52 Ancestors Week 21: At the Cemetery

 From Amy Johnson Crow: I'll admit it. I'm addicted to going to cemeteries. (I feel safe admitting that here!) Cemeteries are such special places; I feel drawn even to those where I don't have any ancestors buried. Which cemetery is special in your family's history? Do you have a story about "visiting" a special relative?

Where else can you find LARPers, genealogists and ghosts?

    When you think of cemeteries, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Do you picture a Michael Jackson video? Or do you see a dark, foreboding area of land full of dead trees, tall grass and  ghosts around every corner? The latter is what most people seem to think of when they hear the word "cemetery".  It's a forbidden land where the undead will rise from the grave and do an unexpected dance number or a place where live action roleplays happen because there isn't a park around town. As for me, that's never really been the case. 

St. Patrick's Cemetery

    Haverhill is home to sixteen cemeteries and a few of them date back to the colonial era. Some of them, like Walnut Cemetery, are even said to be haunted by spirits from the Civil War! Hilldale Cemetery is supposedly one of the most haunted cemeteries in all of New England! It is there that the Essex County Ghost Project hosts annual ghost hunts. Please leave your unlicensed nuclear accelerators at home for that one!

    I suppose I'm not bothered by cemeteries because there is a real special one in my family. It's the oddly named Saint Patrick's Cemetery. I say it's oddly named because most of the graves in that cemetery have people of Italian descent buried in them. This isn't hyperbole. There are a LOT of Italians buried there! That isn't to say Italians in Haverhill weren't buried elsewhere. They were. Many of them just seem to be concentrated in St. Patrick's.

    Off the top of my head, I can tell you that four of my great-grandparents have their final resting place in St. Patrick's. Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco share a plot with my grandfather Marco, my grandma Ollie and Vincenzo's second wife, Fortuna. Just down the "street" are Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

The Ferraiolo grave

    Since we're local, my family and I go St. Patrick's every May to clean up the Ferraiolo plot, plant flowers and put down markers before heading to Amesbury where my other grandparents are buried. We even put a wreath around the stone every Christmas. My dad's cousins typically take care of Giuseppe and Clementina's plot and we stop by to check out the upkeep.

    The cemetery is easily the first one I remember going to because of the ritualistic clean-up duty. Every year we would go and I would clean the plaques embedded in the ground. These were your typical World War memorial plaques which briefly stated what unit they served and such. Next to them is another plaque simply saying "Buona Fortuna" in Italian.

    When I was little, I asked my father what that meant and he said it meant "good fortune". Basically, the memorial was wishing our ancestors buried there good fortune in the afterlife. I hope that's the case! I'd hate to think they were going without up there.

    As you can see from the picture, we take great care to make it look nice as we use only the finest plants from Home Depot. The cemetery itself is well maintained and there's nothing remotely scary about it. I will say this. The last time I was with my parents to clean the stone and everything was just about the only scary incident to have ever happened there. Though, it wasn't really scary. It was more gross than anything else.

    We needed water to clean the plaques and there is a faucet near the stones. We turn the valve and the water was a healthy dark brown. I think the reason behind that wasn't anything to do with pollutants. It was just a combination dirty Haverhill water and the fact that the faucet probably hadn't been turned on in some time. That or the pipes weren't in the best shape.

The Carrabs grave

    I wish I knew more about the history of the cemetery. There's not much I can find online about St. Patrick's. Find A Grave has over 2,000 memorials listed in their archives with more added every day. From what I can tell just by searching around is that it's at least older than the 1920s. 

    The name always seemed odd to me because St. Patrick was an Apostle of Ireland. Sure he was born in Roman Britain and is closely associated with Ireland. But, perhaps the cemetery started out as an Irish cemetery and it expanded? Who can say? Perhaps the answers can be found in the Haverhill library.

    Regardless, the cemetery is one that we've always went to. I remember going there to pay my respects to my grandparents buried there. I've even walked around a few times to see if I could find any other relatives. I've found a few people other than my great-aunts and uncles. It's nice to know that many relatives are there and that it's very well maintained.

    Cemeteries aren't anything to be scared of. They're memorials of people you've loved in your life. Sure there are legit scary ones tucked away in the woods. But, those haven't been maintained for a very long time. Aside from St. Patrick's, I've been to Linwood and a few other cemeteries in the city. I would like to go to St. Joseph's as that's where many of the French-Canadians in my tree are buried. Several of them are also in Walnut, too.

    I really want to check both out as my 2nd great-grandfather, Antoine Legault, could be at either one of those cemeteries. More research needs to be done. 

    St. Patrick's is a decent sized cemetery and I wouldn't mind going there again to see if I could find more relatives. Could Caterina Coppola's brothers and sister be buried there? Hard to say. I have found some Coppola stones..... Anything is possible! 

See ya next time!