Introduction

Since the dig at St Patrick's began, folks have been asking what will happen next.  That is all up to us.  Firstly, thanks have to go out to Dr. Frank Talty at UMass Lowell (francis_talty@uml.edu).  If you have a moment drop him a line and tell him what you think and your thoughts about a future dig..  As the area was being covered over, the team felt adamant that they had to return.  The hope was they would find 1 artifact.  They found 1352!  And that was in 2 small pits.  There's lots of history in that churchyard.  If you're thinking of going in with a steam shovel, don't!  One thing I learned was the value of the science of archaeology.  They learned as much from the days where they found nothing but soil strata, than from the artifacts.

Ok, here's what's up.  I've got a few meetings set up for this coming week.  There is a little worm inside my head.  It's telling me it is time (past time) to create an online history of Irish Lowell.  This could include histories of the churches, schools, organizations, and the cemeteries (St. Pat's, St Mary's, & St. Peters.  Ah, didn't know there was a St. Peter's did you?).  We could also include a genealogy how-to page and some resources folks can check out.  Photos.  We've got dozens.  Maybe a volunteer can scan the photos and we can archive them for future generations.  Bibliography of sources already in print.  There are lots of idea.

As Dr. Donnelly, one of the Belfast guys said, "There's no point to any of this unless people are interested."  So if enough of you think it's worth it, add to the blog.  If you've got an area of expertise (writing, editing, scanning, history, photography, information technology, research, filing............) let me know.  If you think it's just a great idea, that's great too.  We will need words of encouragement.

Right now there are temporary plans during St. Patrick's Irish Cultural Week for an exhibit on the artifacts found and a brief chat about how it came about.  Oh, I'll give you another tidbit, no one else knows.  There is a professional researcher looking at all the cemetery data that few people know about.  She's possibly making a visitation and doing some analysis for us.  Anyone looking for a PhD dissertation?  I've already done the research for you.

Please, pass this blog along to anyone interested.  And ask them to do the same.  My goal is to have more bloggers on this site than Lady Gaga.