By Michelle Ann Kratts
Genealogist-in-Training
As our Jon F. Popkey Genealogy Room continues to blossom forth with new ways to discover our ancestors, I have begun to put together an up-to-date booklet on our local cemeteries. Cemeteries are a wonderful source of information on our deceased loved ones. You will be surprised to find what information is available in a cemetery office. Going to a cemetery is also a great way to step away from the computer, the books and the paperwork of family research and to actually stand in the presence of those who came before us.
I chose my first formal cemetery visit to be St. Joseph’s Cemetery (located at 3806 Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls) as several of my own family members are buried here. Believe it or not, it was a beautiful and sunny day and I found St. Joseph’s Cemetery to be quite a lively place to be! My youngest daughter (who often accompanies me on my graveyard jaunts) was very well behaved in her stroller with her fishy crackers and her sippy cup. We walked and walked the whole length of the cemetery and passed legions of Italian families–a glimpse into the history of Little Italy in Niagara Falls. I finally found my great great grandparents, Arcangelo and Adelina Ventresca. Their headstone contained a picture (a common Italian custom) and I smiled as I noticed the flowers that had come up around them and the bush that could only have been planted by my great grandfather, Francesco Fortuna, as he was the horticulturist in the family.
This is a great cemetery filled with many of those first immigrants who were born back in old Italia. For many of us, this may be the final resting place of our first generation American ancestors.
If you are looking for records they are kept at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church (located at 1413 Pine Avenue)–yet another vestige of the local Italian culture. But, according to the secretary, the only thing available is the location of the grave marker. Of course, most of the residents were past members of St. Joseph’s parish so there may be other church records to search.
If you have Italian ancestors from this area, this is a great starting place for your family history research. Even some of the epitaphs are written in Italian. According to a very friendly groundskeeper, the earliest graves date back to the 1890’s. And of course, as I feel that there is a very fine line between genealogy and ghosthunting I always have to ask the groundskeepers about the “local activity” on site! It seems that the residents at St. Joseph’s are pretty quiet–it is only the living that seem to cause any trouble!
Please feel free to comment and let me know some interesting stories about St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
Filed under: Genealogy Room
