Pictures of (Most) Holy Trinity Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Someone read a query I put out on a Brooklyn Genealogy message board about the (Most) Holy Trinity Cemetery in Brooklyn and sent me some photos of the entrance and an outdoor chapel. My Grandmother's natural mother and grandparents are buried here. No photos of the graves (yet).

Albert and Loretta Bongiovi's Gravestone Photograph

One of the more interesting web sites I have run across in my most recent dive into our family history is Find A Grave. I've known for a while that there are people, usually genealogists or historians, who's hobby is to visit cemeteries and index who is buried there. Find A Grave assists those folks by giving a place to compile that data, but also goes one step further by encouraging volunteers to take photographs of the gravestones and by encouraging users to set up "virtual cemeteries" of the burials they are interested in and to leave "virtual memorials" for those who have died.

In any case, back in February, I came across this site and found that Albert Bongiovi and his wife, Loretta Bongiovi, were listed in this database. Albert and Loretta are my Great-Grandparents and, in fact, Loretta was alive when I was growing up -- I have clear memories of her visits and visiting her apartment in Queens.

There was no new information in the Find A Grave entry -- I already knew both of their Birth and Death dates and that they were buried at Long Island National Cemetery. But, more out of curiosity than anything, I used a Find A Grave feature to request a photo. With this feature, you request a photo, it gets put on a list of requested photos that volunteers can then pull (based on whatever search criteria they want to use). The volunteers then go out to the cemetery, snap the photo, and upload it to the site.

Bottom line: someone (Find A Grave user Paul1957) fulfilled my request. Here are the photos of Albert and Loretta Bongiovi's gravestone he uploaded two days ago. (Note that you are seeing the front and back of the same gravestone in these two photos.)

Click here to visit the "virtual cemetery" I set up on Find-A-Grave to track our ancestors. (WARNING: there seems to be a lot of pop up adds on that site. I recommend you do not click anything inside those pop up ads to avoid getting spyware on your computer.)

Death Certificate for Annie Siggins

The last of the LDS death certificates of interest is the one for Annie Siggins. Annie would be my grandfather's mother's sister and, in fact, died about 1 year before my grandfather's mother was born. Annie died in July 1898 from Cholera when she was about 1 year, 4 months old. If I hadn't requested this death certificate, it is likely I would've never known she existed.

John Siggins Death Certificate

Another Death Certificate that arrived from the LDS FHL yesterday is one for John Siggins, who died in 1931 at about 55 years old. I believe, but am not 100% sure, that John is the son of John C. Siggins and his first wife and is therefore my half-great-great-uncle (my paternal grandfather's uncle). I believe this is true primarily because I already knew he existed from census records, he is buried in the same cemetery as John C. Siggins and was buried by the same undertaker as John C. Siggins. If he is, in fact, the correct John Siggins, his mother, Mary Cavanagh, is John C. Siggins first wife, who's name I did not know.

William Aloysius Siggins Death Certificate

Another death certificate received today (see this post for background) was for William Aloysius Siggins. Although the film is damaged and causes a streak down the middle of the image, there is no doubt who he is. William is my Great-Great Uncle, my paternal grandfather's Uncle. He died in August 1911 when he was 21 years old from Tuberculosis. Even sadder: the 1910 U.S. Census lists him as being single while this death certificate indicates he is married. If both are correct, he died within about a year of getting married. Unfortunately, his wife's name is not given.

Ludwig Hampsch Death Certificate

I am trying to flesh out my Dad's ancestors from Brooklyn. Luckily, there are a lot of great resources. The Italian Genealogical Group has many of Brooklyn's Marriage and Death records indexed online and the Church of Latter Day Saints' Family History Library has the actual certificates on microfilm, which they'll send to you, eight at a time, for a nominal fee. By searching for all the surnames of interest in the various indices, I have a list of records I'd like to review. I hope that, in addition to identifying everyone in the families, they'll give me some other clues to help extend my understanding of my Family's History. The first batch came yesterday. Of those eight, four are of interest.

The first is Ludwig Hampsch, who died of Cholera in 1905 when he was 9 months old. Ludwig is my great-great Uncle (my paternal grandmother's uncle).

Angelina Bongiovi's Death Certificate

Today's mail brought a death certificate I ordered at the end of January, the death certificate for my Great-Great Grandmother Angelina (Gaurdino) Bongiovi, who died in 1950. It does extend my known family history one generation by giving the names of her parents: Albert Gaudino and Frances Crafanzano. I also now knowwhere she is buried: Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Angelina is one of my "at the shore" ancestors -- she immigrated to the United States with her husband Guiseppe Bongiovi in 1890.