Vickie Smejkal and Diane Nygaard got into a pickle. They were on a tour of Riverside, looking out over the sea of unmarked baby graves, when Diane turned to Vickie and said we should find the families of these children. Thousands of research hours later they have made some progress.
Vickie calls block 12 Denver's Potters Field. They "hope to identify and promote memories of those individuals lost, forgotten, and buried with little to no funds in Denver's Riverside Cemetery."
Included in this work are a few obituaries and profiles of "characters" or individuals along with photos of current grave markers and headstones. A spreadsheet rounds out the study in alphabetical order of deceased, date of burial, age, race, gender, block, lot and section, notes, undertaker, source, date of birth if known, date of death, and parents if known. Needless to say there is a great wealth of identifying information to assist any research to connect with the correct kin.
Smejkal and Nygaard have created a finding aid to be emulated by others considering such a project. Riverside Cemetery Block 12 Paupers Field by Vickie Smejkal will be found with the other Denver cemetery books at call number G929.578883 S637 2013.
A man named Clarence Ralston
A man named Clarence Ralston was killed when D. F. D. Asst. Chief John Healy struck him while responding to Fire Alarm Box 41 at 19th St. and Market St. at 12 o'clock noon on July 4, 1910. He was buried without a headstone in Block 12, Lot 6, section 12, at Riverside Cemetery.
Hi, chatting with a DPL
Hi, chatting with a DPL online person they gave me this link. My goal is to find the burial spot for a distant relative with an interesting history who I am sure died penniless. We have a connection to John Dillinger via him.
Via prison records I know he died 1-31-83 in Denver but no record of where he was buried. I have searched via Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com and FamilySearch with no data.
It's the final point of my research on him. How can I use this source to search. I am in Wisconsin and coincidentally will be in Denver area Jan 6-10, 2022. Thank you in advance for any help.
Deceased name is Walter (Welton) A Sparks.
Thanks for commenting, Steven
Thanks for commenting, Steven. Please submit this request to our contact form so that we can take a look at the resources and send you scans of anything we find! You can submit that request at https://history.denverlibrary.org/contact-us
I submitted my request in Dec
I submitted my request in Dec-21 but haven’t heard anything so just checking in.
Hi Steve, Thanks for checking
Hi Steve, Thanks for checking back in. It looks like your question was closed anticipating that you'd be coming in. I'll reopen it and send it to our new genealogy librarian for follow-up.
Hello: during the Spanish Flu
Hello: during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, my grandfather and his family lived in Denver. The family was dirt poor but as the story goes on the night of the World War 1 armistice (11 November 1918), the whole family went down to see the parade. On the way back from the parade several of the children started getting sick. That night three of the children died from the Spanish Flu. Those three children along with my grandfather all slept in the same bed. When my grandfather woke up in the morning the other three had been removed during the night as they had passed. By some miracle my grandfather was untouched. I have been trying to find the graves of the three but have run up empty on all of the regular sites. On the 1910 census two of the children were identified as;
Rosco Smith 8 years old born in 1902.
Isaac Smith 2 years old born in 1908.
The third child’s name is lost to time but must have been born at some time after the 1910 census and died before the 1920 census. So his name was never recorded. My grandfather said he was the third youngest so I know the last two died before the census of 1920. My Grandfather also said that after his three brothers died, he became the youngest in the family. My Great Grandmother’s name was Hester Smith (1870-1930) and my great grandfather’s name was Arthur E. Smith (1861-1935). Also the first names of the two identified brothers could be their middle names. It was the custom in the family to be called by their middle names. I began to wonder if maybe all three brothers were placed in potters field due to the extreme poverty of the family. Sorry for the long story but I believe the background is important to this saga. Thank you for your help in this matter. It’s important for everyone to be counted in this world no matter how short a time they lived.
Hello,
Hello,
Looking for James J. Boiz and children, last record in 1929 in Denver, Colorado as a painter living on Culfax Ave. Lost his family to a Juvenile Farm in Omaha in 1924 due to extreme poverty and squatting in a fruit cellar. Seems to have met up briefly in Colorado where son was still in Juvenile care, and other children unaccounted for when his wife Hilda remarried.
Thank you.
I am likely too late to find…
I am likely too late to find my biological dad I never met, and so far I was told he spent some lengthy time working in Denver. I moved o Ft. Collins, CO on 1983 but didn’t learn his name until my adoption records were finally unsealed and in 2007 the file was sent to me at no charge due to the Amazing history of my infancy and the county Judge granted the teary eyed clerk permission to mail me a complete copy and she did.
It would please me to learn if ROBERT JOHN WIDGER could be buried there, and if so, would I be permitted to drive there to view his grave site? If no identification is found, where else could I contact in the Denver area? I am working with a newly found second cousin our genealogy, who found me, and has performed many long weeks, days, and hours trying to help me find or learn more about him and more Widgers back in Pennsylvania. Thank you kindly for any help you can provide us.
Many blessings to you and yours!
Lynda G Sizemore
comidwife00@gmail.com
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