www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Philadelphia Cemeteries Byz. Cath.

My great-grandparents and my grandmother (when she was a child) attended Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church in Philadelphia, PA. We are having difficulty locating the cemetery my great-grandparents were buried. Is there a common cemetery people from this church were frequently buried? We have two relatives who are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery just outside of Philadelphia (in the past 15 years) but we haven't been able to find any mention of my great-grandparents there. I tried emailing Holy Ghost Church twice to get some information, but nobody responded. Any advice you may have would be appreciated!

Janos Kusnyir (John Kushnier, possibly spelled Kurnes)
Sofia Almasy Kusnyir (same possible spellings)

God Bless,
Christina

I believe that the main Catholic cemetery from that era would be "New Cathedral Cemetery" which is somewhat north of Fairmount Park. My great-grandparents are buried there.

I believe that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a website that references historial records and I believe that it is something like PAHRC (it's on my home computer, and I'm on a laptop in Harrisburg - for work.)

Also, the Philadelphia records, in city hall, have a lot of information - some accurate and some kinda iffy.

Good luck with it. If you have questions, please feel free to private me and I'll do what I can. (In my searches in Philadelphia, I've been to several questionable neighborhoods and gone to locations of churches that no longer exist. But, it's fun.)

Dr John

Christina,

The site my brother references is Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center [rc.net] and includes links to several sources of death/burial/cemetery records (in the Genealogy Research section) - which are not maintained by PAHRC except in a couple instances.

Many years,

Neil

Notes from an amateur genealogist:

1) Get the death certificates. They may give the place of
burial.

2)Look for newspaper obits. They may do the same.

Edmac

There is an old Byzantine Catholic (perhps UGCC) cemetery here in Bensalem (the first burb north of Philadelphia). It is on Galloway Road near Hulmeville Road. It has pretty much been abandoned. The unused land was sold to a condo developer and an agreement made that they were not to touch the actual graves and to mow the lawn around them.

Christina,

X,B.! B.B.!

A friend of my gave me this info to pass on to you.:

Names found in Holy Cross RC Cemetery in Yeadon, there and buried:

John Kushner 1874-1949
Sophia Kushner 1876-1941

These were based on his notes when walking thru the cementery a few years ago. That was the only cementery used regularly by Holy Ghost GCC in South Philly. The Orthodox Rusyns from Assumption of the Holy Virgin RO a few blocks away from Holy Ghost were buried at Mt. Moriah Cemetery in S. Philly.

X.B.! B.B.!

Ungcsertezs

...

I think that one may be St Mary Lithuanian National Catholic Cemetery [lithuaniangenealogy.org]

Many years,

Neil

Yes. That's the one! Many thanks. I'll make sure to tell the people who told me it was a Byzantine Catholic cemetery.

Ung-Certez,
Thank you so much for the information. Do you happen to know what section the graves are located? We were there today looking for them, but unfortunatley the cemetery office is closed on Sundays.

Thank you!
Christina

Christina,

I sent you an PM with the researcher's e-mail address who sent me the notice about your family graves.

Ung

Christina:

Christ is Risen!! Indeed He is Risen!!

Why don't you start by locating their death certificates? Each original, filed witht he Commonwealth, lists the cemetery and the date of burial.

There is an office of Vital Records in Philadelphia. Start there. Then, if they have no record, try the Vital Records office in New Castle, PA.

You can go to any funeral home and obtain the form necessary to obtain these records. On the "reason" line, just list "geneology."

Let me know how you fare.

BOB