If you have Catholic ancestors who were buried at Rookwood cemetery in NSW, this blogpost may be worthwhile for you.
We have all lamented the unavailability of the deceased online search facility on the Rookwood Cemetery (NSW) website: currently unavailable. So, here is an alternative ...
The Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria site does allow you to search for your ancestors' graves if they are buried in the Catholic section of the cemeteries listed below. It's quite a good search engine (see http://search.catholiccemeteries.org.au/), allowing you to search the following cemeteries:
This is great if, like me, many of your ancestors have been buried in gravestone-less graves. In 1945 when my great-grandfather was buried at Rookwood cemetery, I guess that not many people had a lot of spare money, at the end of World War II, to spend on gravestones. So, there aren't many graves around his grave that had headstones. The closest graves with headstones to his grave (no. 142) were graves numbers 138 and 150. Based on the information about these two graves with gravestones, I was able to work out where he was buried.
Using this search engine, I found out that Robert Wallschutzky was buried in Grave 138:
... and James Tanner was buried in Grave 150
There were no gravestones in between these two graves with gravestones (no. 138 and no. 150). However, by counting the spaces, I could work out where grave no. 142 was - where my great-grandfather, James Walter KINGSBURY, was buried.
He died on 19 June 1945, aged 77 years, and was buried on 21 June 1945 in the Roman Catholic Section graves, Mortuary 2 , Area 17, grave no. 142 at Rookwood Cemetery.
Although I didn't find out any additional information about his life by finding his gravestone-less grave, it was satisfying to stand at the place where he was laid to rest.
Source of photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rookwood_Necropolis.JPG
We have all lamented the unavailability of the deceased online search facility on the Rookwood Cemetery (NSW) website: currently unavailable. So, here is an alternative ...
The Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria site does allow you to search for your ancestors' graves if they are buried in the Catholic section of the cemeteries listed below. It's quite a good search engine (see http://search.catholiccemeteries.org.au/), allowing you to search the following cemeteries:
- Catholic Cemetery Field Of Mars- Ryde 1890
- Catholic Cemetery Greendale
- Catholic Cemetery Kemps Creek
- Liverpool Cemetery & Crematorium
- Catholic Cemetery North Rocks
- The Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) - Rookwood
- Catholic Cemetery Necropolis Rookwood
Something special about this search engine ...
The special thing about this search engine is that it provides you with the details of graves either side of the grave you are searching for.
Although the graves either side of James' grave (grave no. 141 and 143) didn't have gravestones, I kept searching until I found graves with headstones.
Using this search engine, I found out that Robert Wallschutzky was buried in Grave 138:
There were no gravestones in between these two graves with gravestones (no. 138 and no. 150). However, by counting the spaces, I could work out where grave no. 142 was - where my great-grandfather, James Walter KINGSBURY, was buried.
James Walter KINGSBURY's gravesite (30 Dec 2013)
James Walter KINGSBURY
He died on 19 June 1945, aged 77 years, and was buried on 21 June 1945 in the Roman Catholic Section graves, Mortuary 2 , Area 17, grave no. 142 at Rookwood Cemetery.
Although I didn't find out any additional information about his life by finding his gravestone-less grave, it was satisfying to stand at the place where he was laid to rest.
Great to know there is an alternative way of searching, love the thought that went into providing gravesites either side.. That does help so much, especially with unmarked graves as you mentioned. Thanks for this, Maria.
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