Pictures on Gravestones

Gravestone of Di Agostino family:
Anna, Constandino, and their daughter Mary

Ceramic pictures occasionally appear on gravestones. Photographing them helps preserve these images.

These images of Anna Picone (1875-1958) and Constandino Di Agostino (1877-1936) are affixed to their gravestone in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. As time passes, these pictures will become worn. They might fall from the stone or go missing.

(Holy Sepulchre lies in East Orange and Newark. This gravestone is in Newark.)

Some poking around at Ancestry revealed that someone else took pictures of these photographs, but now they are preserved in additional locations online.

Obituary of Anna Di Agostino, born Picone.
May 8, 1958. Newark Star Ledger newspaper.

Anna's obituary references a tunnel leading to parking area. Anyone know what or where this is? Is it South Orange Avenue (County Route 510) as it passes under the Parkway? Section V, where this gravestone resides, is close to the Garden State Parkway. It is visible from the northbound lanes. The Parkway was nearing completion in 1958, when Anna died.

Picture taken standing in Section V and the Parkway
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey

The southbound lanes border another side of the cemetery. Below is an undated earlier aerial picture of the Parkway and the cemetery on both sides of the road, followed by the modern-day Google aerial map.

Historical photograph of the Garden State Parkway.
This section lies in Newark, New Jersey.
The Parkway does not run through West Orange.

Same view of the Parkway and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery modern-day

Cadet William Lowry Lyman (1923-1943)

Picture of gravestone for William Lowry Lyman, Jr
Montclair Public Library Online Photo Collection
https://www.digifind-it.com/montclair/pages/P3642.php

While scrolling through the online collections of the Montclair Public Library (Essex County, New Jersey), I found a picture of the gravestone for William Lowry Lyman, Jr. No details, such as a cemetery, were provided.

The inscription:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

WILLIAM LOWRY LYMAN JR

CADET MIDSHIPMAN U.S. M.M.

MARCH 25, 1923 - JULY 13, 1943

KILLED IN THE INVASION OF SICILY

The Lyman family plot is in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Montclair.

The stone from the photograph was in this plot. It is a flat stone, still fully readable.

See William's entry on Find A Grave, linking his family

William registered for the draft on June 30, 1942 in Montclair. He was 19 years old. (You can view these cards in Ancestry.com's collection, United States World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.)

The first article I found about William appeared in the Montclair Times on September 9, 1943. He was reported as Missing in Action. He was a cadet in the Merchant Marines. His ship was sunk during the Invasion of Sicily. His picture was printed next to the article.

On September 30, an article referred to William as one of four who had made "the supreme sacrifice."

One November 11 (Veterans Day), William was listed as "missing."

For Decoration Day (now known better as Memorial Day) of 1944, May 25, William was listed among those dead from World War II.

What may have happened was the William was onboard a ship that was sunk on July 13, 1943. His whereabouts were initially unknown. As time passed, he was not located. This could be how this date became his date of death.

Just in Time to Appear in the Census

I photographed the gravestone of Lucie Skehan McCrea (1893-1920) for upload to Find A Grave.

Mount Hebron Cemetery
Montclair, New Jersey

I looked for Lucie on Ancestry.com to see if she could be linked to others in this cemetery.

Lucie died in Pelham, Westchester County, New York. These indexes are online. The actual death certificates, however, can only be ordered through the New York State Department of Health for $22.

Lucie was enumerated in the 1920 census in Pelham with her husband, Daniel McCrea (1883-1936).

Newspaper articles popped up, so I took a look.

Transcription of death notice:

McCrea. - At Pelham, N.Y., January 19, 1920, LUCIE SKEHAN, wife of Daniel W. McCrea. Funeral at St. Catherine's Church, Pelham, N.Y., Wednesday, January 21, ten A.M. Interment private.

Lucie died very early in the year- January 19, 1920. So I went back and looked at the date on the census.

These census entries were recorded the day Lucie died! Was she at home when the census taker arrived? Was she ill at the time?

