Patrick Leahy appeared before council at Douro-Dummer’s August 7 council meeting to request some grant money to help complete a community project.
Leahy requested between $1,000 and $1,200 from the community grant fund to help subsidize the Historical Graves Recording Project through an organization called Historic Graves Ireland.
Plans are currently being made for work that is set to take place around Peterborough County in September of this year. Historic Graves Ireland has professionally recorded, digitized, and preserved the headstones of 1000 out of the 3000 Irish cemeteries and graveyards, operating with a community engagement methodology.
Work on the project commenced last Summer when archaeologist John Tierney, who holds the title of director of Historic Graves Ireland, landed in Douro to begin the organization’s first work on North American gravestones.
Leahy told council that both he and Tierney worked through the winter compiling information gathered and began planning surveys in the county which will determine the origin of Irish immigrants families in Ireland.
The research completed over the Summer in Douro was submitted at the annual Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland Conference in April on the theme of “Bridging the Atlantic.”
The program picks up again with a new round of cemetery surveys, transcription, and uploading for Peterborough County this September which is where the requested funding is to be directed.
Leahy told council that there was some seed money for this project left over from the Nine Ships celebration last year along with some other donors, but further funding and promotion would serve to enhance the impact of the project.
Leahy told council that currently plans are in place this fall for work to be done in Ennismore, Young’s Point, Galway, and 20th century section of St. Joseph’s, Douro. They are also proposing to survey, transcribe, and publish online the small cemeteries in Dummer - Batten-Payne, Cottesloe, English Line and Centre Dummer. St. Mark’s in Warsaw could also be a possibility for further discussion due to its size requiring greater effort to record.
Councillor Tom Watt commented that they are proud to have this project in their community and asked Leahy if the end product will be shared with the township’s archives.
Leahy responded that all the information will belong to the community and they would be more than happy to provide a print version for the township archives.
Councillor Ray Johnston asked if they had appoached ther townships for funding.
Leahy told council that they have sought funds from municipalities, heritage groups and private sponsorships.
Johnston asked treasurer Stacy Grenier how much money was available in the community grant accounts to which she replied she did not have that information in front of her, but she would obtain the numbers before the end of the meeting.
The amount remaining in the account according to Grenier was $4,150, but she also pointed out that there were funds still available in the Historical Committee fund to the tune of $1,500.
Mayor Heather Watson asked when the work would commence to which Leahy responded work will take place throughout the county between September 13 and 25.
Deputy mayor Harold Nelson moved that they support the project in the amount of $1,250 and the money should come from the historical committee accounts as it is “pretty historical”.
The motion passed.
