Identifications

Identifying individuals and reuniting them with their descendants is an important goal of UWM’s work. However, we face numerous challenges in our on-going efforts to identify individuals:

The burial ledger does not reflect a complete record of everyone buried in the cemetery. The burial ledger records information for approximately 5,000 individuals. This means that there are an additional two thousand people who were buried at the cemetery that are not recorded in the ledger.

Identifying burial marker tags that link an interment to the record entry in the burial ledger were physically removed from the cemetery in the late 1920s. In advance of the construction of the nurse’s residence in 1928, all tags were removed and the fence marking the cemetery was dismantled.

Despite these challenges, UWM has had some success in provisionally identifying individuals through fine-grained understanding of cemetery interments through space and time, careful documentary research, and development of biological profiles.

Four grave markers, found in 1991 within the northeastern portion of the cemetery, provided a link to entries in the burial register. These “keystone” burials date to 1918 – 1925. With interments in regular rows, UWM was able to make provisional identifications for additional individuals in this area of the cemetery (1918 – 1925). No genetic identifications have been made. Cross checking the provisional identifications against the burial ledger uncovered further issues with identifications. In some instances, burial ledger entries do not match the biological profiles of the individual remains. The individuals that UWM has provisionally identified are:

Adolf Wildiner (Adolph Wildimer) (date of death November 14, 1923)
Alex Nagg (date of death August 14, 1918)
Gertrude West (date of death July 30, 1918)
Bruno Barkovich (date of death August 30, 1923)
Ernst Gutzhke (Ernest Gutschke) (date of death September 17, 1924)
J.W. Selby (J. Selby) (date of death October 9, 1916)
Olga Hobazuk (Olga Horbăck) (date of death December 21, 1908)
Bernice Breen (date of death May 12, 1917)
Unknown Man (date of death April 15, 1887)

Questions related to the MCPFC should be directed to Jennifer R. Haas at arlc-mcpfc@uwm.edu as the community liaison for the project.