Hint: Surname as a Middle Name

Catherine B Dunn (1865-1944) and William Walling Winterton (1863-1932) were my great great grandparents. Catherine's paternal grandfather, Nathan or Nathaniel H Dunn, is a tail in my family tree.

From what I can ascertain, Nathaniel Dunn married Sarah Adams (1796-1882). In 1831, Nathaniel signed a receipt for the estate of Sarah's father, Ezra Adams (1768-1824), in Nottingham, then in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Nathaniel Dunn and Sarah Adams had at least four children:
-Ezra Adams Dunn, born about 1821 (the father of Catherine B Dunn), married Hermoine Dunlop.
-Lucy Ann Dunn, born about 1822, married George P Sweet, then John S Seal.
-Sarah B Dunn, born about 1833, married James Burroughs Keller.
-David T Dunn, born about 1836, married Lucy M Smith.

The first available census for New Jersey is 1830. In Nottingham, Burlington County, is Nathaniel Dunn. He is probably the male "age 30 and under 40," making him born between 1790-1800.  Ezra could be the male "age 5 and under 10," born in 1821. The other male under age 5 could be a son not found yet or someone the family cared for.

The female "age 30 and under 40" is probably the matriarch Sarah Adams, born around 1796. Then we have three females between the ages of 5 and ten. I know of Lucy, born about 1822, but the other two are a mystery (at this point).

Nottingham is probably in Mercer County today.

In the 1840 census, Nathan Dunn likely has moved. He is in Northampton, Burlington County. This is probably now called Mount Holly and is still in Burlington County. Again we try to account for the number of people living in the household.

1 male age 15 and under 20: David born 1836.

1 male age 20 and under 30: Ezra  born 1821.

1 male age 50 and under 60: Nathan born between 1780-1790.

1 female age 10 and under 15: Sarah born 1833.

3 females age 40 and under 50: one is Sarah born around 1796.

Who are the other two older females? We may never know.

Daughter Lucy, born 1822, was married in 1840 to George Sweet. So she may not be in this household.

When viewing the 1840 census, remember to check the second page, which lists number of slaves in the household and occupations. Entries were not numbered until the 1850 census, so you have to count down the page to get to your household of interest. Make sure that the total number of people adds up. Nathan Dunn owned no slaves in 1840. Nobody in his household was employed in any of the named professions.

That's all we have to go on for Nathaniel Dunn.

In 1850, Sarah Adams, the widow of Nathaniel Dunn, appears as head of her household in Trenton, Mercer County, with two of her children, Sarah and David. So Nathaniel Dunn probably died sometime between the 1840 census and the 1850 census. I cannot find a will, death record, or obituary.

In 1850, my third great grandfather, Ezra Dunn, had moved to Raritan (now called Hazlet) in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and started his family.

A cousin sent me family pictures and notes, including estate papers for John Dunlop Dunn (1870-1939), an unmarried brother of Catherine B Dunn. For the first time I saw the middle name of Catherine. BUTTERFOSS. What an unusual middle name. It had to be a family name. But I didn't see it in her ancestors. BUT if I looked for a Butterfoss already entered in my family tree, I would have saved myself time. Instead, we get a longer research story.

After failing to find a Butterfoss ancestor for Catherine B Dunn in my tree, I looked online for a New Jersey marriage between a Butterfoss and a Dunn and found one.

Family Search had an entry for a Catharine A Dunn (I like that name) and John X or M Butterfoss marrying in 1849 in Trenton. My Dunns were from the Trenton area. This could be a big clue. But what is this record? I cannot see it from home.

This "record" is a card index of the newspaper Trenton State Gazette, available at the New Jersey State Archives and digitized by Family Search, though not viewable at home. I viewed the image at a nearby Family History Center.

The Trenton State Gazette is online at Genealogy Bank (subscription required). A textual search for this marriage did not produce any results. Using the information from this card, I found the mention for this marriage. The date of marriage was November 21, 1849.

Unfortunately the marriage notice provided no details such as parentage.


In 1850, John H Butterfoss and Catharine A Dunn lived in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey.

In 1860, John and Catherine lived in Lambertville, Hunterdon County.

