The Cork Examiner for the 16th March 1869 printed the following extraordinary story which should make all genealogists and family historians think twice about what they read on headstones.
Kilkenny: There is in a graveyard attached to Maudlin St Chapel a headstone erected since October 1868 bearing the following inscription. "Erected in memory of Patrick Power of Maudlin Street who died in 1869 aged 73 years. May his Soul Rest in Peace Amen". This stone was erected by the said Patrick Power who is still living in Mauldlin Street and who confidently asserts he is to die in the month of June next or thereabouts. Meanwhile Pat regularly visits the graveyard, says his prayers at the headstone but beyond this seems very little concerned about the near approach (according to his own account) of his dissolution.
Of course we went straight to a printed copy of St Rioch's Graveyard Inscriptions which was published by the St. Rioch's Community Group in 2007 (St Rioch's is the graveyard of the Maudlin St Chapel, Kilkenny). And, as it happens, in Row 11, is a broken stone, No 67, which has been recorded as engraved with the name Power but no inscription was able to be read. There is no other Power headstone in the graveyard.
A quick search in the Irish Civil Death Indexes reveals no Patrick Power of Kilkenny dying in 1869. There is however an entry for a Patrick Power, aged 80 years, of Kilkenny who died in 1874, which may be our man.
If anyone of our readers can throw any light on this story or if you can solve this mystery please do contact us.
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A blog devoted to Kilkenny Graveyards and Burial Places, only occasionally straying beyond the county boundaries. All the pictures and information have been collected by Mary Casteleyn, Irish genealogist and Bernie Kirwan, a genealogist deeply immersed in the history and genealogy of those who once lived in county Kilkenny.
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