Second Stop, part 1: St. John Cemetery, Middle Village Queens - William and Agnes Sauer

The second cemetery Cousin Pete and I visited in our marathon of cemetery visits on Saturday, April 24, 2021, was St. John Cemetery on Metropolitan Ave. in Middle Village, Queens, NY. What a truly beautiful and well maintained cemetery. 

This is the location of the graves of more than a few of my Grandma Earle's people and thus ancestors Peter and I share. Pete and I are second cousins. My Grandma Earle and his grandma were sisters.

My plan was to visit the burial locations of these 5 individuals:

1. Our great-great grandfather on Grandma Earle's mother's side; William Sauer (11 February 1870 - 23 December 1932) Section 24, Row K, Grave 106

2. Our great-great grandmother, William's wife; Agnes Gray-Sauer (27 October 1871 - 30 December 1941) who is buried with her husband in Section 24, Row K, Grave 106. 

3. Our great-great grandmother on Grandma Earle's father's side; Annette "Anne" Hinch-Henry (22 February 1868 - 2 March 1952) Section 18, Row O, Grave 78

4. Our 3rd great grandmother, Anne's mother-in-law; Mary Carrillion-Henry (October 1855 - 8 January 1907) Section 13, Row O, Grave 7

5. Our 3rd great grandfather, Mary's husband; Victor Henry (March 1838 - 9 November 1896) Section 16, Row A, Grave 403

In addition to these 5, several of Peter's mother's relatives are buried in St. John Cemetery and so we also ventured to find some of his family graves. 

We got to St. John at about 11:20 and left a little after 1 p.m. It was certainly the longest of our stays inside any one cemetery that day. We probably also got our most steps in there wandering about trying to find the grave numbers etched into the bottom right corners of headstones.

Because we visited so many graves in St. John, I am going to blog about one gravesite at a time. The first of which is the grave of our great-great grandparents, William Sauer (11 February 1870 - 23 December 1932) and Agnes Gray-Sauer (27 October 1871 - 30 December 1941) in Section 24, Row K, Grave 106. 

You might wonder why we didn't start at the lowest numbered section. Well, the way the numbering of sections are laid out, 24 is actually closest to the entrance we came through. This is an enormous Catholic Cemetery; nearly 190 acres. You need a map. However, we didn't need to go to the office. Signs people! Signs.

You can kind of see Peter and I reflected in the map sign. We came in through the gate between sections 1 and 2. It took some navigating but we found William and Agnes in section 24 in Row K which runs perpendicular to the red road way parallel to Woodhaven Blvd. Their headstone faces towards Furmanville Ave. And yes! They have a headstone.

The stone on the right is for our great-great grandparents as well as their daughter, also named Agnes. The stone on the left is for their son, also named William. Not real creative with their name choices. You can see in the background the Christ the Redeemer Mausoleum which helps to give one a sense of the location within the cemetery

William Sauer the younger was the father of our grandmothers' cousin who we lovingly called "Uncle Billy." I just recently learned Uncle Billy passed away last year on January 16, 2020 at the age of 95. His father had a rather short life though. He died of pneumonia at the age of 25.

Great-great grandpa William Sauer was an ambulance driver back when the ambulance was a wooden wagon. Below is a photo of William and his horse evidently hitched to a wagon of some sort.

My grandma also talked about their monkey. Yes, great-great grandpa had a monkey. One of her earliest memories was of her grandfather William holding her and feeding buttered crackers to the monkey who would lick off the butter and throw the crackers on the ground. I don't know who the people are in the photo below but I know that is the monkey.

I also have a beautiful image of my great great grandmother, Agnes Gray-Sauer, in a family group photo. That is Agnes right in the middle. In front of her are 3 of her 5 children. The child standing on the left is William Sauer (1901-1926) and the young girl is my great grandmother, Anna Marie Sauer-Henry (1896-1986). The little boy in the middle is Joseph Sauer (1902-1968). 