From 1851 through 1864, they had at least five daughters who lived to adulthood:
-Mary, born about 1851, last seen in (a double enumeration in) the 1880 census.
-Sarah Elizabeth, born about 1853, died in 1923 in Washington, DC.
-Hannah, born about 1857, first married Winfield Broadhurst, then married Charles Dalrymple; had children by both husbands; died in 1924.
-Laura, born about 1859, died in 1917 in Washington, DC.
-Josephine, born about 1864, died in 1911; married Frank McMahon, one-time mayor of Rumson, New Jersey.


I retrieved the marriage records of Hannah to Charles Dalrymple and Josephine to Frank McMahon to make sure that I was indeed dealing with children of Catharine Dunn. That is what the records read, if you saw through the downward F loop of Butterfoss.

This is my line of descent from my earliest known Dunn ancestor. Is there a connection between my Dunns and the Catharine A Dunn, born about 1825, who married John H Butterfoss?

Catharine Dunn died after the birth of Josephine in 1864 and before the 1870 census, when John Butterfoss is remarried to Ann Lake. John created a successful tomato canning business in Lambertville, though neighbors despised the smell and waste products.

Ann Lake, the second wife of John Butterfoss, died in 1907. She was not called a step-mother in her obituary.

John H Butterfoss, his wives, and two daughters, Laura and Sarah, are entered at Find A Grave in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lambertville, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. There was confusion about the wives, but that was cleared up as per my suggestions. There are no pictures of the stones, if there are any.

Online family trees are not sure if John Butterfoss had one or two wives, nevermind who the parents were of Catharine Dunn. (But one has pictures of the family! John, all five children, and probably Ann- not Catharine, based on the age of the youngest child.)

I was going to leave this open for now as a mystery. But I stumbled upon a connection while reviewing the widow of Nathaniel Dunn, Sarah Adams. I was not going to bore you with her census entries of 1860, 1870, and 1880. I reviewed them myself.

You need to see 1880. I already had Mary A Butterfoss, born 1852, in my tree. She is enumerated twice.  Once with Sarah Dunn in Trenton and again with her parents in Lambertville. When entering members of a household from a census into the family tree, my practice is to enter everyone- lodgers, boarders, servants. They are usually family, or become family.

When I looked for a Butterfoss initially, I only looked to the sparse ancestors of my Catherine B Dunn (1865-1944). I should have looked for Butterfoss in my entire tree, not just in the ancestors of Catherine B Dunn.

This is the clue sitting in front of me for years. Darn it. This is the right Mary Butterfoss because "tinning store" is what her father's factory was called.

Mary was a niece of Sarah Keller. Sarah was born around 1833, and was the widow of James Burroughs Keller and the daughter of Nathaniel Dunn (the original tail end of the this story) and Sarah Adams (1796-1882). We know that Mary Butterfoss' mother was Catharine Dunn, born around 1825.

It is plausible that Sarah Dunn, born 1833, and Catharine Dunn, born 1825, were daughters of Nathaniel Dunn and Sarah Adams. Going back to the 1830 census, there is room for another little girl in Catharine's age range in the household, though not in the 1840 census.

I have to revise one of the paragraphs above to read:
Nathaniel Dunn and Sarah Adams had at least four five children:
-Ezra Adams Dunn, born about 1821 (the father of Catherine B Dunn), married Hermoin Dunlop.
-Lucy Ann Dunn, born about 1822, married George P Sweet, then John S Seal.
-Catharine A Dunn, born about 1825, married John H Butterfoss.
-Sarah B Dunn, born about 1833, married James Burroughs Keller.
-David T Dunn, born about 1836, married Lucy M Smith.


Sarah Butterfoss, a daughter of Catharine Dunn (born 1825), had a passport with a photo. She would have been a first cousin to my Catherine B Dunn if the above construct is correct. I think they resemble each other.

Sarah was still traveling the globe in 1922, one year before she died at age 70.


The tail end remains in place but another branch is squeezed in. Welcome to the family, Butterfoss/Dunn descendants.

Year of Death Questionable in Spite of Multiple Records

In what year did Emma Dunn, wife of Andrew J Newcomb (1851-1929), die?

