The Graveyard Shift: A Family Historian's Guide to New York City Cemeteries

by Carolee Inskeep

Trying to find some peace in the City That Never Sleeps"" has always been difficult-even for dead New Yorkers. Rapid development, rising property values, a lack of space, health concerns, and government regulation have all conspired to move the dead from one graveyard to the next. The Graveyard A Family Historian's Guide to New York City Cemeteries documents the changing landscape of New York City cemeteries, telling the story behind each decision to move, as well as providing the new names and locations of each burial ground. This book, with its complete index, is an invaluable tool for anyone researching New York City ancestors.""

Genres: Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Holly Sammons · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess to not reading this from cover to cover - after all it is a GUIDE not a novel. It now sits in my office with the rest of my reference books. Great resource.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a volunteer gravestone photographer for the past couple of years, I tend to collect and read books about cemeteries. Sometimes to get an idea of how other people photograph gravestones, or it's a particular area that I would be interested in visiting, or just to see where various people are buried. I like photos and anecdotes particularly. Those make a good cemetery book for me.

This book had none of them. For me, living in Scotland, it's quite hard/expensive to get hold of American cemetery books, and this was bought as a Christmas present. New York is the city people mainly want to visit, and a girl can only dream about the shopping they would do there. Me, I would quite happily dream about photographing various New York cemeteries. But I didn't expect this book to be so dry. It's certainly not something you can read cover to cover. The blurb and photos make it sound and look interesting - the contents as a reviewer said before me, are more like a phone book/encyclopedia. This may be more interesting for people who live/have lived in New York, but reading it from my perspective, I was bitterly disappointed in the amount of cemeteries that have been leveled/built over and that history is lost potentially forever.

There is a good photo on the front cover and small photos on the back cover, but why none inside? Just to break up the text and make it slightly more interesting. Yes, obviously some of the graveyards no longer exist, but those that do, a small black and white photo would be better than nothing.

It may be a useful book for someone who could actually visit the cemeteries, or someone who plans to visit the cemeteries at some point, but for me, alas, I will concentrate on photographing the cemeteries near me.

[Loren · Rating 4 out of 5]

In its history, New York City has dug up and covered over dozens of burial grounds. Carolee Inskeep tracked them down. Written encyclopedia-style, The Graveyard Shift lists hundreds of graveyards, along with years of usage and some brief historical information. Since Inskeep's book is designed for family historians, she includes information on where records can be found and contact information.

My chief complaint about the text is that it includes no illustrations: no photos of famous New Yorkers, no beautiful gravestones, no historic photos or other ephemera. The loss is more keenly felt since the little cover photo of a graveyard chock-full of simple crosses and grieving muses -- with the Empire State Building rising behind -- is really perfect for the book. In my edition, the photo is neither identified or credited. I am guessing it's taken from Queens. Please correct me if that's wrong: it's a place I'd love to see for myself.