Friday, June 1, 2018

The Old Bergen Dutch Reformed Church cemetery


  aka Old Bergen Churchyard, 
aka Old Bergen Church Burial Grounds

If you've searched for family members buried here before and didn't find them, better check again.

More than five hundred more names added in 2018.


     Last year I found an index of headstones for The Old Bergen Dutch Reformed Church cemetery in Jersey City typed up by Nettie Hellerman in the early 1900s.  (this section of the city was formerly called Bergen).  It's not a list of all burials but readable headstones which may not be standing today.  

    I started to add the names to findagrave.  I only finished about one hundred names, maybe less. 

In January, someone, notyourtime, picked up the project and finished it. They added the names of more than 500 people. The total now is 1,087 as of today.  


The first recorded burial by the congregation took place in 1668.


When a part of the property was sold In 1922 Church authorities offered to settle with plot holders for re-interment of family members at Bay View Cemetery

In 1926, the widening of Bergen Avenue resulted in the displacement of some of the grave plots along the avenue. The remains of many were moved to Arlington Cemetery in North Arlington, NJ.




A spin-off is Speer Cemetery located about a block away.  




You can see some headstones among the large section of trees.







The lower right tree section is Old Bergen and the upper left tree section is Speer cemetery.



oversized photos for better viewing!