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:

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.

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