Searching at Greensburg Catholic Cemetery

My wait was finally over! I have been looking at Greensburg Catholic Cemetery online for over a year now. Every time I work on my Kuth line, I would go back and search the cemeteries to see if I could find anything. I kept looking at this cemetery and thinking- the family I was searching lived somewhat close to this cemetery, so they might be buried there. Then of course getting there was a whole other situation.

Finally back in June I decided this had to be the cemetery I needed to go and search at. There is not an online transcription for this cemetery anywhere that I could find.

With the price of gas I could not convince my family to make the road trip to a cemetery in another state. Other than the actual cost of the trip; it did seem reasonable to me to go to this cemetery that was 5 hours away. (Stop laughing, sometimes hunches work out.) Oh and my family is less than happy to stop at cemeteries, in case you were wondering. Me, I can stay for hours and search. My guys on the other hand get bored and just want to go. They will humor for a short time if they must. It is always better to agree to a cemetery than to a place that has books or film to look at.

I actually went to the cemetery on my way home from Pittsburgh, it was a bit further than I expected but with the GPS and an about address I got almost there. I really think the GPS units should have a whole section for cemetery addresses. They list the library, the mall, every gas station anywhere, plus a lot of other useless addresses- so why not the useful ones? I did have to call home and have Michael look up some information about the location of the cemetery. As I was saying, on my way home which was Friday (you know, before the Labor Day weekend). I arrived at the cemetery at 3:43 PM. (Did you see the sign below?) That is right, I watched all the employees leave the office building and go home. I knew going and asking even one question would be bad. So I proceeded to drive around the cemetery until I found what I was looking for. This is a large cemetery by the way.

As I drove around the cemetery I looked for anything that might be familiar. I found several tombstones that had the Bell family name on them. The Bell family name was the main family I was looking for at this cemetery. My great-great-grandmother was Mary Ann Bell. Mary's family lived in the Greensburg area and they were Catholic. Mary Ann Bell was married to Anthony Kuth. I know Anthony is buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery in North Versailles, Pennsylvania. He is buried with his second wife, Mary Arabella Grubb and two of his sons (Andrew and Clarence Florian). I do not know where Mary Ann Bell is buried, yet.

I did find Mary's parents. I was in total shock and absolutely thrilled!!! I also have to admit I even started crying. I went to this cemetery on a hunch and I really thought I was right. To add to that the fact that I just drove around looking to see what I could find, the fact that I found anything at all was terrific.

Mary's father was George Bell, he was born 4 June 1821 in Saarbrucken, Germany. George immigrated with his family in the early 1850's. He was a coal miner. He died 14 May 1900 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

These tombstones had writing on both sides, so I took pictures of both sides. This side was hard to read. This was the side that was visible from the road.

This side was much clearer.

Mary's mother was Barbara DeTemple Bell, she was born 25 February 1825 in Saarbrucken, Germany. She immigrated with her husband and family in the early 1850's. When she immigrated, she also brought her mother with her.

Her mother was Margaretha Knauber DeTemple. I do not know much about Margaretha as her information varies too much. I have found her in the 1860 Census as 70 years old, the 1870 Census as 95 years old, and last in the 1880 Census as 85 yeard old. I do realize she was probably quite old and I would guess spoke with a heavy German accent. This might have made it difficult or impossible to obtain information from her.

Barbara DeTemple Bell died 4 December 1900 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

I have some other Bell tombstones that I took pictures of. I am not listing them here as I have not gone through and verified the information as of yet. I know that I found at least one child of
George and Barbara while I was there at the cemetery.

I did not find Mary Ann Bell Kuth. Mary was born 22 September 1848 in Fischback, Prussia and died 25 November 1896 in Newton Township, Pennsylvania. So she died prior to her parents and is not buried in the same cemetery as her husband. I tried to obtain a death certificate, hence the startled expressions of those that have looked at my book and saw the letter about Mary Kuth, but the state says there is no death certificate for her. She could still be buried in Greensburg Catholic Cemetery, but I did not find her on this trip.

I will be posting my cemetery findings on Find a Grave. I am also working on getting pictures on this website for cemetery information I have already posted.

If you can add any information about the Bell family, please let me know. I have had a hard time finding information but I am not giving up. I do not have any photos of this family, but I would love to find some.

Grave Searching at St. Mary's Cemetery

During my recent visit to Pittsburgh I journeyed out to St. Mary's Cemetery on Mt. Troy Road. The distinction of it being on Mt. Troy Road is somewhat important as there are other cemeteries called St. Mary's in the Pittsburgh area.

When I arrived at the cemetery I found that the office was of course closed. I could not find a map for the cemetery, except the online map. The online map will not print for me, so I did not have an actual physical copy of it with me. I did try to access it online using my phone, have you seen the size of the screen on my phone? I did have some information from the internet with sections of where I might find the graves; but of course the sections were not clearly marked at the cemetery. So that was very little help.

