T: Thursday, Traveling and Tombstones; F: Friday, Fathers and Finding

On a late March day, which is spring in St. Louis, we traveled north (but still within the City limits) to Calvary Cemetery in search of Frederick (my husband's father's people) and Sproull (his mother's people) ancestors.

We had been to Calvary the preceding fall, on a cold and damp day just after a period of heavy rains.  Armed with a downloaded map and the section numbers of the Frederick and Sproull plots (see the helpful website of The Archdiocese of St. Louis Catholic Cemeteries at: http://archstl.org/cemeteries/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,87/), we thought we would just wander through the designated sections until we found great-grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles.

Above is a map of the 477-acre cemetery where at least 300,000 individuals are interred.  Below is a map of just one of the sections, number 26, where the Fredericks were to be found.  There are hundreds of plots in each section, and can be several graves within each plot.  

This is why we came back in the spring, on a warm and sunny day when the very helpful staff of the cemetery's office was available to give us detailed directions.

Not only could we get directions, we were able to have a copy of the record containing the name of the lot owner, date of purchase and a list of each grave site within the plot, with date and type of burial.

Above is a copy of the burial information we found for my husband's great-grandfather, Frank Frederick, who died on 23 January 1938 and was buried on January 27.  He rests near his wife, Mary Connor Frederick, who died on 29 November 1937, and was originally buried in another section of the cemetery, then moved into the family plot on 25 February 1938.  Also moved from his original resting place was their son Joseph E. Frederick (1896-1928).

The plot also contains the ashes of another son, Harry Edward Frederick (1899-1970) and the remains of a daughter, May C. Frederick McDonough (1901-1993) and her husband Thomas P. McDonough (1901-1988).

Unfortunately, none of these graves is marked.  There were, though, some tiny white wildflowers blooming there that day:

 
We were excited (if one can use that word in a cemetery) to find that the Sproull grave sites are marked:

Above is the marker of Mary A. Gardner Sproull (1867-1917), my husband's great grandmother, whose grave was also moved to this spot.  Near her are her son, Roy John Sproull (1900-1931), her son Leo G. Sproull (1904-1986) and a grandson John Edward Burke (1917-1989).

Many more Frederick and Sproull relatives are buried in Calvary and the equally huge Bellefontaine Cemetery next to it, all waiting for a visit on a future date.