Erie Cemetery

Last week I received a client request to visit the Erie Cemetery and photograph some grave markers. At the time, we were in the midst of an unusually balmy January (think global warming) and a stroll through one of my favorite cemeteries sounded like a great way to enjoy the outdoors. Next thing I knew, we had several straight days of lake effect snow and blizzard conditions, not to mention highs never getting above the teens for what seemed like forever. Suddenly an excursion to the cemetery lost its appeal.

Fortunately, my client appreciates the hazards of Northwest Pennsylvania winters, and is happy to wait until conditions are a bit more clement. In the meantime though, I’m going to suggest to him that, if he hasn’t all ready done so, he might have good luck checking the Erie Cemetery Association’s online burial database.

I use the database as a finding tool for burials at the three cemeteries which make up the association: the Erie Cemetery at 2116 Chestnut Street, Erie; Laurel Hill Cemetery at 4325 Love Road, Erie; and Wintergreen Gorge Cemetery at 2601 Norcross Road, Erie.

Finding the database takes a bit of work – it is not one of the navigational links at the top left of the home page. Scroll down, and you’ll see a “Search for your Family Genealogy” click here button, or scroll to the very bottom of the home page and follow the “search our genealogy database” link. Following either link brings you to the search page.

Last name is required, but all other search fields, such as dates of birth and death, and lot and section, are optional. You have the choice of filtering cemeteries or searching all of them at once.

A search of Nicholson at all cemeteries produced a long list. Here is the beginning of it:

Cemetery
Name
Lot No
Section
Location
Birth Date
Death Date
Wintergreen Cemetery
Nicholson Adam W.
678
10
gr 2
03/25/1913
05/30/1999
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Alex
1
H
10/21/1878
Wintergreen Cemetery
Nicholson Andrew James
250
2
gr J
06/27/1895
02/08/1975
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Anna
261
20
SE cor Hd E
03/19/1846
06/22/1923
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Nicholson Anna B.
98
16
gr 1
03/18/1917
10/21/1998
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Catherine
1
H
02/27/1864
10/23/1885
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson ch of D. W.
Row R
B sgl
gr 21
03/30/1886
03/30/1886
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Nicholson Daisy D.
600
8
gr 1
09/21/1889
11/27/1981
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Donald W.
261
20
NE cor Hd E
10/14/1844
03/19/1909
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Dr. John
17
H
09/02/1830
08/01/1862
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Eliza Jane
17
H
4.5′ W of NE cor Hd N
03/23/1894
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Emma S.
16
B
10′ SW of NE cor of S 1/2, 4′ NW of edge of lot
07/23/1855
02/14/1933
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson George
1
H
Reint fr Presbyterian Grounds 3/25/1852
01/24/1834
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson George C. (or E.)
17
H
6′ E of SW cor Hd S
04/26/1834
09/25/1894
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson George Sheldon
1
H
03/29/1854
10/26/1856
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Henry C.
1
H
Inner circle, E line, Hd E
11/25/1903
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Jamie Lee
59
33
GR A
11/10/1969
04/11/2007
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Jane
1
H
Reint fr Assoc Reform Grounds 6/22/1854
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Jane
1
H
Reint fr Presbyterian Grounds 3/27/1852
12/07/1847
Erie Cemetery
Nicholson Jane
1
H
Inner crcl abt 4.5′ W of Alex’s stone, Hd SW
01/13/1899

The website also provides a map of lots and sections, which makes locating the graves easier, as these are large cemeteries. I’d also recommend checking with the cemetery office to see the original records.

Who Will You Be Looking For First In The 1940 Census?

The 1940 census is the first my Dad was included in. He was born in a house on the street my parents still live on,  in the house next door to the one in which I grew up. The city of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was a town in 1940 with a population of 22,071 (Thanks to Joel Weintraub for that information!), and on April 2, 2012, my plan is to pour myself a cup (or three) of coffee and scroll through page after page of Attleboro’s census returns until I find him. Thanks to Steve Morse’s Unified 1940 Census ED Finder, I already know which enumeration districts to check first. I grew up hearing stories of the neighbors, so I’ll be looking for them as well. And cousins over on Read Street, and Thurber Ave.

The great aunts in nearby Pawtucket, Rhode Island, will be a bit harder to find, although knowing their address will help once I find the right enumeration district. It’s locating my elusive Great Grandfather Joseph that will be the challenge, and (ever the optimist) the thrill… By 1940, he’d already, quite mysteriously, abandoned his family and left for parts unknown. It would be his last census, as two years later he passed away and was interred in what would later become the family burial plot. While others in the family knew of his whereabouts and activities in the last decade of his life, they took that knowledge to their graves, alongside him in the family plot. Realistically, there’s little chance of locating Joseph until an online index becomes available, but I’ll still be keeping an eye out as I scroll through images in the early days of the census’s release 🙂

Who will you be looking for first?

Oldest Surviving Marriage Record at Erie County Courthouse…

…is older than you might think.

County courts in Pennsylvania began recording marriages in October 1885, and the earliest entry in the index of Marriage Book 1 is dated 1 October 1885. However, that is not the oldest marriage in the courthouse’s files. Marriage Books 1—135, covering the period of 1 October 1885 through 25 May 1951, have been microfilmed and those microfilms have been digitized.

The courthouse’s database of digitized images  of the marriage book microfilms take viewers to what the database considers the first record of roll 1—a marriage which took place on 1 October 1885; however, if one manually scrolls back to the very beginning of that roll, there is a second record designated #1—a marriage between Koscinsko Bassett and Fanny Bromley, which took place at Concord Station on 17 February 1861. The image is of a loose sheet, which the filmers may have found tucked inside one of the registers and opted to place it at the start of the roll, before the records in the index.This lone surviving record, from the very brief period in the 1860s when record keeping was mandated, bears no resemblance to the record of the 1880s. It is in the form of a letter:

 

New Access to PA Birth & Death Records

Great news for Pennsylvania researchers! Effective February 15, 2012, PA birth records older than 105 years and death records older than 50 years, are available for viewing at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. The recording of births and deaths has only been mandated in PA since 1906, so this year’s accessible records include births which took place in 1906 and deaths 1906–1961.

Researchers can obtain an uncertified copy of a birth or death for $3.00, at PA Dept. of Health’s website at http://www.health.state.pa.us/  To find the PA State File No. needed to locate a birth or death, see instructions here:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/public_records/20686