I would like to get a picture of the headstones on a few cemetery plots in Philly, like Old Cathedral, New Cathedral and Holy Cross, and am looking to see what the best approach may be. Since I cannot visit in person, I was wondering if the cemetery office would typically do it if asked or if it might be better to seek out volunteers on an individual basis. I assume it would be better to first get an exact location of the gravesite such as Section/Range/Lot/etc and a cemetery layout map. This is obviously a Spring time activity since it's too cold outside now for anyone, but I'm just trying to get some suggestions and look ahead to warmer weather... Jim Cullen Genealogy - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jimcullen/ Trains - http://jim-cullen.tripod.com/ _________________________________________________________________ Valentine’s Day -- Shop for gifts that spell L-O-V-E at MSN Shopping http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctId=8323,ptnrid=37,ptnrdata=24095&tcode=wlmtagline

Hi Jim, All three cemeteries you mention are very large, so you absolutely need section/range/lot info as a first step. If you have that information and haven't yet done so, you can write to or email (addresses were in several recent posts) the Catholic Cemetery Office and they will send you -- free, as long as you have S/R/L info -- the list of everyone buried in the grave, date of burial, and sometimes other info (like age, cause of death, depending what was in the records and/or was digitized). You will often find that more are buried in the grave than appear on the tombstone. You may also find that some of the deceased were removed from or to another plot -- which may be a clue to the location of even more relatives. While you're waiting for the nice weather, you can be checking for obits for them all, so you can figure out relationships, addresses, dates of death, etc. You may find a library near you has Phila. papers on microfilm, a site that has the Phila. papers digitized for your time frame (if you're lucky), or request two at a time from the Free Library for a $1 fee. Once the weather warms up (which shouldn't be long, if you can believe the groundhog), you're best off looking for a volunteer for the gravestone photos. I doubt the cemeteries themselves will take photos for you, though they will sometimes send someone out to tell you whether or not there is a marker on the grave. Of course, if you have a number from each cemetery (more than a volunteer would typically take on), you may be best served by hiring someone to do all the photos. Hope that helps. Claire K. On Feb 6, 2007, at 9:26 AM, Jim Cullen wrote: > I would like to get a picture of the headstones on a few cemetery > plots in Philly, like Old Cathedral, New Cathedral and Holy Cross, > and am looking to see what the best approach may be. > > Since I cannot visit in person, I was wondering if the cemetery > office would typically do it if asked or if it might be better to > seek out volunteers on an individual basis. > > I assume it would be better to first get an exact location of the > gravesite such as Section/Range/Lot/etc and a cemetery layout map. > > This is obviously a Spring time activity since it's too cold > outside now for anyone, but I'm just trying to get some suggestions > and look ahead to warmer weather... > > Jim Cullen > > > > Genealogy - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jimcullen/ > Trains - http://jim-cullen.tripod.com/ > > _________________________________________________________________ > Valentine’s Day -- Shop for gifts that spell L-O-V-E at MSN > Shopping http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/? > ctId=8323,ptnrid=37,ptnrdata=24095&tcode=wlmtagline > > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: http:// > archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PHILLY-ROOTS > ********* > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PHILLY-ROOTS- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message Claire K seekay@comcast.net