I did finally find the graves I was looking for, well 2 out of 3 of the graves I was searching for. If you check out the online map (click on it) the graves for Bertha Kerchenske and Florence Kuth are both located in section #3 in the Special Singles graves.

This is a picture of the chapel that is located at the cemetery.


Bertha Kerchenske is my great-grandmother. I was not really sure until I found the tombstone that she actually had one (the same for Florence). Bertha is the daughter of James and Emma Jane (Lane) Malone. She was the wife to Andrew Kuth, Robert McClure, and Clifford Kerchenske. She was the mother to Edward, Kathleen, Genevieve and Florence Kuth; she was also the mother of Robert, John, Richard, Helen, Mary, and Patrica McClure.

Bertha was born 22 June 1896 in Pennsylvania; she died 6 October 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Florence Kuth was daughter of Andrew and Bertha (Malone) Kuth. Florence was born probably 4 months after the death of Andrew Kuth. The only record of Andrew I have obtained is from the cemetery, the old records were very hard to read.

Florence was born 23 June 1924 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, she died 25 May 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In the same section that Bertha and Florence are buried in, I found this tombstone. This could be the son of Bertha, but I have no proof of that at this time. If someone knows for sure, please tell me. Otherwise I will look for some information to see if this is a relative.

Finally, while at the cemetery I was able to watch the horses at the farm located behind the cemetery. This little one was curious and kept watching me. Probably wondering why I kept walking back and forth actually....

Comments and Questions

Both are great! If you have comments, please leave them here on the blog. If you have questions, use the comment field to ask or you can send me an email. If it is something you would like to see on here, let me know and I will try to accommodate your request. I am happy to post information and pictures.

I have tried to spread out and search many lines of our families. So I may have gathered some information and stored it away. Sometimes I also get sidetracked with either life or a different line that calls out to me. So if there is something you are interested in reading about, let me know.

I am currently doing research in the following areas (yes, I know I am really spread out):

• Kuth Family
• Allegheny County, Pennsylvania cemeteries
• Hardin County, Kentucky- mostly land records and vital records
• Lewis Family- yes they are still hanging around
• Jefferson County, Pennsylvania- mostly vital records for now
• Roose or Rose Family (I think it is just Roose Family, sorry)
• Day Family

Later this month I will be in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and I will be working on some genealogy. I have been gathering maps and other information to facilitate the research. I have a few cemeteries picked out to visit, I have no idea if what I want is there but I sure am going to look. I am also hoping to get to the library while I am there. If you know of something else for me to check out, let me know. I will have a day or two on my own and I will have some time to work on this.

I am also getting some information ready to go to the Family History Libary in Salt Lake City. I am excited to go there, it is like going to Disney World for me. I already have so much stuff that I want to research, I am just hoping to have enough time to get it all done. I do not have nearly the list I had when I went with Donna last year, but I sure am working on it. If you want to see some information about the FHL, click on the link and you will go to the website. If you right click on it, you can open the link in a new tab or window (right click does not work on a laptop, unless you have a mouse). If you want to see what they have in the library, you can go to the tab at the top that says Library, then go to the Library Catalog. You will find everything they have in the library and also films that you can order at your local FHC. If you need help finding this, let me know and I can walk you through it over the phone. You can also ask Zach, he should be able to walk you through that as well.

If by some chance you are thinking you would like to go along to do some research with me, I always welcome the help. I am glutton for punishment, I even take the unwilling to help and put them to work too. I have been to both of these places before and I will hope to go to these places again, so I will not be putting in such long hours. (Grin?) Long hours like I have in the past anyway. If I go on my own, it will be long hours I am sure though. So if I am supposed to be somewhere after I do research, this is your official warning to call and remind me to leave where I am doing research. I do tend to lose track of time (and meals) and/or try to get just one more thing done.

I hope you all enjoy these tidbits about the family.

It's a Wedding!

To actually be able to read this, you will need to double click on it and that will enlarge the picture for you. You can also save it and view it on your computer so you can zoom in to see this better.




I was emailing with a new Genealogy Friend this past Saturday when we went off onto the subject of County Mayo, Ireland. I have never gone and tried to search down the records for my McDonough family from that area, I always had so many other things to do and it is intimidating for me. So like everyone else, I have skirted around the subject.

Well anyway, I got to thinking about my McDonough relatives and thought I would give it another look and see as to what I could find. As you can see I found something.....

I was looking at historical newspapers on Ancestry today. Sometimes when I search them I find some really great stuff, other times I am amazed that that word even looks like what I am searching. When I typed in the name of Michael Canaan I was able to find this newspaper announcing the wedding of Warren F. Weber and Mary Margaret Canaan on 27 June 1934. Really cool! Oh, Mary Canaan is the daughter of Michael and Belinda (McDonough) Canaan.

