This is exciting news from my recent searches on the internet: I have finally found a picture of the tombstone for Thomas Smith of Blackhall who died in March 1873 aged 40.  He was the first Smith to live at Blackhall – and the only one to die there as far as I know.  Over a year ago, I found a copy of his death notice from an 1873 newspaper that said he was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.

I found it interesting that Mount Jerome was used as the burial place even though Thomas was an active member of the Ballymaglasson Parish Select Vestry.  Ballymaglasson would have been the nearest Anglican church to Blackhall.  Possibly the choice of Mount Jerome (which was founded as a non-denominational burial ground) was related to the Smiths’ Methodist faith or maybe there was no grave site available for him at Ballymaglasson.

When I was in Dublin in 2011 I was unable to find the gravesite at Mount Jerome.  Meanwhile an enthusiastic group of genealogists in Dublin have been assiduously transcribing and photographing all the gravestones in the cemetery (among many other cemeteries in the Dublin area).  The genealogists are part of a national effort – Ireland Genealogical Projects – designed to make available genealogical information from all the counties by posting it on the internet.  I was aware that there was a project underway to transcribe the wording of all the stones in Mount Jerome and to photograph each stone.  Very recently, when I was searching the IGP Archives again, I finally found the set of photographs that contains Thomas Smith’s tombstone.

If I have another opportunity to visit the cemetery, I think I would now have a better chance of finding the stone.