I Prowl Cemeteries
A Mystery in Three Parts
(Not a Whodunit, but two Who-are-theys and one Where-is-he)
I prowl cemeteries.
I’m neither a vampire nor a zombie. I’m that third creature of current popular culture: an amateur genealogist. And as any such person knows, cemeteries can yield a wealth of information, especially if, like mine, your interest in genealogy came late enough in life that there are no longer people around who can answer your questions.
Part I: The Mystery of the Italian Relatives
I am lucky enough to have one ancestor with a unique surname. My father’s mother’s father, Gregorio, was the first Damaturco, and his granddaughter, Josephine, was the last -- which means that every Damaturco who ever lived is somehow related to me.
So when I searched the New York State newspaper archives and found an obituary for Gregory Damaturco, I knew I’d found my great-grandfather.
And it gave me two valuable pieces of information: the exact date of death, and the last sentence: “Interment family plot Calvary Cemetery.”
Now, if you know the cemetery and date of death, it’s possible to pinpoint the gravesite with a call to the cemetery; a helpful clerk in Calvary’s office gave me the information I needed (please note – providing a grave location at no charge is often a courtesy. Please don’t abuse this by asking for several at once, unless you are prepared to pay a research fee.) Once there, it didn’t take me long to find the stone.
But here was a mystery. The right side was clear enough; there was Great Grandpa Gregorio with his Americanized first name and his wife, my Great Grandmother Josephine. But who were these other people? Anna Palladino; that was my great-aunt, I knew from the obituary. But the Duartes? The Coiras? Who were they, and how were they related to each other and to me? I tried to puzzle it out, but soon gave it up as hopeless.
A few months later I did a random Google search for Damaturco and came across a personal family history site (since taken down) in which all three names – Damaturco, Coira, and Duarte – appeared.
I immediately contacted the person who’d put up the site (who turned out to be my second cousin twice removed). And he said, sure, he could identify all those names on the headstone; in fact the name at the very bottom happened to be his grandma, who was living with him and his dad out in the Midwest. If there was anything he didn’t know, he could just ask her.
And with that, every name on that complicated and confusing headstone fell into place and my family tree had several more leaves.
And here are some of those leaves (just to put some faces to names): here’s Nunzio and his wife Annie, and that’s Nettie behind them on the right. (The young man is Nunzio’s son, Mickey, by a previous marriage. He’s buried elsewhere.)
Part II: Looking For Mr. Smith
While it’s genealogical joy to have ancestors with a rare surname, it can be pretty daunting when your forebears are named Smith. Still, the success I had with Gregorio inspired me to try something similar with Henry Smith, my husband’s grandfather, who, coincidentally, had also been buried at Calvary. My husband had never been to his grave, but he had an old holy card from the funeral home with the exact date of death, and I figured it would be simple enough to find his headstone, just as I had done with my great-grandfather.
Except… the cemetery had no record of anyone named Smith who had died that day. Plenty of Smiths, yes; plenty of Henry Smiths. But not a one who had passed away on February 13, 1947. I needed a different approach.
The funeral home listed on the bottom of the 60-plus-year-old card had moved, but it was still doing business in Queens.
Could they possibly still have their records from 1947? I wrote to them, enclosing a copy of the card (I put in a self-addressed stamped envelope too. I was asking for a big favor; why not be considerate and make it as easy as possible for them?). A few weeks later came a scrawled note with the exact location of the burial site. I called the cemetery office again, this time with the location rather than the name, and was able to determine that in this case, Henry was the only occupant of the grave – which was a little disappointing. The next time we were at Calvary we sought him out and were also a bit disappointed to find there was no headstone, but that was OK... the mystery of where he was buried had been solved.
But I never did find out why they hadn’t been able to find him by name.
Part III: An Abundance of Millers
An online search at the Italian Genealogical Group’s site helped me find a death certificate for Eleanor Sarah Wilson (my husband’s first cousin twice removed) indicating that she had been laid to rest at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, also in Queens. A call to the office gave me the gravesite, but when I asked who else might have been buried there, the office clerk balked. She was kind enough to give me a couple of names but said there were ten more people, and there would be a charge for that information. My check was on its way the next day, and pretty soon I had a list of thirteen interments in one plot: Wilsons and Millers and Smiths, Rittereisers and Ganslers and Furnisses, with their dates and places of death. I think it was money well spent, since it added even more leaves to my tree! This particular mystery is in the process of being solved; I’m still figuring out who everyone is.
