Contents of Webpage

• Headstone & monument inscriptions
• Obtaining cemetery records
  • Coming soon
• Queens County open cemeteries
• Queens County closed cemeteries
• Funeral home records

• LDS filmed transcriptions
• Transcribed records online
• Bibliography

There are many different kinds of cemeteries in the New York City area.  They include:

1. The church yard cemetery, where members of a church are buried on the church grounds.

2. The church owned cemetery.  They are located in another section of the town but they are owned and operated by the church.

3. The government owned cemetery.  These are owned by all entities of government and include pauper and military cemeteries.

4. Privately owned cemetery, may be owned by a corporation and operated as a business.

5. Family cemetery.  These are usually part of the family owned land where a section is set off for burials of family members.

Determining the place of burial

Normally the death certificate states the cemetery of burial and the funeral home that handled the burial.  Other sources include US Government Geological Survey maps of the area which detail small areas, including small graveyards.

Manhattan Graveyard Situation effects Queens County

• 1823 - forbade all burials in a grave or vault south of Canal, Sullivan and Grand Sts

• 1851 - forbade interments south of 86th Street and prohibited the creation of new cemeteries

The Rural Cemetery Act

By mid-century the natural growth of population, increasing immigration from Ireland and Central Europe, and a shortage of open land in Manhattan and Brooklyn forced consideration of a change.  The new legislation commercialized death for the first time by authorizing corporations to buy land, open cemeteries and sell plots for money to private individuals.  Within the next five years cemetery corporations began to buy up farms in Queens County and lay out large cemeteries:  Calvary (1846), Evergreens (1848), Cypress Hills (1852), Mount Olivet (1852), St. Michael's (1852) and Lutheran (1852).  From Old Queens, N.Y. in Early Photographs, by Vincent F Seyfried, William Asadorian

• The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, by Val D. Greenwood, 2000
• Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family History, by Elizabeth Shown Mills, 1997
• Genealogy Online for Dummies, by Matthew & April Helm, 1998
• Research Outline, New York, Family History Library, SLC, Utah
• New York City, Dept of Records & Information Services website
• New York State, by Christiane Bird, 2003
• Gotham, A History of NYC to 1898, Edwin Burrows, Mike Wallace, 1999
• New Metropolis, New York City 1840-1857, Edward K Spann, 1981
• A Short & Remarkable History of New York City, James Mushabac, Angela Wigan, 1999
• The Historical Atlas of New York City, Eric Homberger, 1994
• The Graveyard Shift, New York City Cemeteries, Carolee Inskeep, 2000
• Old Queens, N.Y. in Early Photographs, Vincent F Seyfried, William Asadorian, 1991
• New York City 5 Borough StreetAtlas, Geographia May Company 2004

Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens
Over 1,600 indexed Irish surnames, over 1,250 pictures of tombstones
***last updated April 21, 2015  (over 450 new pictures added)

Calvary Cemetery, Irish Brigade members, Civil War
Born from the 69 Regiment, NYS Militia, added 63rd, 69th & 88th NYSM
***hoping to add more names

Calvary Cemetery Burials, Dempsey Funeral Home Records
Mostly Irish, database building regularly

Calvary Cemetery Family Pages
McCollum, includes McCollum, McAllister, Kirwan, Rooney, Dowling, Rogers, Clair
McAllister, includes McAllister, Reid, McDonnell, O'Brien
McAllister, includes McAllister, Hayes, Cummings
Stulz, includes McAllister, Cooke, Morrison, Mohrmann, Stolz, Smith, Stulz, Diddle

Do you have a family tombstone that you would like to contribute to the site?  Send a picture and the inscriptions.

More transcriptions of Calvary Cemetery Tombstones