Dias de Los Muertos

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a beautiful yet often misunderstood Latin American holiday where the memory of ancestors and the continuity of life are celebrated. It is believed that at this time the souls of the departed return to visit the living; it is not a time of sadness but of reflection and respect for loved ones. Although this celebration has ancient pre Columbian roots in Mexico as well as many other Latin American countries, the tradition is now celebrated worldwide by many, respectfully practiced by a variety of cultures.

El Día de Los Muertos originated in Mexico, perhaps as far back as 3000 years ago. Roots of the holiday are typically credited as beginning with the Olmecs, who passed the concept on to the Toltecs, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec and Aztecs. It is believed Dia de Los Muertos-as we have come to know the observance-stems from an ancient Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. In variation of this Dia de Los Muertos is now a mixture of indigenous, Catholic, and modern tradition, and includes beautiful offerings, gathering at cemeteries and socializing.

The traditions and activities which take place in celebration of the Day of the Dead are not universal- the manner of celebration varies regionally with folkloric traditions and also varies from place to place. In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain there are festivals and parades which end in people gather at cemeteries to pray for their dead loved ones. Guatemalans elaborately decorate gravestonesand incorporate barriletes gigantes — extravagant and enormous kites which are central to the festivities, and fiambre (cheese and meat salad) placed in altars in order to lure the dead back to earth. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures as well. In Mexico, where the festive holiday is most revered and familiar, Los Dias de Los Muertos tradition varies from town to town. In Pátzcuaro the tradition is very different if the deceased is a child rather than an adult; the Godparents of a deceased child who set altars, food and pray in respect and appreciation for the parents. In the town of Ocotepec, resident’s open doors to visitors in exchange for veladoras (small wax candles) to show respect for the recently deceased and visitors in turn receive food. In the town of Mixquic, a cardboard coffin leads a candlelit procession through the streets to the town’s graveyards, where families gather to celebrate; candles remain lit to guide spirits home and midnight bells toll to call them back. And at Pomuch Cemetery in Campeche Mexico, old folk beliefs holds that poorly cared for relatives will become angry and walk the streets, so in order to avoid this, the bones are exhumed and cleaned by relatives during the holiday. In other parts of Mexico (especially the cities, where in recent years there are displaced other customs), children in costumes roam the streets, knocking on people's doors for a calaverita, a small gift of candies or money; they also ask passersby for it, somewhat similar to “Trick or Treating. Within the urban areas of Mexico City, the holiday is celebrated as a folk tradition, rather than a spiritual or religious affair.

While there are numerous differences within celebratory details, the holiday focus is on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember loved ones who have passed on. The majority of us are familiar with the aesthetic beauty in tradition connected with the holiday- building exquisite and elaborate altars to honor the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds(Tagetes erecta), photos, pan de muerto (bread of the dead), favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and later visiting graves with these as gifts. Dias de Los Muertos cemetery visits are an integral part of the holiday, as people visit cemeteries in order to show love and respect and visit the souls of the departed making these ofrendas (offerings) with the intent to encourage visits by the souls so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Celebrations often take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.

The Williams Sisters of Madison County, KY and Family

I recently stumbled across (on the information super highway) photographs of two sisters interned at Salem Cemetery, Madison County, Kentucky. What I saw broke my heart, and warranted some looking up in the hopes I could write a bio about them. It lead me onto yet another interesting adventure in which I hope will help someone out there in their research efforts.

In Madison lived two sisters; Sophronie Mandy Williams (b. 1914) and Mable Williams (b. 1917). The death date for both sisters headstones reads “unknown”. This indicates some sort of tragedy- could they have been harmed by someone? Was there a fire or illness? Were they children or adults when they passed so tragically? I did not know. But I was determined to find out. I performed my usual ancestry hunt based on names, dates of birth, county and state- no luck at all, not even a close match when omitting first names. Being as though their stones state parents as Squire Williams and Lizzie, I decided to try that route. I found a few posibilites but nothing earth shattering. I gave up for a while but something kept drawing me back in, so I kept on the hunt- no records from tombstone transcriptions, death or births in Madison, nothing. Then seemingly out of the blue I found an old death certificate on ancestry with two names listed: Squire Williams and a Saphrona Mandy Williams!

The death certificate lists Sophronie /Saphrona as born January 16 1918 and her death November 8 1919 in Edenton, Madison County, Kentucky. Her parents are listed as Squire Williams and Lizzie, just as the headstone states. Saphrona passed from flu and spinal meningitis; she was only 8 ½ months old. What is odd is the death date is written as November yet the certificate was filled October 30… The handwritten year of filling is hard to make out- it looks like 1918 or 1919, neither of which make sense. Perhaps the death and filing dates were accidentally reversed, or maybe the date of passing was unknown just like the footstone reads. But if that is the case, how would anyone know the cause? I contacted Gerald Tudor, a friendly and knowledgeable researcher in Madison County; I wanted to know if he knew circumstances of the passing of the sisters (Garald has an amazing extended family in the area which numbers at over 45,000).Unfortunately he had no back story but he did provide me with the b & d dates he had in a book for Sophronie, Mabel, Squire and Lizzie. He also told me the family was not buried at Salem, but at Gilead Church Cemetery south of the Salem Cemetery.