She was born around 1855, likely in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey, to Ezra A Dunn (1821-1898) and Hermoine Dunlop (1827-1900).

She died in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, according to the resources that provide a location.  All resources have the same month and day- January 31.

The year differs.

Below are the offerings.

1.  Gravestone: 1890

Entry on Find A Grave and photo by CindyS.

2.  Online death indexes for New Jersey

Of note- New Jersey indexes for deaths prior to 1901 do not run on a calendar year.  Deaths for the years of concern here (1888, 1889, or 1890) were compiled from July 1 of one year through June 30 of the following year.  So the entry at Family Search for a death from January through June of 1888 would have been in 1889.  Entries for January through June are off by one year.

     a.  Family Search: 1888

     b.  New Jersey State Archives Index: 1889

3.  Death certificate:  January 31, 1889.

Cause of death was pneumonia.

4.  Deaths listed in newspaper, The Red Bank Register: 1890.

So which one is correct?

The indexes are not actually records; rather, they are guides to help find the record, which I did- the death certificate.  The death certificate is a primary source.  It was created at the time of the event.  This certificate has the year 1889.  I included the indexes to demonstrate that this certificate with a date of death of January 31, 1889 was filed with the other death certificates for July 1, 1888 through June 30, 1889.  Certificates for the time period are not filed alphabetically, but by fiscal year.

The gravestone is a derivative source.  We don't know when the stone was carved.  It is possible for gravestones to have the wrong dates, especially if created years after a person died.  Emma's stone may have not been carved when she died.  Her infant daughter, Viva, died shortly before Emma in 1888.  Viva's information is carved below Emma's entry and there is no room on the stone for anyone else.  This indicates that the stone was not created for Viva, but for Emma, evidencing a time lag.  But it is a vote for 1890.

The death listing is another matter.  While not a primary source, a newspaper would contain contemporaneous information.  The news of Emma's death may have taken a few days to reach the Red Bank newspaper from East Orange, but it should not have taken a year.  This is another vote for 1890.

We go back to the death certificate.  A habit that people have every January is that they write the prior year instead of the new year.  The year on the death certificate is a scribble.  If Emma actually died in 1890, and the writer put 1889 on the death certificate, how did it get filed with the prior year's certificates?  There is no "received date" on the certificate.  Were the certificates not organized and logged until later?

Another Family Tip via Find A Grave

Another family research tidbit in the form of a correction at Find A Grave.


Someone requested an amendment to Andrew J Newcomb's Find A Grave memorial to display his date of death in January.  No day.  The year, 1929, is from the stone.  How could someone know that he died in the month of January, but not which day?  I investigated.

Andrew J Newcomb (1851-1929) married my third grand aunt, Emma Dunn (1855 - 1889 or 1890) in 1875 in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  I descend from Emma's sister, Catherine Dunn (1865-1944).

After Emma died, Andrew remarried to Ann McKee (born about 1856) in Brooklyn, New York in 1892.  Andrew and Ann lived in Brooklyn and later North Hempstead, Nassau County, New York.

Andrew was buried in his family plot in Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Only the years of birth and death are etched on the fallen monument.

Newcomb monument at Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport, New Jersey.
Picture taken 2015 April 23 by Jody Lutter.
William was the son of Andrew Newcomb and Emma Dunn.

I'm not one to blindly amend information that Andrew Newcomb died in January of 1929.  So I checked out the newly released indexes for New York state deaths.  [Nassau County deaths are filed with the State of New York.]  No match for Andrew.  Nothing in the New York City deaths.  Yes, New York City is not filed with New York State.

New Jersey does not have an online index for deaths after 1903.

So I turned to newspapers to try to find the source of Andrew Newcomb's death in January of 1929.

I found two articles.  Sad story.  He left his home in North Hempstead to visit family in Matawan.  He never arrived.  His frozen body was found in nearby Laurence Harbor in January of 1929.

On my next trip to the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton, I will look for a death certificate filed in 1929.

This branch is of interest to me because Andrew's grandson, William J Newcomb (1903-1984), is one of the few people identified in photographs from an album I have.