This Catholic cemetery in Cincinnati is composed at two venues: The original, at West Eighth and Seton Avenues on Price Hill, and the "New" at Pedretti and Foley Roads, just a couple of miles away. The original, or "Old", was composed of two parts: about 20 acres for German, and about 9 acres for Irish. While the larger portion is still thriving, the smaller portion filled up, necessitating the New cemetery in the 1860's.

(If one is interested in other Catholic cemeteries in Cincinnati, or in Cincinnati Catholic history in general, I'd recommend David J.Endres' site concerning Roman Catholic research in Cincinnati.)

The GPS coordinates for St Joseph New Cemetery are N39 deg 06.298 min W84 deg 35.9800 min.

The discussion that follows is concerned with my experience in finding Irish folk, not German.

The last burials in the Irish portion of the old cemetery occurred in the early 1900's, for those that had already purchased lots. Some were removed from the old cemetery to the new cemetery to be with other family members. Today, the Irish portion of the old cemetery is closed to visitors; it's hazardous, fenced off, and few markers remain.

From 1843 when the original St Joseph's was opened until about 1916, Irish might be found in the records of the old cemetery. From about 1868 to the current day, Irish will be found in the records of the new cemetery. This means that records from both will need to be examined for Irish that died in the years 1868 to 1916 or so.

As with most cemetery records, their readability and thoroughness improved over the years. Some of the earlier years are indexed, but most are not. When working with these records (which are on film), it's easiest if you have the death date to within a month or two. It's feasible to search entire years.

By far the best way to research these records is to look at the films yourself, rather than writing the cemetery. LDS has the complete set (to the extent it's available), and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has a set of the records from St Joseph's New..

Most of the records from the New Cemetery, and some of the Old, have been entered into the computer system at the New Cemetery. These computer records may or may not be accurate, and I've found useful information on the films of the original books that are not in the computer system. Again, the films are the preferred source of information.

Nevertheless, I started with a print of my Irish names from their computer system, which a cousin acquired and shared with me. I then added information from other sources, as well as verifying some of the records. My chart of Flannery burials in either cemetery is thus a blend of the computer index, other sources (newspapers, death certificates, etc), and personal reading of the films.

The Old cemetery was designated with a Range/Row and Grave number. The grave might be designated as Large (adult-sized) or Small (infant-sized) The New Cemetery is designated by Section/Plat, Range, Lot, and Grave. For a while, common books were kept, arranged to include references to both designation systems. If a person is listed as being in a Section or a Plat, then it's the New Cemetery; if a person is in a "R" and a grave, then it's the Old Cemetery. The New Cemetery was originally divided into Plats, named North, NorthEast, SouthEast, etc). Then, they changed to a Section Number (1, 2, 3 etc) as the cemetery was expanded. So a person might be found in NEP Range 4 Lot 16 (NorthEast Plat, Range or Row 4, Lot 16) or in Section 16, Range or Row 4, Lot 3. Some Section numbers are duplicated at the New Cemetery; when this happens, one is for Lots of 8 or 16 graves, while the other is for Singles, one grave at a time.

Given all of this, when one visits the New Cemetery, it's unclear how the Ranges and Rows were designated. Most sections have markers here and there which can be used to get your bearings, though some are damaged or unreadable, and they don't appear very frequently. The office has maps if you're visiting and get totally bewildered. Requests of the limited office staff should be kept few and specific.

Here are the pertinent films, using the LDS numbers, which will be useful for research. Depending on when your person died, more than one film will need to be checked. When available, lot purchase records should be checked as well as burials or permits.