Today is Election Day and I am off from work, and a couple of days ago I suggested to my wife that we take a ride and get some lunch, then come home. We could make a day of it. She readily agreed -and it was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the high 60's. I prepared for the trip by making phone calls to the cemeteries to make sure I knew where the plots were located. That done, with my iPad for pictures and iPhone for Siri and directions, we were off.
First stop - Calvary Cemetery and the grave of my Great great grandparents, Peter and Catherine McConville as well as their son, Peter.
According to Wikipedia:
Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Queens,New York City, New York, United States. With about 3 million burials,[1] it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States; it is also one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States.[2] It is owned by theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and managed by the Trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The first Calvary Cemetery burial in occurred on July 31, 1848. The name of the deceased was Esther Ennis, having reportedly “died of a broken heart.” By 1852 there were 50 burials a day, half of them poor Irish under seven years of age.
So here amongst the three million burials lie my McConville ancestors, and I found their headstone with relative ease:
Yup, right there in section 4B, Range 30, Plot D, Grave 6. Now Peter and Catherine had four children: Edward (my great grandfather), John, Peter (who was buried here in 1948), and Mary Emma. According to a 1900 census record, Catherine had 11 children and only these 4 survived to adulthood. Mary Emma married a man named Robert Milford and had several children. The Milford's final resting place was Part II of today's trip.
Next stop: Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, NY.
In order to find my McConville ancestors, I had gotten a map of the cemetery two years ago showing where the section that they are buried in is located. For Mt. Olivet, I received an email message telling me where to find the headstone. I was able to find it in about 10 minutes!!!
Mt. Olivet was established in 1850, and covers 71 acres. I did not find any Wikipedia entry for it, but I can tell you this. We were driving through city streets on Grand Ave, when I saw a traffic light and on the left side of the street was a clump of trees. When you get to the light, and turn left through the gates, and enter the cemetery, you almost immediately forget that you are in New York City. This is 71 acres of prime real estate, with no buildings. It is actually like walking in a park, very scenic. Although we found the headstone quickly, we walked around for another half hour just looking at unique headstones. This headstone was located in Lot 4161, Section F:
Here lies Mary Emma McConville Milford and her Husband Robert J Milford and some of their children: Mary Emma Barth and her husband Frederick W. Barth; Olive Milford Shields, and her daughter Elaine Marie Shields ; and Elizabeth Dawson and her husband William J Dawson. It appears that the last burial here is their son William M Dawson, who was buried 14 Feb 1981. So I may find some living cousins from this trip. I also think there is a story with Olive Shields and her daughter Elaine. I notice that there is no husband buried here, and I found Elaine listed in an index of deaths in New York. She was born in 1929, so she was only five years old when she died - less than a year after her mother, who was only 30 years old herself. I am gonna have to call Aunt Florence again.
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