This Ground Blessed by Holy Ritual and Tender Prayer is Sacred Ground.
All Souls Cemetery, Germantown, Maryland (Archdiocese of Washington, DC)
Catholic cemeteries in any given location generally are owned or controlled by the diocese or archdiocese for that area. The good news is that all of the major dioceses and some not-so-major ones have web pages devoted to their Catholic cemeteries. But these websites vary in terms of the genealogical information one will find there. Most will at least include a note about the diocese’s policies and procedures for genealogical research. My (less-than-scientific) canvass of diocesean procedures indicates that many will respond to mail requests for information and charge a small fee for the service. Many dioceses have PDF forms online for genealogical requests or direct email access for questions. Some dioceses will give this information free of charge. The Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, however, charges hefty fees ranging from $75 for gravesite locations to $120+ for lists of family members in the same grave. (Brooklyn’s bishop charge s$300+ for “extensive corporate/legal genealogy,” and what’s wrong with that? Nothing!)
Several dioceses have come into the 21st century, with searchable databases for their cemeteries.
Two of the better searchable databases can be found in the Archdiocese of St Louis and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Other U.S. dioceses with searchable cemetery records online include:
Archdiocese of Seattle
Diocese of Fresno (Calif.)
Diocese of Wilmington (Del.)(includes Eastern Shore of Maryland)
Archdiocese of Newark (N.J.)
Diocese of Victoria (Tex.)
Diocese of Cincinnati
A relatively new entry into the Catholic cemetery digital world is the search page at the website of the Mount Elliott Cemetery Association. The Association covers six Catholic cemeteries in the metro Detroit area. [Promotional plug: two of the Mt Elliott cemeteries are subjects of books by The Catholic Gene contributor Ceil Wendt Jensen. They are Mt Elliott and Mt Olivet. See here.]
The Catholic Cemeteries in the Diocese of Spokane are on Facebook.
Rather than its own, relatively expensive online database, the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee links to the popular site Find-A-Grave.
At the website of Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Phoenix, one may shop online for flowers and wreaths (using a credit/debit card or PayPal) and have them placed dirctly on the gravesite.
And finally, there is a Catholic Cemeteries Channel on YouTube.
If you know of other unique or interesting Catholic cemetery sites, especially those with searchable databases of Catholic cemetery records, please share in the comments here.
This is a great topic, Craig. Thanks for sharing this article. I’m encouraged to see that some of these Catholic cemeteries are serving families and genealogists by making their records easily accessible.
Sadly, I’ve encountered a few cemeteries that treated my requests as a serious inconvenience – an intrusion into their busy schedule of ongoing graveside services and burials. It’s sad that a family member can be buried somewhere, yet a couple of generations later the family is treated as if the information about their relative is private property of the cemetery! My thanks to these cemeteries who are coming into the 21st century and using available technology to assist those making requests about their family members’ burials. I hope their approach will become the standard.
I would have to say that I disagree with charging of a fee to locate a gravesite. I can understand them wishing to charge a fee for a copy of a birth or marriage record, but if someone just wants to visit a grave that is ridiculous. What if it isn’t for genealogical research and you just want to visit a gravesite of a family member? Are they going to charge such a large fee? Oh, I am so glad my ancestor’s Catholic Church is so sweet and helpful. They have never asked for any money (although I always send them a nice donation each time I make a request).
I guess you can’t win them all!
Cheryl – Even the rather pricy Brooklyn cemeteries will generally give you a gravesite location, and sometimes more, free of charge, if you just call up and ask for it, as long as you have a name and date of death. The Brooklyn Catholic Cemeteries website says it’s $75 for 6 gravesite locations, but I’ve never had them turn me away or tell me there would be a fee if I called up to ask about 1 or 2 graves at a time. They’re probably just trying to prevent people with long lists of ancestors they want to locate from asking for tons of gravesite locations and using lots of staff time and resources.
Craig, thanks so much for posting those links! I never knew about that website from the Archdiocese of Newark, and last night my husband and I used it to find grave locations and dates of death for a number of his NJ ancestors!
Katie: Thanks for reading The Catholic Gene! So glad the post had some actual, practical value!
Cheryl: Thanks for commenting! My native sympathies are probably with you on this issue, but consider that in a large, densely popoulated area like greater NYC, the cemeteries get tens of thousands of inquiries a year. They have to come up with resources to handle this activity. There are probably few perfect solutions. One innovative idea is being tried by the Archdiocese of Chicago, which has installed self-service kiosks in several cemeteries. Of course, it still means a trip out to the cemetery!
Fees for doing ‘research’ is acceptable to me. Plus, hopefully, they go back iinto the maintenance of these cemeteries. The wonderful thing about Catholic cemeteries is that you know your grave site will always be maintained properly.