The woman on the left holding the baby is Margaret Gray-Fitzpatrick (1878-1956). She is holing her son, Raymond Fitzpatrick (1906-1977). The woman in the back on the left is Agnes & Margaret's sister, Mary "Mamie" Gray (1869-1929). The woman on the right in the back not holding a child is Elizabeth "Eliza" Gray (1879-1970). I am not sure who the woman on the far right is, the one holding the sleeping baby. I suspect the baby might be Agnes's 4th child, Cecilia Sauer (14 July 1906 - 9 August 1907) which provides a pretty narrow window of time in which this photo was taken; sometime during Cecilia's lifetime. Cecelia was buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery which was part of my cemetery marathon. I'll write about that visit soon.

First Stop: St. Michael's Cemetery, East Elmhurst - Johan and Sabina Prinz

We did it! Cousin Pete and I did my cemetery marathon this past Saturday, April 24, 2021. We hit 6 cemeteries, and ate a lengthy lunch, in a total of 6 hours 17 minutes. A bit wacky but we did it.

Our first stop was St. Michael's Cemetery in East Elmhurst, Queens which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from where Peter lives. Cousin Pete actually lives in walking distance of where my grandma grew up - my grandma on my mom's side, not Pete's grandma. Pete and I are related through our father's lineage. Anyway, Pete was kind enough to accompany to graves of my mother's side as well.

I have a history with St. Michael's. Many years ago when I first went looking for the burial location of my great-great grandparents, Johan Nepom Prinz (2 May 1854 - 21 April 1929) and Sabina "Lena" Krantzel-Prinz (17 June 1860 - 25 April 1926), I was told I had to pay them for that information. Outraged, I wandered that cemetery looking for a potential burial location; unsuccessfully of course. It is a big cemetery!

This time around when I called for a plot location, they kindly gave me that information over the phone. However, I didn't know my way around the cemetery  despite all the time I spent walking around in there in the past. When we entered the cemetery, we didn't see a sign with a map on it, so we went to the cemetery's office. We were helped by a very nice woman who provided us with a paper map and showed the route to take to get to Grave 11 - Range 85 - Plot 6.

Johan and Lena are interred in this grave with their daughter Margaret Prinz-Kamm (5 October 1886 - 14 December 1915) who died in childbirth when she was just 29 years old.

When Peter and I were wandering around Plot 6, a cemetery worker driving an excavator noticed us and asked if we needed help. He came down from his machine and measured out where the actually plot would be, stating that their graves are 30" wide.

So this is them. Look familiar? Yeah, my people almost never have a headstone. 

Looking at this patch of earth the worker commented that he had been working for the cemetery for 35 years. When he first started out some of the old time employees had told him that sometime in the 1970s, some of the headstones were buried. Occasionally, they still get requests to dig up the interred stones. Frequently those stones are broken in the process. 

Is this the first time you are hearing of this? 

I wish I could say I have never heard of this before but in fact, I have. There is a "park" in Hempstead, New York in which my 6th great grandparents are interred; Jacob and Rebecca Raynor. The Hempstead Old Town Burial Ground had fallen into such disrepair that the Town decided to level it. A few headstones stand in a far off corner of the Old Town "Park" but it is not at all a park, its a cemetery. The Town buried the old headstones over the graves and now it's a pretty lawn.

Lovely, just freakin' lovely.

Now I don't know if this is true of Johan and Lena's headstone. I suspect they never had a stone because that is just how it is in my family. Or maybe there are more stones out there then I think. Stay tuned for posts on my other 5 cemetery visits from Saturday.

Gearing Up for a Cemetery Stomping

I am gearing up for a full day of cemetery stomping on Saturday, April 24, 2021. At present my Cousin Pete is planning to go with me. A bunch of the graves I have yet to visit are for individuals from our shared line and the few that are from my mother's side of the family (not Pete's family) are located very close to where Cousin Pete lives in Queens, NY. There are lots of things that Queens is known for but two of the biggest are its airports (LaGuardia & JFK) and cemeteries (far too many to list). 

Of the 59 of my deceased direct ancestors (grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents, and 3rd great grandparents), I have 23 yet to visit. Not too shabby. I know I am blessed to be able to name all of my 3rd great grandparents. Finding records of all their deaths though, is proving to be frustrating. But anyway, on this planned cemetery stomp, I'll be visiting 12.

