Kim:
No, I’ve checked Find A Grave in the past, and I don’t think they have
much information on the big cemeteries in Chicago, except for those
famous who are buried there. I do plan to add my people to their
records, though.
Last fall some time, while I was researching a different Irish line in
my ancestry, I came across an individual I thought could be mine, and
copied the records I found. The birth year wasn’t identical, but it
seldom is. It was within a couple of years. He turned out not to be my
line, but another line, and in the process of doing the research, I’d
met some folks from the other line and had been made an honorary member
for having provided them with quite a bit of information on their line
that they hadn’t yet found themselves.
So every time I run across something for their line, which I usually do
because the two men have the exact same name and lived in the same
area, I send it on to them. They’ve even invited me to their reunion
this fall in Chicago. I wish I could make it!
In return for all of the things I found for them, one of them who lives
in Chicago and likes to visit cemeteries, volunteered to see if he
could find some of my people in one of the cemeteries and take photos
of any graves he found. I gave him a list of people, and he went to the
cemetery just recently.
It’s a huge cemetery in Chicago where just about every Roman Catholic
born between 1885 and maybe some time in the 1930s is buried -
something like 142,000 graves, and still growing. Find A Grave has just
over 5,000 of the burials listed on their site. I think the 1930’s
was when they opened another RC cemetery further south.
I already knew my Margaret’s son was buried at this particular
cemetery, from his death certificate and obituary. And the obituary of
the Margaret I thought might be mine indicated the same cemetery. The
obituary didn’t mention any children, though, so I wasn’t sure if she
belonged to my line.
They apparently have information kiosks on the cemetery grounds. All
you do is enter the name, it prints out a map of where the grave is
located in the cemetery, as well as where the actual grave is, along
with the lot and grave numbers. If you have more than one person in a
lot, you can then print out a lot report, which lists everyone buried
there. All from a kiosk, so the staff doesn’t have to be bothered. With
142,000 graves there, I’d imagine they got bothered quite a lot before
putting in the kiosk system. Too bad they don’t have an internet
connection for doing searches.
So, my hanai genealogy cousin stopped by and printed out some reports,
and sent them along to me, with some headstone photos for a different
line. I still had some questions, because the reports didn’t give death
or burial dates, so I emailed the main office of the cemetery asking
for those, and they kindly replied with the burial dates, which
confirmed that the records I’d found were for my Margaret.
A very large proportion of those I look far end up being in Chicago,
but there are a few elsewhere that I’ll try Find A Grave again, and see
if they come up with anything. : )
–
Susan
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Yea, it would be nice if such