It's taken about four years for me to complete the project of identifying the people buried in the Guadalupe Cemetery, and although the end results should prove to be invaluable to local historians, I can't help but wonder why I agreed to become involved in such a labor intensive endeavor.
The cemetery dates back to 1874 when the Masons and the Odd Fellows purchased the property in which to bury their deceased members. When non-members approached them about burying their dead, a side business began, and lots began to be sold for $5 and $10 gold pieces.
The Odd Fellows took charge of selling the lots and then split the money (and expenses) with the Masons.
Unfortunately, few records were kept, and those that were kept, were mostly haphazard. Although some of the burials show dates going back to those early dates, many of the burial sites are unknown. In addition, in some cases, it's almost impossible to determine if the names shown are the names of the deceased or the persons who bought the lots.
Sometimes there's a record, but no stone, while in other instances, there's a stone, but no record. Then, there's the additional problem of neither a record nor stone.
In going from headstone to headstone (and recording the engraved names) I found that a few of the headstones were broken, and many of those that have survived time and weather damage are difficult to read.
In 1892, the Masons buried John Dunbar (the first Postmaster of Guadalupe) in the Guadalupe Cemetery, but where?
Since the burial site of Henry Dolcini (who died in 1892 while serving as Most Worshipful Master of the Guadalupe Masons) is well marked, and Steven Campodonico's grave sits at the beginning of the same row, I theorized that the row might have been reserved for Masons. If so, Dunbar might possibly be there, somewhere.
That theory proved to be another dead end as non-Masons are also buried in the same row.
Although the Thomas Hart site shows just a single burial, no one has yet tried to determine if his wife, Carolyn, is lying beside him. Her first husband, Daniel Johns, is also buried in the cemetery, but where?
As is true of many of the old cemeteries, bodies might be buried beneath the roadways, or even under the office building.
A member of the Birra family sent me a message that the body of Guiseppe Birra was moved to San Luis Obispo when the roads inside the cemetery were built. A headstone is standing in Block 3 for the boy (who died in 1892), and the cemetery records do not indicate that the remains were ever moved. To add to the frustrations, there's no record as to when the roads were built through the cemetery.
It's not uncommon occurrence for the cemetery officials to dig a grave for a recently deceased person only to find that someone else is already there. One such burial was unearthed about in 2004 when the caretaker found a brick with a written number "6" or maybe even a "9," lying on the rotted wood of the coffin. In checking the old cemetery list, it showed that an "A. Guizar" had been buried there in 1920. Since this person had no headstone, anything's a possibility. The "6" might be a "G."
Even though I checked the City Directory of that time, I found no Guizar listed. However, it's possible that only people of means earned a listing in such directories. The Guizars that currently live in the area came to the United States within the past 30 or 40 years, and they know of no member of their families who might have come at an earlier time.
There are some interesting stories connected with the old cemetery. For example, when one of current those residents of the old burial grounds had his leg amputated, he bought a cemetery plot in which to bury his leg. Later, when he died, the rest of his body "joined his leg."
The inscription on Elizabeth Tyler's headstone of 1875 reads: "Remember friends as you pass by. As you are now, once was I. As I am now so you must be. Prepare yourselves to follow me."
Before World War II the ashes of many of the Japanese people were kept in the Buddhist Church. When the Japanese people returned from the Internment Camps and found that a law had been enacted prohibiting ashes to be so stored, the ashes of many of the deceased were moved to family burial plots, while others were placed into a common gravesite. The gravesite containing the ashes of about 30 people is covered with a cement slab showing the names of those interred within the site. However, at least two of those containers of ashes have been moved to family burial sites during the ensuing years.
Approximately 30 of the cemetery's headstones are engraved in Japanese, and I haven't been successful in finding someone who can read Japanese.
A number of the headstones of the Japanese people show the dates of death as occurring during the World War II years, and they most likely died in one of the Internment Camps (most likely Gila River). According to Japanese officials who have been researching the camps, few death records were kept at Gila River.
In October of 1920, after the County of Santa Barbara took over the cemetery, deeds were prepared for a number of sites, sites in which the "grantees" had been buried, in some cases, 20 or more years before the 1920 date. One of my theories is that the Cemetery Commission was trying to correct errors of the earlier burials. However, since there's no written record as to what errors might have existed at that time, the deeds have created another mystery among many.
During my research I've found items that might not be found in other cemeteries. I once spent many days searching public records for information regarding one of the headstones showing the name "Pal," only to find that it was the name of a man's dog!
Although the names of Battiste (who died in 1913) and Jennie Pezzoni (who died in 1906) are engraved on one of the large, ornate headstones for which the Guadalupe Cemetery is so famous, their remains were moved to Santa Maria Mausoleum when the building was completed around 1918.
There are possibilities of other remains being removed to other cemeteries. Again, though, there are no records.
Although this has been a time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating project, the end result will benefit both historians and the Guadalupe Cemetery, itself.
The California Death Index, and Pre-1905 records (which aren't complete),
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cabf1905/, the California Death Records on RootsWeb at
http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi (1940-1997), and the Social Security Death Index at
http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693 have been a valuable source of information and were of great help in clarifying the dates of death.The early Masonic records were also of great help. Had it not been for those records, it would have been impossible to determine if John Dunbar (the town's first postmaster) had been buried in the cemetery.
Had they only placed a stone on his gravesite, it would have made my job a bit easier.
