Robert Sproule, son of Robert of Kirlish and Jane Greer – who he is NOT!

Find a Grave and I have a stormy relationship. In Ancestry we often find incorrect information and some, frankly, ludicrous details. We are used to this, accustomed to it, and so we always check everything we see on Ancestry. But not so on the Find a Grave website – for on this site, we have FACTS! There are gravestones, there are cemetery records to back up these facts.

We also know that it is real researchers who put up all of these precious records, volunteers from all over the world who do the hard work to gather these facts. They visit cemeteries, or they transcribe pages and pages of cemetery records. We know, and greatly appreciate, the hard work that goes into each and every one of these precious nuggets that is gathered and provided for us on  Find a Grave. 

We do not expect Find a Grave to simply reproduce Ancestry myths. But  Find a Grave has been infiltrated, and in among those carefully gathered facts, in amonst all that hard work, are purveyors of Ancestry myths.  I admit that this brings out the worst in me! Here is a typical example.

This is the grave entry for Robert Sproule Jr., son of Robert Sproule of Kirlish in  Find a Grave.   Find a Grave tells us that Robert Jr. is in Grave 108 of Lysky Cemetery near Omagh. And remember, people believe this:

 Find a Grave entry for Robert Sproule Jr. in Grave 108
Lysky Cemetery, 1 Jan 2022

At the bottom of this record is the inscription from Grave 108, that lists all of the members of the family of Robert Sproule of Kirlish and his wife Jane Greer who are in this grave[1].  This stone is real, and it lies flat in the grounds of Lysky Church.

 Find a Grave tells us that  Robert Sproule Jr., son of Robert of Kirlish and Jane Greer, is in this grave and that he died on 5 Jan 1878 aged 46-47. 

We can also see on the gravestone record that Jane, relic of the late Robert Sproule of Kirlish, also died on 5 Jan 1878.  Both mother, Jane, and son, Robert Sproule Jr., died on the same day, 5 Jan 1878.

BUT and it's a really big BUT. There is only one person recorded on that inscription as having died on 5 Jan 1878 - not two. There is only Jane, no Robert. 

If we look even more carefully, there is only one Robert recorded on the gravestone as being buried in this grave, not two. There is a daughter of son Robert named, she is Ann Alice Sproule who died in 1870, but no son Robert's death is recorded on this gravestone at all.

Maybe Robert Jr. is in a written record - not on the stone. Perhaps a volunteer found a church record and they knew that Robert was in that grave. Perhaps the  Find a Grave person had that information.

So we look on Irishgenealogy.ie, the Irish Government site, for the deaths of Jane Sproule of Kirlish and her son Robert. We find the record of Jane’s death;

Record of the death of Jane Sproule of Kirlish from Irishgenealogy.ie

Jane, wife of Robert Sproule of Kirlish, did indeed die on 5 Jan 1878 in Kirlish, aged 79.

Is there a record in Irishgenealogy.ie of her son Robert Sproule Jr.s death on the same day, aged 46-47? 

No.

Maybe he lived somewhere else. Let's look at other Robert Sproules who died in January 1878. Are there any?

No.

Is there a record of ANY Robert Sproule dying at ANY time in the year 1878?

Yes, there is one – he was 16 years old and the poor lad lived in Killen.

Maybe we should expand the search. We'll look at the years 1877 to 1879. Here we find 4 Robert Sproules who died in those years. Could any of these be our Robert, son of Robert of Kirlish, who was 46-47?

None of them, not one single Robert Sproule, was aged anywhere close to 46-47.

Now this is really astounding! Ancestry myths are usually the wrong person on the wrong tree. So this Robert Sproule would normally have been a real person placed incorrectly with the family of Kirlish. But this Robert Sproule didn't  exist. Somebody made him up. This  Find a Grave record is pure fiction.

I have no idea who created this fiction, and frankly I don’t care. But I do know the lady who put it up on  Find a Grave , Donna Lee Wall, and she has steadfastly refused to remove it.

Source given for  Find a Grave Entry of
Robert Sproule Jr. 3 Jan 2022

So now having got that off my chest, let’s look for the real family of Robert Sproule of Kirlish and Jane Greer. First question, did they have a son called Robert at all? Was there ever a Robert Sproule Jr of Kirlish?

Well, yes. Robert of Kirlish did indeed have a son called Robert, and I think I've found him. 

I actually found him years ago, but even I was put off the scent by the myths of the purveyor of Ancestry myths on  Find a Grave!

References:

Robert Sproule Jr.  Find a Grave entry 

Robert Sproule of Kirlish is recorded as having married a lady called Greer in page 1 of J.J. Elder's Sproule family tree. This gravestone gives her first name as Jane.