Tombstone Tuesday - Barry/Bannon/Fitzsimmons at Calvary

Photographed by me in 2019.

Although I was able to resist renewing my Ancestry membership while I was researching the Coughlin headstone, I broke down about a week ago and have already connected to some interesting documentation. This plot, also at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, has been at the center of the most interesting so far.

After concluding the Coughlin headstone series, I went back to more traditional research on Donald's Barry lines, starting with his maternal grandparents, William Francis (Buster) Bannon and Catherine Winifred Barry and Catherine's parents, Edward Barry and Mary Fitzsimmons. While I was reviewing Ancestry hints, new and old, I saw that I had, years ago, accepted a hint from FindAGrave. I was confused, though, because the headstone photo I saw when I followed the link was not the same headstone that I photographed in the summer of 2019. I almost rejected the hint until I realized that the information on the headstone matched Donald's family, but was missing his grandfather's name.

Used with permission.

This was the original headstone for this plot, replaced after Buster's death in 1985 because his name would not fit. It rested on the back of the new headstone for many years, but when Donald visited in 2003, the old stone had disappeared.

After Donald told me the story, I sent a message to the contributor of the photo, thinking they would never remember it eleven years later, and ended up speaking with him on the phone. But he did remember, having found the stone in 2009 behind some planks of wood in the general vicinity of the plot and photographing it, not knowing any details of course, and putting it up on Find A Grave for the family to hopefully find one day. He was even kind enough to scan a map with the location of the headstone as he found it eleven years ago and email it to me last night.

Late this morning, Donald and I made our way to Calvary Cemetery to see what we could find. As we pretty much expected, we found that the headstone was now gone again, which was a bit of a let down, although I'm not really sure what we would have done with the stone had we found it. I'm sure it was supposed to have been taken by the monument company when the new stone was installed.

The best part for me is that we have this photo of the original headstone and can document the change. You just never know where a day of combing through Ancestry documents will take you.