Ballygawley's Presbyterian Church graveyard has provided a burial place for local residents of southern County Tyrone for more than two hundred years. The congregation was originally part of the older Presbyterian charge at Aughnacloy, which had been established in the 17th century and where a church had been built as early as 1743. Surviving records of the Aughnacloy church only date to 1812, but ministers faithfully recorded entries in those early years for "the congregation of Aughnacloy and Ballygawley" and "the United Congregation of Aughnacloy and Balligawley."

   The linen industry gave many areas of County Tyrone an economic boom that's reflected in population numbers. In 1813, there were 96 houses in Ballygawley village, and in 1816, the total had increased to 151 houses. The 1821 census listed a population of 745. Ten years later with the 1831 census, the village had 972 inhabitants.

   By 1827, Ballygawley had 26 Presbyterian households. Even if each household only had 3 people, that's 78 individuals – and some families had a dozen or more members. After nearly seven decades of traveling six miles (about 9.6 kilometers) to and from Aughnacloy to attend religious services and register life events, Ballygawley's Presbyterian families wanted a place of worship nearer to their homes. They asked to split from the parent congregation, and finally a "meeting house" was built in their own village northwest of Aughnacloy.

   In 1817, the local clergyman and historian, Rev. John Kelly Groves, wrote a chapter on "Errigall-Keroge" parish for William Shaw Mason's government-sponsored work: "A Statistical Account, Or Parochial Survey of Ireland." The Reverend Groves described Ballygawley's Presbyterian church: "The walls of a new Meetinghouse have been erected in Ballygawley, but they seem to be on too large a scale, as they have remained some time uncovered." Finally completed and roofed about 1820, this was the first Presbyterian church built in "Kerog" parish, as Errigal Keerogue parish was anciently known.

   When County Tyrone was surveyed in 1833-1837 for "The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland," the officer wrote about Errigal Keerogue parish: "Presbyterian Meeting House – A square plain building and not the slightest ornament." He also recorded: "Townland Ballygawley: a Presbyterian meeting house, a corn mill and brewery. Townlands have been set off for a perpetual cure and a church [Church of Ireland] recently built in the adjacent townland Richmond, close to the town."

   Samuel Lewis, in "A Topographical Dictionary Of Ireland" (1837), described Ballygawley: "This district was constituted a parish in 1830, by an order of council ... when eighteen townlands were separated from the parish of Errigal-Kerogue, in the barony of Clogher, and twelve from that of Carrenteel, in the barony of Dungannon, and formed into the parish of Ballygawley... The living is a perpetual curacy [of the Church of Ireland], in the diocese of Armagh, and in the alternate patronage of the Rectors of Errigal-Kerogue and Carrenteel... The church [of Ireland] is a small but handsome edifice, in the later English style... There is a place of worship in the town for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of Ulster, of the third class; also a Baptist meeting-house in the parish."

   In "Memoirs of Ballygawley - Local History Group Talks, 1998 to 2003," written by Eugene McSorley and edited by his wife Eilish McSorley and Jack Johnston, the author gave these details about Ballygawley's Presbyterian churches: "The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches in earlier years were known as meeting houses, and this is probably the source of the name – Meetinghouse Street – now Church Street. Dr. Gillespie had said that the earlier Presbyterian Church was outside the town about a mile on the Aughnacloy road. It should be remembered that in earlier times Ballygawley and Aughnacloy were a united charge, and were known as Aghaloo Congregation. This harkens back to the Old Church of Ireland site at Rouskey. The present Presbyterian church dates from 1887."

   The "Old Church of Ireland site at Rouskey" was an ancient burial ground for residents of Carnteel and Aghaloo parishes long before the area's different denominational churches and graveyards existed. Another early communal burial place was the Church of Ireland graveyard at Ballynasaggart (St. Matthew's), in an historic area extensively researched and described by the Reverend Brett Ingram in his book, "Ulsterheart: An Ancient Irish Habitation."

   Ballygawley's surviving Presbyterian registers begin in 1842, with births/baptisms and marriages, though no deaths. Presbyterians, including Ballygawley's ministers, didn't usually record deaths and burials as was commonly done by Church of Ireland clergymen. However, Ballygawley Presbyterian congregation deaths were recorded for several decades beginning in the 1870s. The deaths and burials of congregation members were carefully recorded, with burial places including: "Here" (Ballygawley, the predominant location) - "B'saggart" (Ballynasaggart) - "Aghaloo" or "Augh." (the ancient Aghaloo burial site at Rooskey) - "A'cloy" (Aughnacloy). In many cases, individuals were being buried where their parents, grandparents and other early ancestors had been interred.

   In Ballygawley Presbyterian Church graveyard today, there are elaborate older headstones as well as brightly-lettered new grave markers. We also see many family burial plots with only curbing and a surname. These are older original burial sites where multiple interments continued for generations. The patches of grass or gravel contain the remains of the congregation's earliest members, though we may not know specific names and dates. With later 19th century burials, we can search civil death registrations, family documents, probate calendars, newspaper notices and other records to try to identify what family members might be buried in unmarked plots. "Finding" a grave isn't just photographing a tombstone; it's a record of a person's life and death. The Findagrave web site is a valuable way to remember, preserve and appreciate the lives of these individuals.