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I am trying to understand what records may exist related to the construction of a mausoleum circa 1904.
I have looked for a builders stamp on the structure but have not found one. Given it is from the 1904 it may be faded a bit if there ever was such a thing. Ultimately the thing I would like to know is who paid for the mausoleum. I roughly priced out the mausoleum without land, in today’s dollars it would run about 60-80K. So I figure some records may exist, but I have no idea what I may be looking for.
The lots it is set on were purchased as a private transaction and not from the cemetery; the only record I know of simply tells you who originally owned the lots, not who purchased them.
The url below, is a link to a more elaborate structure but it conveys an idea as to what I am referring to (FYI I contacted this company as they are located at the cemetery I am interested in but they had no ideas.)
I am trying to understand what records may exist related to the construction of a mausoleum circa 1904.
I have looked for a builders stamp on the structure but have not found one. Given it is from the 1904 it may be faded a bit if there ever was such a thing. Ultimately the thing I would like to know is who paid for the mausoleum. I roughly priced out the mausoleum without land, in today’s dollars it would run about 60-80K. So I figure some records may exist, but I have no idea what I may be looking for.
The lots it is set on were purchased as a private transaction and not from the cemetery; the only record I know of simply tells you who originally owned the lots, not who purchased them.
The url below, is a link to a more elaborate structure but it conveys an idea as to what I am referring to (FYI I contacted this company as they are located at the cemetery I am interested in but they had no ideas.)
Is this a large historical cemetery? I’d look to see if there is a “friends of” group who might know the history. If not, do some research on the family name on the monument.
At a cemetery near where my husband grew up, there was a weird mausoleum that had handcrafted pebble leaves all over it. The family name was Leaf. Turned out they had owned a fancy hotel in a nearby small town, made a lot of money did the mausoleum, father died, son took over business, business failed, family fell on hard times, son died penniless. Hotel and more were torn down for shopping center.
Mausoleum looked like something out of Dark Shadows. Half expected Barnabas Collins to come out of the locked broken front door.
Is this a large historical cemetery? I’d look to see if there is a “friends of” group who might know the history. If not, do some research on the family name on the monument.
At a cemetery near where my husband grew up, there was a weird mausoleum that had handcrafted pebble leaves all over it. The family name was Leaf. Turned out they had owned a fancy hotel in a nearby small town, made a lot of money did the mausoleum, father died, son took over business, business failed, family fell on hard times, son died penniless. Hotel and more were torn down for shopping center.
Mausoleum looked like something out of Dark Shadows. Half expected Barnabas Collins to come out of the locked broken front door.
I have been researching this mausoleum since (drum roll), 1971. Yep...now granted I only got serious about it in the last 17 years or so. I know who is buried in it (finally got the church records released to me as a non-relative) the trouble is even the church has no idea who the person was or who their family was outside of the interred had to be Catholic. I unleashed a bunch of local genealogy societies on it, and no one has come up with anything of substance. They fingered two people I had already concretely proven could not be the suspect. Hence the reason I thought to attack the problem from the out of the box construction angle.
I have reviewed:
All local newspapers and major newspapers for the time around the death
All wedding records for the state, and 4 surrounding counties. All the church records for marriages, births, and parishioners with the surname.
All census records
All real estate records for the surname and sound alikes in the 4 surrounding counties.
All death records for the county and state
Local city directories
School records
Surviving records for the local mortuaries and undertakers at the time
Surviving records for the monument companies at the time
Local prominent family histories
Who's who and significant passing collections for the area
Hypothetically it is fairly easy to surmise what may have happened. The woman interred was 34 years of age and entombed alone. Given she died in 1903, it is easy to imagine this as second marriage that occurred after the 1900 census where one or the other was a wealthy person of means, she likely died in an epidemic or childbirth. Given the cost of the mausoleum it is easy to imagine that any marriage may have occurred in a major east coast city or abroad, hence no local marriage record. The groom may have recently located to the area for business reasons and simply remarried and left the area. That would easily explain the lack of local records for people of such means. Of course all hypothetical but it makes more sense than this being an established local family that no one ever heard of before.
What was her name? Do you know anything about her besides her age & the year she passed on?
Her surname may be her birth name or her married name?
What a mystery!
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