I don’t live in Syracuse, have never been to St. Mary’s Cemetery, and didn’t see the story on the T.V. news. I really hope the reporter of this story has done his, or her, homework well before they jumps to conclusions. I do genealogy and history research at one of the bigger cemeteries in New York and the fact that two still born children were buried in the same grave with an apparent stranger dose not surprise me that much. Things that seem strange to us now, may have made sense back then. Many times in our cemetery I’ll see a person (a lot of times a baby) buried in a family plot who has no connection with that family. People researching this family can’t understand who this person is and why they are buried in their family’s plot. But if you dig deep in the city records it could be a neighbor’s child and they couldn’t afford a burial so the family let them bury the person in their plot. Or, the person could have been from the same church and couldn’t afford a burial. Today not many people would do that, but long ago this happened more than you may think. Cemetery laws have changed over the years and I’m not really up on them, but I do know at one time two bodies could be buried in the same grave. Mothers who died at childbirth is a good example of that. That could still be permitted today, I’m not sure. I do know you can have one full body and one cremation in the same grave today. I don’t know if there was any wrong doing or not at St. Mary’s, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions yet. At our cemetery, a few years ago, we had someone come in at night and bury a cremation without owning a lot. Sometimes strange things go on in cemeteries without the cemetery knowing. Ed

> Cemetery laws have changed over the years and I’m not really up on > them, but I do know at one time two bodies could be buried in the same grave. This is definitely true at some of the Catholic cemeteries in Chicago. One of my ancestor's plots has 6 graves, but 12 burials (1870-1930s), all the same family. I was really surprised, but the cemetery guy explained that it was very common because of the scarcity of land for cemeteries. That prepared me for my next find... a plot with 12 graves and 36 burials (1860-1920s). These were mostly members of the same family, but also some people who were apparently friends or members of the same church. Jeanne