Forgotten Chicagoans rediscovered; 8,000 names identified in Chicago cemetery records

Chicago, IL - October 12, 2014: The names of more than 8,000 people who may have died penniless or without family in the long forgotten Cook County Cemetery have been rediscovered and are now available free to the public.

The Cook County Cemetery was located at what is now the intersection of Irving Park Road and Narragansett Avenue on Chicago's Northwest Side between 1861-1922.

The cemetery was first called the Cook County Poor Farm Cemetery or simply The County Ground at Jefferson (c. 1847), which later became Cook County Cemetery (c. 1875) and then finally Chicago State Hospital Cemetery (c. 1912), located on the grounds of the institution commonly called "Dunning." The Read Dunning Memorial Park was built in 2001 on a portion of the cemetery.

After 20 years of transcribing Cook County death certificates, coroner's reports, Cook County Board of Cook County Commissioner reports, Cook County Charity reports, and portions of two surviving cemetery ledgers, a compiled database of all known bodies at the "Dunning" site is now available to all as a searchable database.

Many entries reveal the names of family members, sex, race, occupation, place of residence, date cause and place of death, date of burial, grave number, undertaker, and reference information such as death certificate or coroner.

"It is important to make these names available," said Barry Fleig, cemetery historian and genealogist, "so that those forgotten in life, will be not forgotten in death."

More than 38,000 bodies were interred in Cook County Cemetery and were seemingly "forgotten" until remains were unearthed by builders in 1989 while constructing a housing development. Those buried in Cook County Cemetery comprised of the poor, the insane, the young, victims of violence, Civil War veterans, and many simply were unknown. One hundred and seventeen were identified as those who died in the Chicago Fire of 1871. While many died on the streets of Chicago, a number died in one of the institutions at Dunning including the Cook County Poor House and Farm, the Cook County Insane Asylum, the Cook County Infirmary, or the Cook County Hospital for Tuberculosis. Only a few fragments of grave markers endured.

Now, for the first time, anyone will be able to search for a long lost grandparent, great-grandparent, uncle, aunt, or other relatives who may have seemed to have disappeared from the Chicago area or died at the Dunning Institution.

The Cook County Cemetery at Dunning database may be able to give back some dignity to those that remained forgotten for so long.

For more information on Cook County Cemetery and to access this free searchable database, visit www.CookCountyCemetery.com. Click on the tile "Database of known burials."