BronxRoots-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: NYC Cem info & more
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 22:41:02 EST

Received this in todays Ancestry newsletter-looks interesting hope it helps
someone out there.

Regards,
Ellen



As the most used port of entry to the United States, New York City has been
home

to hundreds of millions of immigrants, some of whom stayed and many of whom

moved on to other destinations. Over the centuries, millions of people have

been buried in New York City, and because of the complexities of research in

this enormously populated area, it is essential to dig into the historical

background of the numerous possible burial locations in order to accurately

identify final the resting places of your ancestors. "Graveyard Shift" is the

first source of its kind, allowing researchers to identify possible sites, and

providing valuable contact information and alternate sources of information.

Below are a couple of sample entries from hundreds that are included in the

book:


____________________________________________________________________


CALVARY CEMETERY


CATEGORY: Roman Catholic

YEARS OF USE: 1848 to date

LOCATION: Bisected by the Long Island Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens

Expressway, Woodside, Queens

HISTORY: Owned and managed by the Archdiocese of New York, Calvary Cemetery
has

had more interments than any other cemetery in the United States. In the
early

1990s, there were nearly three million graves, a number greater than the
living

population of Queens. For many years, there were more burials at Calvary

Cemetery than in any other cemetery in the city.


In the mid-1800s, Calvary was the only cemetery where the "deserving poor"
could

be buried for free (excepting New York City's public cemeteries). These graves

were obtained only upon the recommendation of a clergyman.


During the Civil War, Calvary set aside four plots for the interment of
Catholic

soldiers whose remains were not otherwise provided for. New York City
erected a

soldiers' monument on the site in 1866.


The first section of the cemetery is known as First Calvary Cemetery, Calvary

Cemetery, and Old Calvary Cemetery. It includes the Alsop Family Burial
Ground,

the only known Protestant burial ground within a Roman Catholic Cemetery.
Poor

Irish immigrants from the tenements of lower Manhattan were among the first to

be buried in First Calvary. It is located on the west side of Laurel Hill

Boulevard, between the Long Island Expressway and Review Avenue.


By 1867, First Calvary Cemetery was full, and the trustees began to purchase

nearby farms for the creation of Second Calvary Cemetery. Second Calvary is on

the west side of 58th Street, between Queens Boulevard and the Brooklyn-Queens

Expressway. Land acquisition for this section ended in 1888.


Third Calvary Cemetery was established in 1879, on the west side of 58th
Street,

between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Long Island Expressway. Fourth

Calvary Cemetery was established in 1900, on the west side of 58th Street,

between the Long Island Expressway and 55th Avenue.


Individually, and together, Second, Third, and Fourth Calvary Cemeteries have

all been referred to as New Calvary Cemetery.


MAILING ADDRESS: Calvary Cemetery

49-02 Laurel Hill Boulevard

Flushing, New York 11377-7396

PHONE NUMBER: (718) 786-8000

RECORDS: Burial records are available for a fee. You must know the date of

death or burial, since Calvary's records are arranged by date. There are no

records for the years 1848 to 1852.


RESOURCES: Ardolina, Rosemary Muscarella. "Old Calvary Cemetery: New Yorkers

Carved in Stone." Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1996. (limited number of
gravestone

inscriptions)


____________________________________________________________________


HART ISLAND CEMETERY


CATEGORY: Public

YEARS OF USE: April 20, 1869 to date

LOCATION: Hart Island, east of City Island, Long Island Sound, Bronx

HISTORY: Louisa Van Slyke died in Charity Hospital without family of friends
to

claim her body. On 20 April 1869, she became the first person buried in Hart

Cemetery. One million others are buried with her. Today, Hart Island
Cemetery

is the largest potter's field in the United States.


Inmates from the prison on Riker's Island receive the dead, shipped to Hart

Island on a ferry run by the Department of Corrections. The deceased's name
and

identification number are both carved into the coffin. A packet with other

identifying information is attached to the coffin, and the deceased's name is

again marked upon it, in indelible ink.


Most of those buried here are indigent persons who arrive from public

institutions. Very few of them are Jewish. Several burial societies exist to

inter the remains of indigent Jews in private cemeteries.


The remains of all unidentified bodies are sent to Hart Island for interment

after being photographed at the morgue. John and Jane Does constitute
one-tenth

of all burials. Approximately one hundred bodies are identified by relatives
or

friends each year. A body can be disinterred for up to eight years after the

burial.


The cemetery is dotted with white markers, each denoting a mass burial of 150

bodies laid out in two rows, three coffins deep. None of the dead have
personal

grave markers, but there are two large monuments dedicated to all. A granite

cross, erected in 1902, is inscribed "He Calleth His Children by Name." A

thirty-foot memorial was erected in 1948. The word "PEACE" is inscribed on
one

side in faded gold letters.


An elaborate stone fence surrounds a sixteen-foot obelisk dedicated to the
Union

soldiers who died on Hart Island during the Civil War. The island was used as
a

training ground for fifty-thousand soldiers--those that died here died from

disease, not battle. These men were buried in a small cemetery on the island

before the public cemetery was established. Each soldier had his own grave
with

a stone giving his name, regiment, age, and date of death. Their remains were

exhumed in the twentieth century and reburied in national and private

cemeteries. Some were taken to the West Farms Presbyterian Churchyard in the

Bronx.


Over the years, various sections of the island were developed by private and

government entities. One spectator attempted to open an amusement park in
1925.

He constructed a dance hall, boardwalk, and eight boarding houses before New

York City purchased his share of the island, putting an end to the project.
The

carcasses of other development projects still dot the landscape: a rotting
jail,

a broken greenhouse, an empty Catholic Church, a crumbling street, and empty

Nike missile silos. The cemetery continues to spread across the island and

around these ruins as gravediggers clear the land for new burials.


Although Hart Island is not open to the public, a group affiliated with Saint

Benedict's Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx travels to the Island each May,
on

Ascension Thursday, to say prayers for the dead.


MAILING ADDRESS: c/o The Municipal Archives

31 Chambers Street

New York, New York 10007-1210

PHONE NUMBER: (212) 788-8582

RECORDS: Burial registers are turned over to the Municipal Archives when

disinterment is no longer possible.

RESOURCES: Hunt, Melinda and Joel Sternfeld, "Hart Island," 1998, Scalo,

Zurich-Berlin-New York, (history of cemetery, interviews with gravediggers,

extensive collection of photographs). Researchers can also view photos of the

cemetery on the New York City Web site located at:

http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doc/html/hart.html

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