Cemeteries: February 2008 Archives

cross-posted from CitiesOfTheDead (dot net)

Socola family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery Number Three, located on Esplanade Ave. by Bayou St. John.

One of the things that will catch my eye when I'm walking through a cemetery is an anomoly. This tomb has a glaring one, a modern metal plaque on the front stone. The architecture of this particular tomb is pretty common of late-19th/early 20th Century, but the metal plaque obviously was added much later. You can see another plaque on the side of the tomb as well.

Here's a closeup of the plaque on the front. The arch at the top of the tomb has "Famille Wm. Socola" engraved on it. William Socola, Jr., is the first name on the plaque, and the 1898 date confirms the tomb's approximate construction date. Madeline M. Socola could have been William Jr.'s wife or daughter.

The later names on the list show one of the problems geneaologists have when researching burial places in New Orleans. Looks like a Socola, married a Robert at some point. Since the wives often outlive the husbands, they often bury their husbands in their family's tomb (unless husband's family has a tomb of their own). It's usually easy for the woman to go to her family's matriarch, get the deed of the tomb to the funeral home, and take care of the arrangements. To hunt down an ancestor from New Orleans, be sure to look at both paternal and maternal burial sites.

The plaque on the side of this tomb also caught my eye. I didn't know "Mr. Kenny," but I knew and still know many men who are just like him, Boy Scout leaders who touched lives. I remember my Scoutmasters just as fondly as Troop 21 remembers Mr. Robert. When I go to adult Scout meetings (I'm an Assistant Scoutmaster for my son's troop), men will come up to me and introduce themselves, telling me how they remember my dad and all the work he did with Scouting when he was alive. (I always joke that I left Scouting when I was in eighth grade, but my dad never quit.) It was nice of the Socolas and Roberts to let the boys and men whose lives this leader touched to remember him in this way.

The stone at the bottom center of the tomb is the military-issue headstone provided by the VA for deceased veterans. It's for George Robert, who was in the US Army in both World Wars, retiring as a Major. He also received the Distinguished Service Medal.