Does anyone know if period maps exist of St. John's Burying Ground? One of my relatives (Sarah Newell) and her baby are buried there, 'on the east side near the fence'. I would like a map of the graves to put with the family records.

Hi moderator,

If instead of posting my comment, if you can let me know if a map exists of the grave locations in St. Johns, I'd be most appreciative.

Linda.Hagedorn@gmail.com

Sarah Newell is my relative buried there.

Thank you.

Linda

Does anyone know when the cemetery was turned into a park? I have several ancestors and collaterals who were buried in "the burial ground of St. J." around 1809 to 1812, and another 1832. I wonder if people had the option to move the bodies. Thank you for this interesting post and the earlier one, you have solved a mystery.

Trinity Church has records of its burials in this cemetery. People did, of course, have the option to move the bodies of their loved ones before the park was created. But, they had to first be aware that the city was taking the land, or had to have seen the city's very small article in the paper calling all who wanted to move the bodies to contact the city by mid-November 1896. While Trinity still owned the property, they cooperated with anyone who wanted to move their loved one. Once the city had the land, Trinity did not have the right to access it anymore. They tried to contact families of those buried in vaults. Other than that, it would have been very difficult to find specific bodies, as many were buried without tombstones and the burial records were not precise enough to indicate exact locations of burials.

Many of those buried in the St John's Cemetery died during cholera epidemics and many of them were quite poor. Trinity's records indicate that they are inclusive in their acceptance of bodies for burial; some were black, some jews, some orphans, some servants, and some of fairly high standing. Not all were episcopalian.

In all, less than 100 bodies were moved, and ultimately day laborers were hired to break up and bury tombstones about 2 feet beneath the surface, in preparation for the coming small park.

You may find this link helpful in locating graves either remaining here or re-interred at the "new" cemetery at 155 st & Broadway. http://www.findagrave.com/

Another link that may shed some light on those remaining there. http://www.nycnuts.net/genealogy/cemetery/st_johns/

Here is another more concise history about St. Johns burial ground. It lists the names of many buried there. http://www.nycnuts.net/genealogy/cemetery/st_johns/