Showing posts with label Cemeteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cemeteries. Show all posts

Monday, April 14, 2014

Catholic Cemeteries with Online Burial Databases in the US

Roman Catholic Cemeteries with Burial Databases
Among the many items listed at the Online Death Indexes website you can find links for Catholic Cemeteries with burial searches in the following places...

Arizona: Diocese of Phoenix Cemeteries
California: Orange County Catholic Cemeteries, and Holy Cross Cemetery in San Mateo County
Colorado: Diocese of Colorado Springs - Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery Burials (listed under Elbert County)
Delaware: Diocese of Wilmington (encompasses all of Delaware and 9 counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland (listed under New Castle County, Delaware)
Florida: Palm Beach
Georgia: Archdiocese of Atlanta Cemeteries (Fulton County)
Illinois: Jackson County: St. Andrew Catholic Cemetery Burials
Indina Allen County: Fort Wayne Catholic Cemetery
Maine: Portland (Cumberland County)
Maryland: St. Joseph's and St. Mary's Catholic Cemeteries; New Cathedral Catholic Cemetery (all 3 in Baltimore)
Michigan: Mt. Elliott Cemetery Association (Detroit area)
Minnesota: Saint Vincent de Paul Cemetery Burials (Hennepin County)
Missouri: Archdiocese of St. Louis; and Catholic Cemetery Burials in Iron, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve Counties
Nebraska: Omaha (Douglas County)
New Jersey: Newark (Essex County)
New Mexico: Archdiocese of Santa Fe Catholic Cemetery Association Burials Database
New York:
  • Brooklyn And Queens: Diocese of Brooklyn Catholic Cemeteries (includes burial indexes for cemeteries in Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County)
  • Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, Ascension Garden in Henrietta, and St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Clarkson (listed under Monroe County)
North Dakota: Catholic Diocese of Bismarck: St. Mary's Cemetery Burials (listed under Burleigh County)
Ohio: Cincinnati (Hamilton County), Cleveland Diocese (Cuyahoga County) and Dayton (Montgomery County)
Oklahoma Resurrection Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma City
Oregon: Eugene and Portland (listed under Multnomah County)
Pennsylvania: Diocese of Pittsburgh Catholic Cemeteries (listed under Allegheny County)
Rhode Island: Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence
Tennessee: Calvary Cemetery Burials - in Nashville (listed under Davidson County)
Texas: Catholic Cemeteries of the Victoria Diocese (several counties in South Texas; listed under Victoria County)
Washington: Archdiocese of Seattle (King County)
Wisconsin: Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Wyoming: Mount Olivet Cemetery in Cheyenne (Laramie County)

You can find links to the above databases at the Online Death Indexes website:

Online Death Records Indexes, Obituay Indexes and Cemetery Burials

Click on the appropriate state, then scroll down to the city or county as listed above.

Even if a Catholic Cemetery doesn't have an online burials search you may still be able to contact the cemetery for information (sometimes a fee may be required). Try using Google to see if there is a website for the Catholic cemetery, diocese or archdiocese you need.

This article was updated on 18 January 2023

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Live Long and Prosper - How Symbols Influence Pop Culture

Cohen (Kohen) symbol - the Priestly BlessingThe Cemetery Symbols Blog has a recent post about the Jewish symbol of the Priestly Blessing, which can sometimes be found on tombstones of people with a priestly lineage. The Hebrew word for priest is Kohen (or Cohen). As a child, actor Leonard Nimoy saw the Priestly Blessing in a synagogue and later adapted it as the Vulcan hand greeting in the Star Trek television series. For more see: Kohanim or Cohanim Hands - Priestly Blessing at the cemetery symbols blog.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

New Website about Cemeteries and their Symbols

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates...

Have you ever wandered through an old cemetery and stumbled upon a mysterious symbol on a headstone? And wondered what it meant? If so you might enjoy visiting a new website I've been working on about cemeteries and their symbols. I designed it for genealogy sleuths, taphophiles and goths. (Feel free to look up "taphophile" and "goth" in Google.) You'll find the website filled with Freemasons, Templar Knights, Shriners, Rebekahs, Odd Fellows, Woodmen and lots of brooding angels...

Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?

I tend to visit cemeteries on cloudy days. I like the light - it's better for taking photographs - no shadows. And gray stones against the gray sky just look right to me. But Morrissey prefers the dreaded sunny day...

The lyrics quoted are from "Cemetry Gates" by the Smiths, written by Morrissey and Marr. If you recognized the lyrics you probably didn't need to look up "taphophile" and "goth." :)

Monday, August 07, 2006

A Book About Cemetery Symbolism

Book Review: Stories in Stone - A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister

Like many genealogists, I enjoy spending a lazy afternoon wandering through a cemetery, taking pictures or just looking around. I like the sense of meditative calm that you only get in cemeteries. And each grave marker has an interesting story carved in granite or marble or some other stone. Sometimes I come across a mysterious symbol engraved in a headstone or decorating a grave. These symbols almost seem like clues to add to the minimal information usually found on most gravestones. Two years ago author and photographer Douglas Keister published a book that discusses the meaning behind many of these cemetery symbols. He called it Stories in Stone.

Stories in Stone - A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas KeisterThe book is illustrated with numerous photographs and includes an alphabetical listing of acronyms and abbreviations of societies, clubs and organizations. A chapter on mortality symbols discusses everything from the skull and crossbones to the grim reaper. There are chapters on symbols of flora (plants), fauna (animals), and religions (Christian, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese), including descriptions of different kinds of crosses. Angels, who seem to gather in cemeteries everywhere, get their own section called "Heavenly Messengers." I was especially impressed with the chapter devoted to secret societies and organizations such as the Masons/Freemasons, Woodmen of the World, Knights Templar, Knights of Columbus, Odd Fellows, Grand Army of the Republic, Shriners, and others. Each of these is illustrated with an example photograph.

The book is not only useful for helping to decipher some of the symbolism found in cemeteries, it's also just fun to look through. Recommended for genealogy sleuths and cemetery lovers. You might try your favorite local bookstore or a library.

For more information about Cemeteries and their symbolism see: Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Veterans Affairs Adds to its Cemeteries Database

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has added 1.9 million burial listings to its cemeteries database. These are for military veterans buried in mostly private cemeteries, who have VA grave markers. The database already included more than 3 million graves in national cemeteries, bringing the total in the database to about 5 million graves.

VA has also added maps to show many of the grave locations for those buried in VA national cemeteries, in state veterans cemeteries, and Arlington National Cemetery. The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to add approximately 1,000 new records to the database every day.

The database is online at... Veterans Affairs Military Burials Locator

For more helpful military databases see... Online Military Indexes, Records and Rosters of Soldiers