The last few blog entries have focused on Elisha Gates because we are celebrating the Bicentennial of the Battle of Lake Eire and the Battle of the Thames in which he participated. But on a recent journey east, my cousin Rick Platt (actually first cousin once-removed) and I made a side trip to Pennsylvania. My goal was to visit the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. Based upon Allegheny Cemetery online records, I knew that I had several ancestors interred there.
John Nicholas Berlin (my 4G-Grandfather on my mother's side) died 12 Aug 1821. But he refers to himself as Nicholas in his will. On these cemetery records he is John N. Berlin. The Allegheny Cemetery website directed us to Section 25 Lot 31. Unfortunately, there was no stone for Nicholas Berlin. Whether or not there ever was is not known. The lot is on a fairly steep hillside and could easily be covered by dirt. Lot 31 is between the top of the Hampton-Miller Crypt and the tree above the crypt.
The cemetery records that I obtained at the Allegheny Cemetery Office gave a little more information about Nicholas Berlin. He was interred thirty-nine years after he died. What! It turns out that of the seven people buried in this lot six were transferred here on 20 September 1860. The only one not buried here on that date is Nicholas' son Daniel. Daniel and John N. are listed as owners of the lot. Were they buried elsewhere in this cemetery or at some other cemetery?
The first burials in Allegheny cemetery took place in the middle portion of the nineteenth century. So this cemetery was not in existence when Nicholas was first buried. There is a reference on the Internet about the fact that Nicholas and his wife, Anna were first buried in the Lutheran Church Cemetery but moved when the church was enlarged. This information was unsourced but could certainly account for the fact that six bodies were interred here on the dame day.
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