And there you have it, my genealogy mystery in partes tres.
Are you interested in doing some sleuthing on your own family? Here are some sources I’ve found useful:
The New York newspaper archive where I found my great-grandfather’s obituary is at www.fultonhistory.com. It’s a wonderful site if you have ancestors from New York State. Literally millions of articles from hundreds of New York State newspapers, spanning over a century, have been scanned into a free, searchable database. I especially like using the powerful Boolean search mode. Read the “FAQ HELP INDEX” section to get the most out of this site, and I would recommend that you stick with the newspaper searching on the left side of the page; the chat on the right side isn’t too useful.
I found Eleanor Sarah Wilson’s death certificate information at italiangen.org. This is a free site from the Italian Genealogical Group – but it’s not just for Italians (it is, however, just for New York City denizens). Click on the “Databases – Vital Records” link and start searching New York City vital records from (depending on which kind of vital record you’re looking for) 1862 to 1948. Your ancestor’s record of birth, death, or marriage will include an exact date, the certificate number, and which New York City county the event took place in. There are some records from Nassau and Suffolk counties, too. At the bottom of the search page is a link to the New York City Department of Records, so you can order the original certificates online for about $15. Please note: the first link (www.cityclerknyc.com...) seems to no longer be valid; use the second link (the one that starts with www.nyc.gov...) instead. Or if you know the person’s birth, death, or marriage date you can bypass the Italian Genealogical Group altogether and go straight to the New York City vital records archives. Be aware that whether you go through italiangen.org or NYC, there will be a charge for these records.
If you’d love to trek through cemeteries like I did but find your family members’ graves are too far away or inconvenient to visit, here’s another free site: Find A Grave. Look on the right side of the page, where you can search for over 73,000,000 grave records. Many have photos attached. And here is the best thing about this site: if you are a member (membership is free), and you have the exact gravesite (which, remember, you can get if you provide the cemetery office with a name and a date of death), you can request a photo of the headstone. And if that headstone, like my great grandparents’, happens to include several names and dates that are new to you… I wish you all the best solving your own family history mystery!
(Not a Whodunit, but two Who-are-theys and one Where-is-he)
I prowl cemeteries.
I’m neither a vampire nor a zombie. I’m that third creature of current popular culture: an amateur genealogist. And as any such person knows, cemeteries can yield a wealth of information, especially if, like mine, your interest in genealogy came late enough in life that there are no longer people around who can answer your questions.
Part I: The Mystery of the Italian Relatives
I am lucky enough to have one ancestor with a unique surname. My father’s mother’s father, Gregorio, was the first Damaturco, and his granddaughter, Josephine, was the last -- which means that every Damaturco who ever lived is somehow related to me.
So when I searched the New York State newspaper archives and found an obituary for Gregory Damaturco, I knew I’d found my great-grandfather.
And it gave me two valuable pieces of information: the exact date of death, and the last sentence: “Interment family plot Calvary Cemetery.”
Now, if you know the cemetery and date of death, it’s possible to pinpoint the gravesite with a call to the cemetery; a helpful clerk in Calvary’s office gave me the information I needed (please note – providing a grave location at no charge is often a courtesy. Please don’t abuse this by asking for several at once, unless you are prepared to pay a research fee.) Once there, it didn’t take me long to find the stone.
But here was a mystery. The right side was clear enough; there was Great Grandpa Gregorio with his Americanized first name and his wife, my Great Grandmother Josephine. But who were these other people? Anna Palladino; that was my great-aunt, I knew from the obituary. But the Duartes? The Coiras? Who were they, and how were they related to each other and to me? I tried to puzzle it out, but soon gave it up as hopeless.
A few months later I did a random Google search for Damaturco and came across a personal family history site (since taken down) in which all three names – Damaturco, Coira, and Duarte – appeared.
I immediately contacted the person who’d put up the site (who turned out to be my second cousin twice removed). And he said, sure, he could identify all those names on the headstone; in fact the name at the very bottom happened to be his grandma, who was living with him and his dad out in the Midwest. If there was anything he didn’t know, he could just ask her.
And with that, every name on that complicated and confusing headstone fell into place and my family tree had several more leaves.