Michael Canaan was born in Syria and immigrated to the United States with his parents and siblings. He was a fireman in the Dayton, Ohio area. Michael married Belinda McDonough who was born in County Mayo, Ireland. Belinda immigrated to the United States as a single woman. Belinda is the sister to Mary Ann McDonough McMurray. I am told she is known as Aunt Bell from Ohio.

Belinda had a sister named Sarah McDonough that lived in Ohio, Sarah lived with the Canaan family. Sarah also was born in County Mayo and immigrated, but she never married.

I do not have any pictures of these people. I would really like to have some pictures of them, so if you are reading this and would like to share your pictures please let me know. I am very content with copies!

After finding this article today I continued to search using different family names from the Canaan, McDonough, and Weber family. I was able to find a number of articles about these families. Here is what I was able to find:

• Obituary for Michael Canaan's mother- Mary Canaan. It listed that she died at her daughter's home, listed the daughter as Mrs. C.L. Sanders (so I got her married name and her husband's name right there), it listed the cemetery that Mary is buried in, the church where the funeral mass was held, and living children. Also listed was the pallbearers for the funeral, I have not tracked down their names to see if all of them were related. I know at least 2 of them were.
• Obituary for Warren Weber's father- Edward Weber. It listed his residence, where he was born, his occupation, his wife's full maiden name, the names of his living children (listing the daughters using their married names) and where they were living, the name of the cemetery he is buried in and what church the mass was held at. Again with the pallbearers, but I have not tracked down all of their names.
• The listing a birth and death of a baby.
• Social functions that family members attended. This might not seem like much help, seeing their social calendar. The thing to remember here is that they attend weddings, showers, birthdays, anniversary parties, and many other events that are related to significant things in their lives.
• One social function in particular caught my eye. I had previously found a passenger ship record for Donald Canaan. He was traveling from Ireland to Ohio with just his mother. I know Donald was born in Ohio, so I thought this was odd. One of the articles I found today listed the Mary Weber hosted a party prior to Sarah McDonough, Belinda and Donald Canaan went to Ireland for a visit. I thought it was interesting as they were gone for several months. I did not find when Sarah returned from Ireland, as it appears she was not on the same ship. I will need to go back and check the rest of the ship records.
• I also found some other articles covering other activities the family were involved with.

I must say that I have searched newspapers at various archive places. You have to find the film, load it into the machine, then wind through the reel looking at each and every page. It is very long and very tedious. Especially when you are looking for a single event and you are not sure of the date. I have done this. I much prefer to search online and have an index look it up for me. I was able to read articles covering a 20 year time period in about 40 minutes. Of course with each new article I was trying to enter the information and keep searching for more. So this actually tied up quite a few hours looking at this stuff.

I will admit that I also found some other people listed with the same surnames. So I read some articles that did relate to this family along the way. I also pretty much stayed with one newspaper that was local to where these families lived.

Prior to my discoveries today I did know that Michael and Belinda had a daughter named Mary. She was probably named for Michael's mother, but Belinda also had a sister with that name. I did not know who she married or when she married. I also found the articles announcing both the birth and death of her child, which is always sad to read. If it had not been for those announcements though, I may never have known about her son.

Frank & Ruth Myers

My sister-in-law recently had the oppurtunity to go grave searching for her great-grandfather in Colorado. She knew when he died and the general area. So after some searching she was able to stop on her recent trip and find his grave. What a great oppurtunity! She agreed to share her great find with us; thank you! She did the research ahead of time, then when it came time to find the cemetery she asked for some help. So her husband made some inquiries and a few phone calls later she was able to find the right cemetery.

First we have a picture of Francis Marion Myers, known as Frank Myers. He was working on the Moffet Tunnel at the time of his death. If you do not know what the Moffet Tunnel is, then you should click on the name and it will take you to Wikipedia for more information. ( I do not endorse Wikipedia as always having the correct information, but it is a good resource to start with.) Anyway, Frank was born in 1880- I do not know where. He died 20 September 1927; two days after being critically injured. He broke his neck and severed his spinal cord.









This was Frank's wife, Ruth Pyle Myers Downey. Ruth remarried after Frank's death. She died in February 1950.

Mabel Byrnes

This is a photo of my great-grandmother Mabel McMurray Byrnes. She was 49 years old when she died in 1952. She was the only child of Edwin Jeremiah and Mary Ann (McDonough) McMurray.




This is her obituary that appeared in the local newspaper.

McMurray Family Photos

These are pictures sent to me by a McMurray cousin.

Jasper McMurray is the son of Lindsey John and Rachel (Gorrell) McMurray. I do not have dates for any of these photos. The dates listed below the pictures are their birthdates.






Jasper and Maude had 12 children. These are photos of all of their children.