there were a noticeable amount of infant deaths, and of people dying well before their time.

Many communities around the country have published details online of the people who lie in their graveyards - this is an invaluable resource for those filling in details on their family tree.

Galway County Council is in the process of doing the same for all of its burial grounds. But, due to resource and staff shortages, they have sought the help of the various communities to achieve this. 

So far, the people of East Galway have been more active than their counterparts in the west though - only one burial ground in Connemara features in this database. We wish to change that, and include Reilig Bhearna in this search.

But, we need your help! 

We have made contact with Galway County Council’s heritage officer, Marie Mannion, requesting a register that will allow us to identify unmarked names. She suggested that the Environment Section of the Council may have one - we are waiting for a response back.

Marie also advised contacting archivist, Patria McWalter. Interestingly, she replied to say she has access to two 'Burial Ground Registers of Interment' for Reilig Bhearna, from 1936-1948 and 1966-1999. 

She pointed out, however, that these records do not include location details - hopefully local knowledge can fill in the gaps. 

Although there is restricted access to these archives, Patria has offered to extract the images to assist us in our work, which is marvellous news. We are hoping that the Environment section can furnish us with details for the missing years (pre-1936, 1949-1965, and post-2000).

Marie Mannion has suggested that we will need:

• Someone handy with CAD (computer aided design)

• Someone who can obtain images of the graveyard's layout with the use of a drone. It is a bit higgledy-piggledy, and hard to describe locations without the aid of an aerial photo.

• People to take photos of the graves, and their GPS location for the database.

• People to enter the information into a database in the format required.

If there is enough interest, after this, to also archive Reilig Réalt Na Mara in Furbo, we will gladly undertake it - although this is less urgent as it is a newer graveyard, and the records for it are better. 

If you can help with this worthy community project, please get in touch with BearnaNotes@gmail.com.