The footstones do not appear to date that era and show no wear at all, which (along with the “unknown” death date) is what originally lead me to believe the two sisters were found decades after the fact. I have a few theories… 1) Maybe a later ancestor of the family purchased the stones and didn’t have the correct dates or 2) maybe Squire and Lizzie had another daughter they named after their (missing?) elder daughter of the same name. Not at all unheard of; I’ve seen southern families with many children who succumb to illness and the parents keep renaming the same.

So no, I didn't solve the mystery-yet! But all in all, with just a simple call, email and a quick look into free scans of Madison County original death certificates, I stumbled upon a wealth of informationthat maybe will help someone who is trying to research this family... I found both nearly 10 actual death certs for this family, clarified some vital records dates, got Squires occupation, found out the whole family is in the same cemetery as well as the name of the cemetery. I also discovered the family progenitors and descendants! All in under an hour. "Why go through the trouble?" some might wonder. Well, let me tell you, not only is it interesting and fun for me but I know how difficult family research can be (esp. when armed with wrong dates and miss spellings), and if I can help someone else, maybe someone in turn, will help me.

For anyone out there researching this family who may have hit a brick wall, here is the scoop as I have found it...David Williams wed Betsy Estes 1818, it looks like in Garrard County. They had a son, Shipton Williams. Shipton wed a woman named Mary in Garrard County Kentucky. On all official documents her surname varries; it is McMaddus, McManiss, McManus, McMoore. Shipton and Mary had a minimum of 5 children: Squire (b. Jume 30 1840 in Garrard County Ky-d. Nov 12, 1922), unnamed child who died at birth (b.d. Jan 20 1854 in Garrard County, Ky), Ali (b. August 14 Garrard County no yr recorded but died at age 84 so abt. 1855- d. April 26 1939), Burchell (Jan 21 1859 Garrard -d. July 26 1940), and Dicea (b. July 19 1862 Garrard County-d. July 15 1951). The entire family moved to Madison County from Garrard County abt 1900. Squire, as you know from reading, had at least two daughters and a wife named Lizzie. It also looks as if Squire owned a grocery store in Madison, and judging by/from what I know of names, it is highly probable they are of british descent. [feel free to contact me and I will pass on the certificates]

Cemetery discovered in New Mexico

The town of Bernalillo recently uncovered 200 years of history when Neighbors discovered an abandoned cemetery covered in shrubbery south of U.S. Highway 550 near the railroad.

Although residents walk past the rubble often, it is interesting that so many (for whatever reason) had never actually pieced together that the area was once a burial ground.

Some of the graves date back to the 1800s. Like so many forgotten resting places, vandals and the elements have destroyed headstones, while other headstones have been marked with rocks. About 100 people are buried there, but no one seems to know who they were. The state archives, the local Archdiocese and the neaby church all had only partial records of those who rest there and there is no complete data of who is buried in those graves. Curiously, it is now coming to light that no one is positive who even owns the land. Father Stephen Imbarrato of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Bernalillo did not know his church owned the property until it was recently rediscovered.

Volunteers with the 4-H club and the Knights of Columbus in Bernalillo helped clean up the cemetery and weeded the grounds; the Knights of Columbus are planing to make 80 crosses to identify the unmarked graves. As for identifying the bodies, Clergy is inquiring around the parish in the hopes to find information.

If you think your relative is buried there, call Our Lady of Sorrows in Bernalillo at (505) 867-5252.

Over 150 Unmarked Graves Discovered at Plymouth Cemetery This Week

The removal of weeds and debris from a badly overgrown section in the northwest corner of the 1873-vintage burial ground brought to light 150 or so unmarked graves. The question is, whose are they?

"When we cleared back here, we just found hundreds of them," Shawnee Cemetery Preservation Association President Tom Jesso said. For the past two years Jesso, his wife, Ruth, and an assortment of volunteers have sweated to tame the wilderness that had encroached on the neglected cemetery grounds to the point where parts of it were dense with waist-high vegetation. It's personal for Tom: several generations of his family are buried in the cemetery. On Thursday, Tom Jesso took advantage of the warm, sunny weather to mow grass with one of the association's most dedicated volunteers, Henry Sobolewski. Jesso stopped his work long enough to give a tour of the newly reclaimed section. Among the rampant blue vinca and day lilies - possibly long-ago floral tributes now gone wild - there are rows of indentations in the ground, caused as the pine boxes people were buried in gradually rotted, Jesso said."This is the only way you would know they were here," he said, indicating the depressions. Some of the graves are completely unmarked. Some have plain stones on them, the inscriptions - if there ever were any - long since eroded away. And some have round metal markers bearing only a number. A few of these came to light still half-buried in the ground after the area was cleared. Tom and Ruth Jesso discovered more underground while probing with a metal detector. The numbers run from 1 to 300, but don't seem to be in order.

