Detroit’s Sacred Heart of St. Mary Cemetery’s Burial Records Nearing End of Their Reconstruction
The following excerpt is from an AP article posted May 20, 2011 at MLive.com:
A decades-long quest to reconstruct thousands of missing burial records at a Detroit cemetery is nearing its end.The Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan tackled the mystery 20 years ago after it found out that Sacred Heart of St. Mary Cemetery‘s burial records were gone.
The effort was set to draw closer to a finishing point on Saturday, when the society’s members, assisted by a Boy Scout troop, are to uncover 1,000 buried gravestones.
Sweetest Heart of Mary Church opened the cemetery in 1889 after members were excommunicated for joining the splinter church and couldn’t be buried in a regular Catholic cemetery.
Early burial records were destroyed by a flood of the church basement and a fire at the cemetery office.
The genealogical group filled the void by scouring death certificates and monument company sales records and collecting information from each gravestone in the three-block-long cemetery.
“I’m a nostalgic person,” Roger Laske, who helped revive the project in 2009, told The Detroit News. “I just feel sorry for people who are looking for ancestors but can’t find them.”
Members of the genealogical society were tracing their family roots in 1991 when they learned about the damaged burial records. The missing data spanned from 1889 to 1940.
The society’s members decided to try to re-create the records.
Little did they know, they’d still be at it two decades later.
September 13th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
was wondering if you can e mail me a photo of my mothers grave.eileen virginia bemis borghi,bgldy414@aol.com. ty very much. will get to michigan one day.francine sperre.
September 13th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Francine,
I live a couple thousand miles from Detroit, but maybe one of our readers can help you out.
Leland
January 2nd, 2013 at 10:49 am
Hello Ms. Sperre,
I still live in Metro Detroit and actually went to Sacred Heart Cemetery a couple of weeks ago to pray and see my family members who are buried there. I was unable to find your mother’s grave, however,would you be able to tell me if her full name (eileen virginia bemis borgi) would be on her stone or not? I spoke with a helpful worker at the cemetery, however we were still unable to locate it. I can try again if I know the exact spelling of her name and the approximate birth and/or death year. They are also trying to uncover graves from the early 20th century. thank you and take care.
January 9th, 2013 at 10:54 pm
Hello, My name is Fred Kuplicki from Heritage Research… and I have been the Sacred Heart of St Mary Cemetery Project Director, on behalf of the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan for the past 17 years.
Your mother is buried in the South Plot Section SG Row 1 Grave 40B
Addres Name Born Died
SG1040B BORGHI EILEEN 1923 22-Mar 1991
I’ll be glad to take a photo for you on my next trip to the cemetery.
Is there a possibility that your mother was cremated?
More info regarding the cemetery including a video presentation can be seen on my web page http://www.kupcomedia.com under the Heritage Research section. You can also contact me at heritage@kupcomedia.com
March 6th, 2013 at 11:01 am
Hi my mother birthday is today.. her name is Tenika Hiter. I need to know exactly where shes buried my family never got a headstone! Can you please help me
March 30th, 2013 at 6:49 am
I thought my family grave sites were lost and would really like to know if their graves have been found, I know they were in parts of the older sections. John Baranowski would be a good one to start with, he was buried in 1912. Any help would be appreciated