In the past I posted a map of my planned route through 6 or 7 cemeteries I have to visit. I have since knocked one of them out. I have also come up with quite the visual inventory of who I plan to visit, though.

There is a key to the right of each image: 

The names in White boxes are those I have yet to visit. I have plot locations for these people and I will visit almost all of them on this day of cemetery visiting. Most of them are Grandma Earle's ancestors and, again, are interred in the cemetery belt that stretches through Brooklyn and Queens.

The names in Green boxes are ones I have visited, if not very recently then at some point in my lifetime. I have visited all of Grandpa Earle's ancestors back to my 3rd great grandparents. This is in part due to the fact so many of them are buried near where I live. Grandpa's mother comes from a long line of Long Islanders.

The names in Gray boxes are ones I am working on to finding burial locations. I realize I may never be able to locate some of them. Most of them are my Grandpa Gardner's ancestors, and thus are my French-Canadians. Not only is it a long trip up to Quebec, their records are proving impossible to find. I am grateful for the Drouin Collection but I just can't find them all in there. The Drouin Collection is a French-Canadian collection of over 15 million vital records entries. If you have French-Canadian ancestry and don't know about the Drouin Collection, you need to.

The name in the Blue box I have already posted about; Elizabeth Goetz-Krantzel's death certificate says she is interred in Lutheran Cemetery (a.k.a. All Faiths Cemetery) but they have no record. I plan to interrogate their cemetery office in-person, though.

Grandpa Earle's Ancestors:

Grandma Earle's Ancestors:

Grandpa Gardner's Ancestors:

Grandma Gardner's Ancestors:

Wish me luck!

My Krantzels: I Can't for the Life of Me Figure Out These Deaths

I've got a pair of 3rd great grandparents that are all sorts of sketchy. If I have any kind of shady characteristics, I suspect I inherited that DNA from them; Elizabeth Goetz-Krantzel (12 Feb 1833, Germany - 25 Aug 1896, New York) and Henrich Daniel Krantzel (21 May 1825, Worms, Germany - unknown). 

That's right. I have no clue when or where Henrich Daniel Krantzel died but it's sketchier than that. First off, Henrich Daniel Krantzel shows up in records as, Heinrich, Henry, Daniel, Daniel Heinrich, H. D., D. H., etc. That's not terribly disturbing although it would be divine to see some consistency. It's his death that bothers me the most.

When I obtained Elizabeth's death certificate from the New York City Municipal Archives many years ago, it indicated that she was a widow. Logically I set about to find a New York City based death certificate for Daniel or Henry or whatever he wanted to call himself, prior to August 1896. Keeping in mind that his name was so fluid and I had seen so many variant spellings of Krantzel. My search was unsuccessful.

So I called Lutheran Cemetery which is indicated on Elizabeth's death certificate as the cemetery in which she was interred, thinking that the couple is likely buried together. Lutheran Cemetery is now known as All-Faiths Cemetery. Well, they have no record of an interment for a Daniel or Henry or Henrich Krantzel. They also have no record of an interment for Elizabeth either. Whaaaaaat?

Now I have made that call a couple of times over the years, thinking that maybe I'd get a different clerk who would look in some magical book somewhere and find their spot. Still no luck.

Where are these people?

I thought perhaps the former Lutheran Cemetery's records are not up to snuff so I sort out as many records as I could for this couple, which is really what a genealogist always does.

I learned that apparently H.D. served in the Civil War and that his widow, Elizabeth, filed for his pension. Now this is where is gets really shady.

I obtained the full pension file. It was huge. Apparently, Elizabeth had filed multiple times, in 1889 and 1890. Each time her appeal was rejected for what appears to be lack of details. "Yeah, no kidding, Federal Government." 

In each of Elizabeth's applications she is consistent in stating that "Daniel" was a member of the New York 8th Regiment, Company B and that he died on 8th of April 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio??? What the hell was he doing there???

Until - - there is another appeal made in 1891. This claim was also denied but it included a letter that read as follows:

To the Hon. Board of Health:

I respectfully request that the accompanying "Corrected Certificate" of the death of Henry D. Krantzel, 59 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, be filed with the original Certficate of the death of an "Unknown Man", about 55 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, said unknown man being since identified as Henry D. Krantzel.

