The latest addition to the transcription projects on the website of the Troy Irish Genealogy Society, troyirish are the recently discovered interment records of 12,731 individual from the long closed St. Johns Cemetery in Albany New York. St. Johns Cemetery was located on Delaware Avenue in Albany, New York. To see these records on the TIGS website, click on PROJECTS and then ST. JOHNS CEMETERY, ALBANY, NY - INTERMENT RECORDS. It had been widely reported that the interment records for this cemetery, covering interments starting over 173 years ago, had been lost or destroyed. However, in a recent chance conversation with the Historian at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands, New York, it was discovered that the mostly intact St. Johns interment book was in the possession of a retired cemetery employee and the book was promptly recovered. St. Johns Cemetery was opened in 1841 by St. Johns Church in Albany in an area which was considered country at that time. However, with the growth of the City of Albany, the cemetery land was wanted for development and in 1878 and 1879, the Albany City Council ordered that no further burials were to be made there and the cemetery had to close. Burials, however, continued as late as 1888-1890 before the cemetery closed and re-interments of the thousands of individuals buried there was started in the early 1900s. This long closed church of St. Johns was located on Green Street in Albanys South End and its parishioners were mainly Irish famine immigrants that began pouring into Albany during the 1820s and 1830s. This Irish connection is shown in the following summary of burials of this first generation of Irish immigrants, which, for the most part are identified as to the County in Ireland where they came from. It can be assumed that many of the other 46 years of interment records in this cemetery were for the children and grandchildren of these early Irish immigrants. A breakdown of the Irish immigrants identified on the interment records with their home county in Ireland shows the following: Antrim -10 Armagh - 35 Carlow - 80 Cavan - 307 Claire - 62 Cork - 376 Derry - 22 Donegal - 28 Down - 39 Dublin - 52 Fermangh - 30 Galway - 39 Kerry - 76 Kildare - 38 Kilkenny - 195 Kings - 114 Leitrim - 28 Limerick - 160 Londonderry - 5 Longford - 143 Louth - 93 Mayo - 36 Meath - 116 Monaghan - 47 Queens - 114 Roscommon - 159 Sligo - 47 Tipperary - 458 Tyrone - 91 Waterford - 83 Westmeath - 138 Wexford - 131 Wicklow - 43 Ireland-No County - 500 TOTAL IRISH - 3,895 Other countries of origin identified in the interment records list Canada-89, England-30, France-8, Germany-198, Holland-7, Poland-2, Scotland-6, Spain-1 and Wales-2. Also identified were individuals from the following states; California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia. A smaller number of records shows one or two individuals from all over New York State cities, towns and counties while three locations show a heavier concentration; Rensselaer with 106, Greenbush with 77 and New York City with 63. As would be expected, Albany with a total of 5,815 records was shown as the county of origin for the largest number of individuals. Of course this figure includes the second and third generations for those early Irish immigrants. These fantastic records from this recently rediscovered interment book is a wonderful find for genealogists, especially for those researching Irish surnames. As genealogists searching Irish surnames often find out, it is quite rare to find records that identify the Irish county of orgin. Bill McGrath TIGS Project Coordinator Clifton Park, NY
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:11:42 +0000
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