Who Was Buried at Green-Wood, 1840-1937? Now It's Easier to Find Out.

We will be looking at how a Brooklyn cemetery uses 21st century technology to examine 19th- and twentieth-century records.

Image

A blockbuster movie about a ship was released in 1997. Hint: Someone called Jeff Richman to ask if there were any Titanic passengers buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Richman is the historian.

Richman replied, "I said, "No, I don’t think so." "Then, I went to the movie and saw that they were taking bodies out of the water. It occurred to me that my words had been too premature," Richman said. He checked the Green-Wood burial records and found an entry that was about a month old, just after the sinking of the great ship in April 1912. It stated that Wyckoff van Derhoef was a first-class passenger and was buried at Green-Wood.

Richman could answer the same question faster if he was asked it now.

Recent digitization of 60 volumes of the Green-Wood burial registry, which lists the names of all those who were buried there from 1840 to 1937, has been completed. Just under 433,000 names are contained in the ledgers. (The names of just under 433,000 people who have been buried at Green-Wood in the past 37 years are recorded on file cards and other records that have not yet been digitized.

Green-Wood was the second most visited tourist attraction in New York State at the turn of century after Niagara Falls. It was home to the famous and the unknown. Schwarz, the toy merchant; Henry Engelhard Steinway the sire of the piano making dynasty; Louis Comfort Tiffany the stained-glass genius; William Magear ('Boss) Tweed, a long-standing leader of Tammany Hall was in the second category when he died 1878.

However, digitizing old cemetery records raises the question: What is left to say long before the obituaries are written, the eulogies given and the estates settled.

It seems like a lot.

Although researchers have access to these huge chronological volumes, mining them is tedious and time-consuming. Stacy Locke, director of communications and historic collections at the cemetery, said, 'Having one open before you, it's difficult to work with. They are a valuable source of information.

The information can be digitized to make it searchable in new ways, which could provide insights into demographic trends, patterns of immigration or other public health trends. A New York University course on marginalized people will be the first to access the online database.

Green-Wood began digitizing the records before the pandemic. Before the outbreak, the 60 volumes were scanned by Green-Wood and then sent to an Indian company that keyed each entry. Locke stated that the process was delayed by the coronavirus, but it was slow because some cemetery recorders had legible handwriting while others didn't. She said that many people wrote in the ledgers over the 97-year period. "There were times when it was more difficult to read the letters.

Locke stated that each entry contained 12 data points. Locke stated that each entry contained 12 'data points'.

Locke was involved in proofreading material transcribed from India. She said that she was fascinated by the cause of death entries. She said that there were 'thousands of choleras and thousands of dysenteries'. Others were also believed to be caused by tuberculosis. Other chronic lung diseases, such as asbestosis, weren't identified until the late 20th century. She said digitization will allow researchers to cross-reference cemetery records with census data, which might reveal what someone did for a living.

She said, "This is what we hope researchers will look into." "There wasn't the same standardization of causes for death. You see them in different ways," she said. "Where you might today see bodily trauma you might also see something more specific like 'ground by train'.

Richman was the largest shareholder of an insurance company, which led to Richman's return to Van Derhoef. He had gone to Europe on a business-and-pleasure trip, according to Encyclopedia Titanica, which says that he was wearing 'evening dress' when his body was found, and he had two false teeth.

Richman stated that his house was still located on Joralemon Street. I stood across the street, and pondered his plans to go to Europe. What could possibly go wrong?

Weather

Partly sunny with temperatures in the 50s. Expect showers to occur at night with temperatures in the upper 40s.

In effect until April 6 (Passover).

Image

Trump

What's next? Donald Trump: This is what we know so far about the Trump investigation.

Witness attacks star witness's credibility: Robert Costello (an ex-legal adviser to Michael Cohen) appeared before a Manhattan grand jury at the request of the former President's lawyers. He provided testimony that aimed to attack the credibility of the prosecution star witness.

METROPOLITAN diary

Angel of the evening

Image

Dear Diary:

One Saturday night, as I was walking through my Crown Heights neighborhood, I noticed an older couple sitting at the curb and listening to music.

As I was recording a voice memo for myself, I noticed that someone else was walking by and I smiled and started to dance to the music.

The woman shouted at me. The woman yelled at me.

After a few minutes of smiling and sharing hugs with everyone around me, I continued to go.

The whole thing was recorded by my phone, which I discovered immediately. Maybe I'll listen to the entire encounter when life gets me down.

WebLink: http://marketfilibusters.com