St. Mary's Cemetery, Minneapolis

Hennepin County, Minnesota

Summer 1874 - September 1894

Albert B. Page, our great-grandfather, was the first supervisor of St. Mary's Cemetery.  Albert lived with his family on the cemetery property.  He kept his records in a 5 x 7 notebook. The book was used daily for 20 years and shows wear, tear, effects of rain, and some crossing off.   Entries were made with a pen & ink, and shapes of some letters are difficult to interpret. There are over 2,500 entries.  The book was donated by his granddaughter, Margaret McNamara Pexa (our aunt) to the Chancery of the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis in the 1980s.

This transcription is just one way to find out whether your ancestors may be buried in St. Mary's. This is not the definitive source for these years of St. Mary's Cemetery. Consider this transcription a source that will lead you to more reliable sources. Please be aware that lot numbers changed even during Albert's 20 years.

See search tips (below) for other pointers.

1874-1879    1880-1883   1884-1889  

1890-1891  1892-1894

No luck or don't know when your ancestor died? See our Advice page.

 

Sheila Northrop and Mary Wickersham, Midwest Ancestor Research 

Please contact us with your comments or questions.  We would appreciate hearing from you if you find an ancestor in the list - we would be happy to add your email link to the entry.

We are available for headstone transcriptions / digital photos; Minnesota death record, obituary and church record searches via MWAncestor.com

• Entries are in order from A.B. Page's notebook.  They are not in date order! 
• Occasionally an entry was made several weeks after the event, so check later months for "catch up" entries.
• Use your web browser's Find feature to search, and be prepared to use spelling variations.
• Albert used abbreviations and other words as names . . . for example, "Ptk" for "Patrick".   There is an entry in 1890 for a 7-week-old listed as "Foundling, Robbie". 
• Not all dates are burial dates! Some entries may include lot purchase dates, others reflect reburials.
• There are duplicate lot numbers within areas, and not all areas are noted. This could happen if a lot was used, then the remains were "removed" to another cemetery, then the lot used again.
• These files are large.  If you have difficulty viewing them, please let us know.

• Opened in 1873 by the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Basilica), control given over to Diocese in 1887.
• Embraces approximately 65 developed acres in the heart of South Minneapolis.
• Has had 64,200 interments since inception, with a current average of 175 burials per year.