Thursday 29 July 2021

NEHGS: Catholic cemeteries collection (MA) grows to 675k records

In its third instalment of burial and cemetery records administered by the CCA in eastern Massachusetts (for details of the launch, see February blogpost), AmericanAncestors.org* has added a further 96,400 searchable records to its Massachusetts Catholic Cemetery Association collection.

The records are primarily lot sales and interments, and may include information about lot owners, date of burial and location of burial. Some of the people represented in these written records may not have purchased a grave marker or their marker may have eroded with time, making this collection essential for research into Catholic burials in this region.

Given the location of the burial grounds, it is also a major collection for Irish family historians looking for details of ancestors who emigrated to North America.

This latest upload adds records from three new cemeteries and completes one other, making a current total of 675,300 available searchable records from 16 burial grounds.

These cemeteries are: Calvary (Winchester), Catholic Mount Auburn (Watertown), St. Patrick (Stoneham), St. Paul (Arlington), Malden (Holy Cross) Calvary (Waltham), Sacred Heart (Andover), St George (Framingham), St James (Haverhill), St Joseph (Haverhill), St Jean Baptiste (Lynn), St Mary (Beverley), St Mary (Malden), Immaculate Conception (Marlborough), St. Francis de Sales (Charlestown) and St. Joseph (Lynn).

Records from just four CCA cemeteries remain outstanding: Cambridge (North Cambridge), St Mary (Lynn), St Mary (Salem), St Patrick (Watertown). These are expected to be available by the end of the year.

In addition to the searchable database, maps of each cemetery are being made available to help locate burial plots. They have been uploaded for ten of the grounds already. Where possible, maps include sections, ranges and in some cases narrative description of how headstones are arranged by row and lot number. Also included are points of interest such as entrances, exits, flag poles, monuments, offices and spigots. Special sections for the burials of infants, priests and religious are also noted.

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