Beyond indexing records, PGSNYS volunteers have spent years in the field — photographing, mapping, and in one case physically restoring three Polish cemeteries in Cheektowaga, NY.
Saint Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Cemetery
PGSNYS members Edward Kornowski, Maureen Gleason, and Dolores Ferguson assisted Barbara J. Ruppert, who created a website after photographing and documenting the burials at Saint Stanislaus Cemetery. Barbara’s website, GraveFinder at St. Stan’s, offers a searchable database of burials in the cemetery, plus cemetery maps and instructions for locating graves. Grave marker photos are available for a nominal fee.
St. Adalbert’s Roman Catholic Cemetery
PGSNYS member Edward Kornowski replaced and dedicated the wooden cross memorial of reinterred Michalina Buczkowska at Saint Adalbert Cemetery. He also drew a new map and indexed the entire old cemetery from records he found in the caretaker’s shed. The full story was featured in Searchers vol. 67, no. 3, Winter 2014.
Holy Mother of the Rosary Polish National Catholic Cemetery
Photo credit: Steven Kroczynski, “Holy Mother of the Rosary Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Project,” The Am-Pol Eagle, 5 November 2013.
From 2013–2014, PGSNYS members, including Maureen Gleason, assisted Deborah Lasek, project coordinator, with the restoration of the oldest section of the Holy Mother of the Rosary Polish National Catholic Church (HMRPNCC) cemetery on Dale Road in Cheektowaga. Lisa Anselmi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Chair Archaeologist of the Anthropology Department at Buffalo State College, worked with students to search for unmarked graves using ground-penetrating radar. Along with members of the cemetery board and parishioners, volunteers unearthed, leveled, and restored the frail headstones. Early cemetery burial records for section P — destroyed by a rectory fire — were re-created by Maureen Gleason from grave marker inscriptions, and the resulting HMRPNCC cemetery burial records are indexed in the PGSNYS databases.