Frank,
St. Francis, Pawt. is listed in the RI Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project.
Searches are via surname and not all names in the cemetery are included in the database as
they are looking for volunteers to go out and check the cemetery which is quite large in
terms of the number of burials.
Results pages will list the individual by surname, given name, age sometimes, DOB if in
the records and DOD also if in the records followed by an identifier code. Sometimes
women will have their maiden names in ( ). It all depends on what was in the records that
were transcribed. People buried in St. Francis will have PW003 after their entry.
While the majority of burials are Irish, there are also French Canadian and Italian
burials there. The cemetery is essentially full and closed to new burials unless
one's family owns a grave site that still has spaces; no new burial plots are
available.
The description of the cemetery from the cemeteries transcription site says the
following:
"four books of records contain name, burial date, age, sect & lot #
book #1 is at the diocese office in Providence
book #2 starts 12 Nov 1898, about 40 names per page - pg 11: 12 Nov 1898 - pg 50 14 Nov
1899 (abt 1600/year)
pg 100 6 Jan 1901, pg 200 24 May 1903, pg 300 17 Nov 1905, pg 400 28 May 1908, pg 500
10 Feb 1911, pg 600 23 Jul 1913, pg 700 7 Feb 1916, pg 800 1 Jun 1918, pg 900 Jul 1919,
pg 1000 18 Oct 1921, pg 1100 21 Jul 1924, pg 1103 end about 40,000
entries
Very little of this cemetery has been completed. There are many late 19th century Irish
stones with information on where in Ireland the people came from. We are looking for a
volunteer to record these.
This cemetery has not been recorded."
Here is the link to the search page:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/cemetery/
One thing you must have when working with cemeteries owned by the Diocese
of Providence is a death date. Month and year at the minimum otherwise
they can't find your burial. The Diocese keeps all their records by
date of death. There is no cross referencing system in place to find a
burial if all you have is a name.
Unless the staffing has changed since the last time I was in or called the Catholic
Cemeteries Office at Cathedral Sq. in Providence, it's a waste of time to contact
them. I submitted a request in person at the CCO on the form they supplied looking for a
burial. The woman behind the counter took it and deposited it in one of those hanging
wall pockets. It's probably still right there today collecting dust right where she
put it that afternoon. 5 years & I'm still waiting. The people in the CCO were
very unhelpful and unpleasant to work with. One gets the impression that by going there
and making a request, you are greatly imposing on them.
Your best chance is to call the cemetery directly. All my dealings with the staff there
have been positive. They are nice people and will try to help you but again you need to
know at least the month and year of death because of the way the records are kept.
Here is the contact phone # for the cemetery - 1-401-724-3130.
Check the entries at Find A Grave on the off chance that someone may have entered your
individual into the database there.
Here is the link for the St. Francis page at Find A Grave:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=104478&CScn...
If all else fails and you still need DOD in order to check with the cemetery, try posting
at the RI Providence County board at Ancestry. There is a researcher there who often
looks things up at the RI Archives for folks. RI Archives will have deaths from 1856 to
1957. On January 1, the end year will increase to 1958. Additionally with respect to
vitals, they have marriages and births 1856 to 1907, increasing to 1908 on 1 Jan 2009.
You could also try contacting Archives directly but I know they are very short staffed and
I don't know how rapidly they can respond to inquires but here is their info:
Rhode Island State Archives
337 Westminster Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Telephone: (401) 222-2353
Fax: (401) 222-3199
Email: reference(a)sec.state.ri.us
Web:
www.state.ri.us/archives/ ~~website is poorly designed and pretty much useless from a
genealogy point of view.
Open to the public Monday-Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Good Luck!
Linda
--- On Sat, 8/30/08, Frank Patnaude <F.Patnaude(a)comcast.net> wrote:
From: Frank Patnaude <F.Patnaude(a)comcast.net>
Subject: [RI] St Francis Cemetery
To: RIGENWEB-L(a)rootsweb.com
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008, 7:59 PM
Good evening list,
Does anyone know where I can look on the web for buriels in St Francis
Cemetery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Thanks,
Frank
Odenton, MD
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