Church Memorials & Family Names

 If your ancestors scrimped and saved to donate a church memorial which carries the family name, wouldn't you like to know about it?  There is a lot of information on these memorials such as family names, date and place of birth or death, titles and positions held, records of service in our nations various wars, etc. Doesn't  this information add "flesh" to that ancestors bones beyond the standard birth, marriage and death dates?  Doesn't this information give you a better picture of that family member you never knew?

Many researchers who have connections to the Troy area that go back several generations, may never have been in these local churches and will never know that their family names have been memorialized.  More importantly, this information is in danger of being lost in many churches that are scheduled to be closed or consolidated. 

In order to capture this important information for genealogy researchers everywhere, the Troy Irish Genealogy Society has developed the Church Memorial Project which will create a data base of all names mentioned on any type of memorial located inside or outside a church.  This project will be ongoing and churches will be constantly added to the record series.

The idea behind this data base came about while reading the inscriptions and family names on the stained glass windows during a 2007 visit to St. Mary’s Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut

If anyone is interested in helping on this project, contact Bill McGrath at:  seamus@nycap.rr.com

 

MORE COMING SOON – STAY TUNED