The reason that there are different dates for the earthen burial ban on Manhattan is that the legislation was passed in three steps. The first line below which there could be no burials was Canal and Grand Streets. That was in the late 1820s, I think, and encompassed all the old churchyards. About five years later the line was moved to 14th Street, which included all the cemeteries in the Houston-1st Street area. In 1851 it became 86th Street, at which point many of the old churches had their burials removed from their churchyards to the new Brooklyn-Queens cemeteries. The congregations were moving uptown, as well. I think that 86th Street is still the northern line, so Trinity Manhattanville, for instance, is okay. The reason for the legislation was the fear of contamination from too-shallow burials in the ground. The only exception to the law was sealed, underground family vaults, such as those at Trinity Wall Street, Old St. Patrick's, St. Mark's in the Bowery, Shereith Israel, and the Marble Cemeteries. Anne Brown, New York Marble Cemetery > Barbara > > From: Lisa Thompson <lisajtmo@yahoo.com> > To: "nyc-roots@rootsweb.com" <nyc-roots@rootsweb.com>; "nybrooklyn@rootsweb.com" <nybrooklyn@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 5:21 PM > Subject: Re: [NYC-ROOTS] what cemetery could this be? > > Manhattan cemetaries no longer allowed burials after the mid 1800s (I've read different dates - anywhere from 1851 to 1865), so she isn't buried there.