An Unknown Great Aunt Visited in Cedar Grove

I recently had a cemetery adventure with my friend Toni. I hadn't really spent any time with Toni this past year due to COVID. We talk every week but it isn't the same as a visit. Now that I am vaccinated though, I thought maybe she'd be up for a brief visit; one just long enough to find the grave of my newly discovered great aunt.

My Grandpa Gardner wasn't one to talk much about family but I was still very startled when an Ancestry hint popped up for a child born to Albert Gardner and Mayme Sharp-Gardner, my great grandparents. I seriously doubted he would have had a sister I didn't know about but then again, I shouldn't have been surprised. In all honesty I wonder if my grandfather knew about her. 

According to the New York City Death Record Index, May Gardner was born on July 4, 1928 when my grandfather was just shy of 2 years old having been born August 5, 1926. May died on March 21, 1929 at 8 months old. At 2 1/2 years-old, would my grandfather remember the loss of an infant sibling? I'm certain it is not something the family spoke of frequently. Alas - -

Cedar Grove Cemetery is a nonsectarian cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York. However, there is a dominant Jewish section of the cemetery known more commonly as Mount Hebron Cemetery. 

When we got to the cemetery we stopped into the office to confirm the location of the plot for my Great Aunt May Gardner, obtained a map, and inquired as to whom she was buried with. Her father, Albert Gardner is buried in Calvary Cemetery. Her mother, Mayme Sharp-Gardner is buried on Long Island, New York at a location I have yet to confirm. I know of no other family members on this side of the family buried in Cedar Grove. 

The very helpful woman in the office listed for me two individuals interred in the plot; Ernestine Schmitt and Helen M. Schmitt. There is a name I haven't heard yet in the family.

She also showed me how one could use the cemetery's website to drop a pin on a plot location and use their gps to find the location. You just go to their website: https://www.thecedargrovecemetery.com/ 

Click on the tab for Search 

Enter the name of the individual you are trying to find. 

When you get the list of results, click on the person's name and it will provide a map with an approximate location of the grave; approximate in that it could be a few feet off.

Toni and I ventured out to find the location. I doubted sincerely that there would be a headstone. We did see a Schmitt headstone, Toni spotted it, but it said John Schmitt on it so I ignored it.

When I got home I started to research Ernestine Schmitt and Helen M. Schmitt and sure enough FindAGrave revealed the headstone I should have looked at. I didn't notice Ernestine listed on it. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147674527/ernestine-schmitt

Curiously, there is no internment record for John Schmitt in this plot. The headstone makes no mention of Helen. AND I have no idea who these people are. 

I did discover that the Schmitts lived in the same general area of Astoria, Queen in which my Gardners lived at the time. John and Ernestine were significantly older than my great grandparents; Albert and Mayme who were both born in 1891, John Schmitt was born in 1862 and Ernestine in 1866.

I did discover that Helen Schmitt who is interred with Ernestine died on January 25, 1919 when she was just 7 months old. Ernestine would have been about 52 at the time of that child's birth which makes her a bit old to be the mother of Helen. Perhaps Ernestine and John were the grandparents of Helen Schmitt or adoptive parents. 

I am left to assume that the Schmitts were either friends of the family or perhaps just generous neighbors or fellow parishioners who donated or sold the space in their plot to my great grandparents to buried their infant daughter, May. Whatever the case, I am grateful they gave my infant great aunt a resting place.