In Search of Your Roots - Births and Deaths

Finding your roots is a major preoccupation in the modern world where so many people move about very frequently and end up more or less rootless. It is comforting to have information regarding your families origins going back to times when to move more than 20 or 30 miles from your place of birth was very unusual. In this situation Irish parishes realise the value of their records and many genealogical research projects have been established over the past 10 years especially.

The baptismal register in the Church of the Holy Rosary has much information regarding the Parish's history as it records the baptism of many generations of Castlebar people.

Graveyards are also valuable sources of information for those tracing their roots and every year many visitors come to Castlebar's graveyards in search of family information.

The old graveyard is located opposite the Traveller's Friend hotel beside Lough Lannagh and the Castlebar River off the new link road. Many generations of Castlebar people are buried here. Visitors are, of course, asked to respect the memory of those buried there and perhaps to say a prayer or two while visiting.

There are a number of other burial places located in and around Castlebar, for example the small graveyards at Ballynew and at Turlough Round Tower and that at Christ Church.

The new catholic graveyard is off the Newport Road and while it will not obviously be of great value in searching for old ancestors more recently deceased members of families may be buried here.