Host Your Own Cemetery Web Show on GraveTV!
If you love cemeteries and want to share your passion with others, TheCemeteryClub.com is offering you a chance to host your very own web show on this very website.
For details, watch the video below then
click here.
Sneak Peek at Douglas Keister's New Book: 'Stories in Stone New York'
It's always big news in the taphophile community when Douglas Keister releases a new cemetery book. And while his new book "Stories in Stone New York: A Field Guide to New York City Area Cemeteries & Their Residents" won't be released until October, you can get a special peek at what's in store right here.
"Stories in Stone New York" is Keister's fifth cemetery book and follows his recent release "Forever L.A: A Field Guide To Los Angeles Area Cemeteries & Their Residents."
While you wait for your copy to ship out in a few months, enjoy these excerpts and photos that Doug Keister was kind enough to share with Epitaphs Magazine Online.
When genealogical researchers speak of “finding their ancestors,” it usually refers to the figurative act of finding references to them in historical records. But one can also literally find their ancestors, in their final resting places–-cemeteries.
Cemeteries comprise one of the most diverse record groups used in genealogical research. Headstones can provide specific data about birth and death, and provide clues as to marriages, family relationships, military service, religious beliefs, and others. Here are a few tips to using cemeteries to research your family history:
1. Find the grave. This is the simplest step, and the one that will open up the treasure chest of information that cemeteries can offer.
2. Photograph the headstone, if one is available. The headstone should at the very least, have the person’s name and date of death. Use this date as a clue to other records: death certificates, obituaries, church/funeral records. It may also contain any number of other details, as mentioned above.
3. Look at the stones nearby. Sometimes, family members will purchase adjacent or nearby lots in the local cemetery. It is also relatively common for parents to purchase cemetery lots for their children, who then inherit them upon the parents’ own deaths.
4. Visit the cemetery office. Find information on the specific lot. This can provide information such as the names of other family members. Who else was buried in the same lot or a lot owner by the same person?
5. Investigate the cemetery itself. When was the cemetery created? Was it a small family cemetery on private land? Trace the deeds back to the original owners; if your ancestor is buried in their backyard, he was probably kin.
6. If the cemetery is affiliated with a church, check the church records. Don’t stop at burial records either. Most people buried by churches are members of that church, or at least that particular denomination. Check for marriage and baptism records as well, and check for other church members with the same last name. These may be family members.
7. Remember the source. If you have the death certificate and an obituary, the headstone does not necessarily reflect an independent source. Remember, when someone dies, generally there is one person–-a spouse or a child, for example–-who handles all of the details. Funeral homes also may have ordered the headstone and printed the obituary based on information from the same source. If the informant has direct knowledge of the information he is providing, then you can probably count on its accuracy.
As an example of some of these principles, take a look at the headstone accompanying this column. This is the author’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Henry Hait. The grave is located in the Trinity Methodist Cemetery, in Coram, Suffolk Co., New York.
The inscription on the headstone above reads:
ELDER HENRY HAIT BORN Stamford, CT. October 2, 1779. DIED June 27, 1864. AGED 84 Yrs 8 Ms & 25 ds.
First, the headstone provides the date and place of birth, date of death, and age at death. Do the calculations yourself–-the age at death indeed reflects the dates of birth and death as provided. How do we follow up on this information? Start at the end. Without fail, there are more records created at a person’s death than at their birth.
The cemetery in which this grave stands is currently affiliated with Trinity Methodist Church in Coram, New York. You might assume that Henry attended this church, but in this case, you would be wrong. The surrounding graves are all dated much earlier than Henry’s. The Methodist Church was not built in its current location until 1858, so the cemetery must have pre-dated the church. Upon further research, one will discover that, up until 1847, the land adjoining the cemetery was home to a Baptist Church. No mention of Henry lies in the surviving records of that church, but you will learn that he was, in fact, a Primitive Baptist minister; hence the “Elder” inscribed before his name. Unfortunately, when you explore the beliefs of the Primitive Baptists, you will learn that they did not believe in infant baptism, so you are unlikely to locate any records for the birth/baptism of the children.
Having been buried in Coram, you might assume that he lived in Coram at some point. Unfortunately, Henry does not appear anywhere in Suffolk County in the 1860 federal census. In fact, this author has been unable to locate him anywhere in the 1860 census, despite years of searching. He seems to have been one of the select few who “fell through the cracks.” He does appear with his family in the 1850 federal census for Coram, however.
Next, you will want to confirm his date and place of birth. Connecticut began keeping birth records in the 17th century, at the town level, and these were all compiled, including those of Stamford, and published as “The Barbour Collection.” But no record for Henry Hait exists among those births. However, the will of one David Hait, probated in Stamford in 1810, mentions his grandson Henry, though not his father.
As you can see, just from the tombstone, you were able to establish several facts, and discover several leads for further research that will likely yield much-needed information.
And, in case you were wondering, Henry was born in Westchester Co., New York, which adjoins Stamford, to Aaron and Lorina Hait. This is why he does not appear in the Barbour Collection. Aaron died while Henry was a toddler, and Lorina later remarried, leaving Henry to be raised by his grandfather David, a Revolutionary War captain. Henry converted from the Episcopal religion of his forefathers to Primitive Baptism in his early adulthood, helped to establish a Baptist church in North Stamford, then became an itinerant preacher in Sullivan Co., New York. In 1848, a year after the Baptist church in Coram closed its doors, Elder Henry Hait, now nearly seventy years old, moved to Coram, probably to lead the remaining Baptist flock. After the death of his wife and a debilitating horse accident followed by a paralytic stroke, Henry moved to Orange Co., New York with his son. He died there, but his body was taken back to Coram to be buried in the old Baptist cemetery, next to his wife.