Yours respectfully,

E. Krantzel,

Son of Henry D. Krantzel

7 St. Mark's Place

Now what the heck is this? Henry D. died November 2, 1884 in New York City? What happened to him keeling over in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1877?

I can't for the life of me figure out the death of this grandpa or the burial location for grandma. Their deaths give me grief alright. I wonder what is really at the root of all this conflicting information. Hmm. I do intend to go to All-Faiths/Lutheran Cemetery and inquire in-person. Maybe when they see my sad face they go to great lengths to search for these two in their records.

Great Grandma Mayme Sharp-Gardner in Union Cemetery, Sayville, New York.

On Saturday, April 3, 2021, I visited the grave of my great grandma, Mayme Sharp-Gardner. This side of my family has always provided me more questions than answers. I know Mayme died on January 25, 1961 in Sarasota, Florida and is buried on Long Island in Union Cemetery in Sayville, NY. She was 69 years old when she died, having been born Mary Elizabeth Sharp near Sherebrooke, Quebec, Canada on September 2, 1891 to Lydia Marie McLean-Sharp and Daniel Sharp. I know this because after my grandfather died in 2005, my Aunt Nancy, who has also since passed, was cleaning otu grandpa's house and came across some family papers. She sent those documents to me. They inclued Mayme's obituary and death certificate.

I don't know what Mayme was doing in Sarasota. I am certain she lived in Patchogue, Long Island at the time of her death. I don't know why she is buried in Union Cemetery - her husband is in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York and her infant daughter, May, is in Cedar Grove Cemetery. I don't know how she even met her husband. She married Albert Gardner (a.k.a. Almond Desjardins) on September 5, 1922 in Manhattan, NY. According to the 1920 Census, though, in '20 Mayme was in Lowell, Massachusetts and Albert was in Oaklahoma City, Oklahoma. How did they ever meet?

In any case, Mayme outlived her husband Albert Gardner by 15 years. For an unknown portion of those years she lived with Albert's sister, Florence V. Desjardins-King. When Florence died in 1952, Mayme continued to live with her brother-in-law, Elbert G. King. Uncle Al, as my grandpa called Elbert, was my grandfather's favorite uncle. 

Just recently, my sister, Rachel, just moved to Sayville and Union Cemetery is about a mile from her house. I totally had forgotten Great Grandma Mayme was buried there until I started this project of grave visiting. 

Union Cemetery doesn't have an office. The building in front of Union Cemetery is actually a Friendly's Ice Cream Shoppe and they don't know nothin' 'bout burying no dead people. 

It took some steps to finally tracked down the person who had the Union Cemetery records. First I found a number for the Union Cemetery Association that went to voicemail. A very kind woman called me back and left me a voicemail instructing me to call the Raynor & D'Andrea Funeral Parlor and ask for Vivian. Vivian doesn't work there, as far as I could tell, but rather Vivian has the Cemetery's records. Once I got a hold of Vivian, she told me she'd get back to me with the plot information I requested. And she did get back to me very quickly and shared with me another long forgotten fact, that my great grandma is buried with Gordons; in the plot purchased by Baldwin Gordon. "Hmm," I thought, "Who are these Gordons? That sounds familiar." 

Um, yeah, they sound familiar. Elbert G. King's middle name is Gordon; a common male name, I know, but in this case, it is his mother's maiden name as well. His mother was Alice Gordon-King (1871-1956). Elbert must have inherited the plot from her. Alice is not buried in Union Cemetery but her father John Harris Gordon (1844-1878) and her grandfather, the purchaser of the plot, Baldwin Cook Gordon (1803-1861) are in this family's plot at Union Cemetery along with their wives; Theresa Newton-Gordon (1845-1933) and Jerusha Raynor-Gordon (1807-1888), respectively. Elbert must have given my grandpa a vacant grave in the plot in which to bury Mayme.

There is no headstone for Mayme. This is no surprise to me. My family rarely has headstones. However, the ones around her were quite impressive.