Ruth Jesso spray-painted the markers silver to be more visible. Tom Jesso put small American flags on some of the anonymous graves that didn't have markers. "I have 50 flags in here now, and there probably should be three times as many," he said. The Jessos hope someone will donate wooden crosses or some other kind of marker for the graves. And that the origins of the metal markers will come to light. Members of the Plymouth Historical Society say the section of the cemetery was where victims of an epidemic, probably typhoid, were buried. READ MORE

Bear Rescued from Tree in Santa Clara Cemetery Yesterday

They’re more used to rescuing cats from high branches, so when it came to a 250lb black bear, this group of firemen certainly had their work cut out for them. The bizarre rescue took place after the animal climbed 30ft up a tree in Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard, California. Joined by officers from the state Fish and Game department, fire crews hoisted the bear back to earth after it was knocked out with tranquilisers. The bear had been spotted roaming the streets earlier on, and had scampered up the tree where he remained for several hours as a plan was devised to get him down. Once the sedatives fired at him had taken effect, the crews worked together to fit the groggy animal with a harness, before using a ladder truck to lower him to the ground. He was then examined by a vet before being released into the Los Padres National Forest.

Capuchin Cemetery in Rome

In 1631 the Capuchin friars left the friary of St. Bonaventure near the Trevi Fountain and came to live in the present one, of which only the church and cemetery remain. The remains of the deceased friars were transported from the old friary and laid to rest in this cemetery, underneath the present church. The bones were arranged along the walls, and the friars began to bury their own dead here, as well as the bodies of poor Romans, whose tomb was under the floor of the present Mass chapel.

Capuchin Cemetery is the final resting place for upward 4,000 Capuchin friars who died between 1528 and 1870. Some were first buried elsewhere and then transferred here. The soil in the crypt was brought from Jerusalem. A few dozen skeletons remain intact, draped in hooded Franciscan habits. Large numbers of bones adorn the walls in complex decorative patterns; some resemble bas-reliefs, others hang from the ceiling as working light fixtures. One chapel overflows with countless leg bones and skulls.

Amazing Journey: Moravian Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma

Typically when one thinks of all the amazing immigrations of the San Francisco melting pot, rarely do the Moravian Catholics of Eastern Europe come to mind.

Frantisek (Frank) Hrncír was born March 30, 1871 in house #29, Sviadnov, Frýdek-Místek, Moravia. He is one of 9 children born to John Alois Hrncír and Victoria Sedlácková/Sedlácek of Frýdek-Místek. Frantisek’s came to America with his family June 16, 1881 on the Lessing. It was a long and difficult journey, taking 6 weeks tocross the ocean. During the voyage, Frantisek lost his 3 year old sister Anna; because the family were Catholic, they hit her body until arrival as they feared if discovered she would not receive a proper burial. The family landed in New York but their destination was Kansas (as they had family and friends who settled there prior), and so began the second part of their adventure in a new land. When they got to Kansas, the family applied for a homestead and moved on 160 acres near Collyer, in Trego County. By 1886, the teenage Frantisek, his siblings and Father had constructed an 11x14 dugout home, sod table, cellar and well, even though it had been the coldest winter on record. In KS, Frantisek worked for the railroad with his father and they were gone three & six months at a time. The family remained in the dugout and they were sometimes bothered by tramps & Indians. Once one of Frantiseks siblings ran to warn her mother that a tramp was coming, but it turned out to be her father with quite a growth of whiskers.

Abt 1890, Frantisek rented land from neighbors in a Moravian settlement in Roseville Township, and began his own farming operation until he wed Mary Zurich, another Moravian from Frýdek-Místek. Frantisek and his wife packed up and headed to San Francisco California, bringing along Frantisek’s widowed Step Mother Magdalena Chamrad along.

During the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Frantisek, Mary and Magdalena lost all of their possessions, but were not injured. Their Moravian family in Kansas must have been amazed (and frightened) by the thought of the earth’s plates moving and causing distruction; nearly 20 years after the quake Frantisek came to visit family in KS and brought with him some of the dishes he had salvaged from his wrecked home, and which were burned black but had not broken, in the fire which followed the earthquake.

From the time of Frantisek’s arrival in San Francisco until his death, he worked at a smeltering plant. He died in 1923 after a work accident in which he was burned by hot liquid.

Frantisek’s tombstone at Holy Cross Cemetery is a large cross which bares his photo with no name, and is in the style typically seen in Czech and Moravian cemeteries. When I discovered it, I was amazed to find it is beautiful shape. Sadly, I could not find his wife nor step mothers burial anywhere. Holy Names staff were incredibly welcoming and helpful, doing all they could to help locate Magdelana and Mary’s tomb (which family insists are at Holy Names), but we had no luck. I hope someday to solve this mystery. Frantisek and Mary had no children and have no California family other than I.