Nestled in the rolling landscape of Michigan’s Irish Hills (8743 US-12, Brooklyn, MI 49230) is a beautiful spot many people don’t even know exists. I am talking about St. Joseph Shrine, a fascinating and unique structure built into the side of a steep hill next to Iron Lake.
Most of the original Stations of the Cross, built between 1932 and 1936, are still standing. All of the original mosaic tiles still exist. Located at the site of an early religious settlement established in the late 1790s by Father Gabriel Richard, minister to the Potawatomi Indians. The church is a combination of the original fieldstone chapel, erected by Irish settlers in the mid-1840s, and a 1929 addition.
As part of the 1928 expansion, the shrine, inspired by the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, was added to the historic church and cemetery. In 1932 work began on the 14 outdoor Stations of the Cross, which depict scenes of the Via Dolorosa (the sorrowful way) that Jesus walked to Calvary.
Mexican artisans sculpted the wet cement to resemble the steps, and archways and pathways to resemble trees–an art form that can also be seen in the many bridges at McCourtie Park in Somerset, Michigan. Shells, mosaic tiles, and semi-precious stones are used in many of the stations as you traverse along the pathways.
Through the years, much damage has occurred, although the church is doing its best to rebuild and uphold what is still there. It is an inspiring and interesting site for anyone to explore, though unfortunately it’s not handicap accessible.
Along with the Shrine of the Hills, the church itself is a fascinating historical sight, as is the adjacent cemetery. St. Joseph was originally a missionary starting in the 1850s. Priests from Adrian, Clinton, Manchester, Tecumseh and Monroe all served the parish here until its first permanent priest arrived in 1954. The original church, which still stands, was also erected in 1854.
If you are interested in history, religion, cemeteries, artwork or Spanish architecture, I recommend a day trip to St. Joseph Shrine in Irish Hills, Michigan. You will not regret this truly unique experience.
Hidden amidst the grand art nouveau buildings and fashionable boutiques of Prague’s Josefov district is a “garden of the dead” - a dramatic landscape of 12,000 tilted tombstones engraved with Hebrew script jutting from grassy hillocks. The Old Jewish Cemetery or Beth Haim (House of Life) bears testimony to the rich and tragic history of Prague’s Jews.
Founded in the 1400s, the cemetery was actively used until 1787, when Emperor Joseph II decreed, for hygiene reasons, that no more burials were to take place within the residential areas of Prague. As in other European countries of that period, it was illegal for the Jews of Prague to reside or own property outside the boundaries of assigned ghettos. Prior to the 15th Century, they would bury their dead in a remote area of the city, what is now Vladislav Street. However, the Hussite revolution made it impossible to continue that practice so gardens were used within the ghetto for burial. Over the centuries, the community purchased then razed lots within the ghetto to form what is the present location of the Old Jewish Cemetery. Boundaries were enlarged whenever possible; however, due to the ghetto’s overcrowded conditions, the cemetery could only expand so much before other measures were taken to accommodate the needs of the community.
Talmudic law forbade the replacement of graves; therefore, layers of earth and new graves were placed over old ones. The older graves’ headstones were removed and lifted to the new ground level, thus resulting in the extremely dense clusters of headstones that now blanket the cemetery like a thick forest of stone in uneven mounds. As many as 12 layers of graves have been found in some areas. It is not known exactly how many graves are contained in the cemetery, but some estimate as high as 100,000. In 1903, to make way for road construction, the cemetery was unavoidably condensed even further; bodies were exhumed and transferred to the “Nefele” (miscarriage in Hebrew) hill, formerly reserved for stillborn infants.
The most distinguished figure buried in the cemetery is Rabbi Judah ben Loew (1512-1609), renowned scholar, philosopher, and religious leader of Prague's Jews during the Renaissance. Many colorful tales celebrate the great Rabbi Loew, the most well-known of which concerns the Golem. According to legend, Rabbi Loew, learned in the mysteries of Cabbalah, fashioned a life-sized clay figure and animated it by inserting a shem (a piece of parchment upon which was written the secret name of God) in its mouth.
Another story involves the Rabbi snatching a burial shroud from one of the dead children who dance on the cemetery's graves at midnight. The Rabbi returned the shroud only when the child revealed that the reason why so many Jewish children were dying from the plague was because of four people in the community who were living in sin. Once these sinners were punished, the plague stopped.
The cemetery also figures in a wistful tale of a chaplain, born a Jew but later converted to Catholicism. Nearing death, he returned to his original faith and, per his last request, was buried in the Jewish Cemetery, next to the Jewess he had once loved. However, no rest awaited him as every night at 11:00, his spirit rises from the grave to board a boat navigated by a skeleton and he is ferried across the Vlatva River. The chaplain's ghost then plays the organ all night in St. Vitus's Cathedral before returning to the cemetery at dawn.
Other fanciful stories surround the cemetery, but the most sobering are related to true events. During the Nazi occupation of Prague, the Old Jewish Cemetery was the only place in which Jews could take walks or their children could play. Next to the cemetery is the 400-year-old Pinkas Synagogue, upon whose walls are handwritten the names of the 77,297 Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust.
Sources: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague by the State Jewish Museum in Prague (1960) The Old Jewish Cemetery and the Klausen Synagogue by the State Jewish Museum (1989) Prague Jewish Cemeteries by Arno Parřík, Vlastimila Hamáčková, Dana Cabanová, and Petr Kliment Jewish Stories of Prague by V.V. Tomek The Fate of Jewish Prague by Jiří Všetečka and Jiří Kudĕla
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