And here are some of those leaves (just to put some faces to names): here’s Nunzio and his wife Annie, and that’s Nettie behind them on the right. (The young man is Nunzio’s son, Mickey, by a previous marriage. He’s buried elsewhere.)
Part II: Looking For Mr. Smith
While it’s genealogical joy to have ancestors with a rare surname, it can be pretty daunting when your forebears are named Smith. Still, the success I had with Gregorio inspired me to try something similar with Henry Smith, my husband’s grandfather, who, coincidentally, had also been buried at Calvary. My husband had never been to his grave, but he had an old holy card from the funeral home with the exact date of death, and I figured it would be simple enough to find his headstone, just as I had done with my great-grandfather.
Except… the cemetery had no record of anyone named Smith who had died that day. Plenty of Smiths, yes; plenty of Henry Smiths. But not a one who had passed away on February 13, 1947. I needed a different approach.
The funeral home listed on the bottom of the 60-plus-year-old card had moved, but it was still doing business in Queens.
Could they possibly still have their records from 1947? I wrote to them, enclosing a copy of the card (I put in a self-addressed stamped envelope too. I was asking for a big favor; why not be considerate and make it as easy as possible for them?). A few weeks later came a scrawled note with the exact location of the burial site. I called the cemetery office again, this time with the location rather than the name, and was able to determine that in this case, Henry was the only occupant of the grave – which was a little disappointing. The next time we were at Calvary we sought him out and were also a bit disappointed to find there was no headstone, but that was OK... the mystery of where he was buried had been solved.
But I never did find out why they hadn’t been able to find him by name.
Part III: An Abundance of Millers
An online search at the Italian Genealogical Group’s site helped me find a death certificate for Eleanor Sarah Wilson (my husband’s first cousin twice removed) indicating that she had been laid to rest at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, also in Queens. A call to the office gave me the gravesite, but when I asked who else might have been buried there, the office clerk balked. She was kind enough to give me a couple of names but said there were ten more people, and there would be a charge for that information. My check was on its way the next day, and pretty soon I had a list of thirteen interments in one plot: Wilsons and Millers and Smiths, Rittereisers and Ganslers and Furnisses, with their dates and places of death. I think it was money well spent, since it added even more leaves to my tree! This particular mystery is in the process of being solved; I’m still figuring out who everyone is.
And there you have it, my genealogy mystery in partes tres.
Are you interested in doing some sleuthing on your own family? Here are some sources I’ve found useful:
The New York newspaper archive where I found my great-grandfather’s obituary is at www.fultonhistory.com. It’s a wonderful site if you have ancestors from New York State. Literally millions of articles from hundreds of New York State newspapers, spanning over a century, have been scanned into a free, searchable database. I especially like using the powerful Boolean search mode. Read the “FAQ HELP INDEX” section to get the most out of this site, and I would recommend that you stick with the newspaper searching on the left side of the page; the chat on the right side isn’t too useful.
I found Eleanor Sarah Wilson’s death certificate information at italiangen.org. This is a free site from the Italian Genealogical Group – but it’s not just for Italians (it is, however, just for New York City denizens). Click on the “Databases – Vital Records” link and start searching New York City vital records from (depending on which kind of vital record you’re looking for) 1862 to 1948. Your ancestor’s record of birth, death, or marriage will include an exact date, the certificate number, and which New York City county the event took place in. There are some records from Nassau and Suffolk counties, too. At the bottom of the search page is a link to the New York City Department of Records, so you can order the original certificates online for about $15. Please note: the first link (www.cityclerknyc.com...) seems to no longer be valid; use the second link (the one that starts with www.nyc.gov...) instead. Or if you know the person’s birth, death, or marriage date you can bypass the Italian Genealogical Group altogether and go straight to the New York City vital records archives. Be aware that whether you go through italiangen.org or NYC, there will be a charge for these records.
If you’d love to trek through cemeteries like I did but find your family members’ graves are too far away or inconvenient to visit, here’s another free site: Find A Grave. Look on the right side of the page, where you can search for over 73,000,000 grave records. Many have photos attached. And here is the best thing about this site: if you are a member (membership is free), and you have the exact gravesite (which, remember, you can get if you provide the cemetery office with a name and a date of death), you can request a photo of the headstone. And if that headstone, like my great grandparents’, happens to include several names and dates that are new to you… I wish you all the best solving your own family history mystery!
- Barbara S.
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