The Search for the Grave Site of George Puchalski

The Search for the Grave Site of George Puchalski


I had several goals for my recent trip to Warren and Southington, Ohio. One of these goals was to locate the grave site of my great grandfather, George Puchalski. Based on George's death certificate and a funeral listing in the Warren Chronicle in 1920, I was certain he was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Warren, Ohio. Now to find him.

I left my home base in North Canton and traveled forty or so miles to Warren along with my father and brother. We made our way along Market Street towards the cemetery, gazing at old buildings and old homes and wondering if my grandfather Stanley had seen these same buildings and homes when he escaped the orphanage on his way to freedom.

St. Mary's Cemetery is a small cemetery adjacent to two other cemeteries in the area. Oakwood Cemetery and Union Cemetery. We pulled into St. Mary's Cemetery with high hopes and nervous excitement, ready to locate our ancestor and document the find. All three of us exited our vehicle and each began to walk a separate part of the cemetery. We walked for over an hour with no luck. We found an area in the rear of the cemetery where there were many old graves from the 1920's and 1930's. Surely it had to be there. Somewhere...

Many of the headstones were worn from the harsh elements and Father Time. Impossible to read. After methodically walking up and down each row of graves across the entire cemetery, we came up empty. What to do next? I knew the records for St. Mary's cemetery are kept at St. Mary's Catholic Church up the street. So we decided to head there to see if we could find some answers.

St. Mary's Church is open every day of the week, except Thursday. It was Thursday. Wouldn't you know it? I made a phone call to the church and left a message, explaining what we were attempting to do and why. At that point there was nothing left to do, but grab some lunch, and visit some other locations like the Warren Historical Society, the Trumbull County Library and the Trumbull County Records Department.

The next morning, I received a phone call from a woman name Colleen who worked at the church. She pulled up a spreadsheet and told me she had a listing for someone simply named, "George". She went on to say he was 49 and died of a gunshot wound to the head on September 13, 1920. I said, "That's him." She also told me there were multiple lots in a plot called "The Puchalki Plot". Another miss-spelling of Puchalski. There was a 34 year old woman named only, "Mary" buried with him and four infant children buried next to him. One of the children was also named "Mary". The others were unnamed. We speculated the 34 year old "Mary" may be a sibling of George's.

Equipped with the new information, we returned to Warren a couple days later. We visited St. Mary's Church and met with Colleen, a very nice lady who was as helpful as she could be. Unfortunately, there were no physical records of burials from 1920. The closest we came, was 1921, a year late. She apologized and showed us a map of the cemetery, but the map didn't have any of the grave markers identified.

So, we returned to the cemetery and attempted to again walk the grounds and see if we could locate the grave site. Again we had no luck. It was humid and we came to the conclusion that his grave is either unmarked or the stone is worn beyond recognition.

We flew home from a very productive trip. All except our failure to locate George. I made a wonderful contact at the Warren Historical Society named Cindee. She was so intrigued by the story she decided to do research at no charge. She spoke with a person who said they walked all the Warren cemeteries back in 1979 and recorded the names on all the graves. This person had no record of finding a grave with George Puchalski inscribed on it. She speculates his grave is unmarked or one of the several worn stones.

We probably will never know the exact spot where George is buried with his family, but we do know we unknowingly walked near his grave site in St. Mary's Cemetery. Maybe even stepped over it.

I've included a video we took on our journey to Warren, and the cemetery, below. I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.





Comments

  1. In the Oakwood cemetery.

    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69270464/george-puchalski

    ReplyDelete

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