Sweeney Cemetery Archives - Niagara Cemeteries

August 21, 2025

DAR Unpublished Cemetery Records of Niagara County 1969

Since the 1910s, the Daughters of the American Revolution have been transcribing unpublished records to help preserve them. They then publish these as part of the Genealogical Record Committee (GRC) Reports.

To learn more about these reports, you can read my blog: https://jeanettesgenealogy.com/dar-grc-reports-part-1-of-3-background/.

One of the GRC Reports is a 208-page volume (#317 of the Cemetery, Church, and Town Record Reports) from the DAR Niagara Falls Chapter (of which I am a member) of records that were copied from the Niagara County Historian’s Office.

The report lists the name of the person that was buried, born, died, and the name of the cemetery.

Here is the FamilySearch link to the volume (#317): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSS9-J4SZ-S?.

Multiple volumes were put on the same microfilm reel. Here is the breakdown of the images:

Image 532 of 901 – Book Cover
Images 533-546 of 901 – Surname Index
Images 547-551 of 901 – Title Page and Front Matter
Images 552-700 of 901 – Alphabetical List of Burials in Niagara County Cemeteries
Images 701-748 of 901 – Alphabetical Addenda List of Burials in Niagara County Cemeteries

Many cemeteries were listed as being represented in the volume:

Cambria

#1 Pekin Pioneer Cemetery (aka Old Pekin)
#2 Mount View Cemetery
#4 North Ridge Cemetery
#6 Northeast Cambria Union Cemetery (aka Budd Road)
#7 Molyneaux Cemetery
Warren-Forsyth Cemetery (mistyped in the cemetery list as Warners Corners and Warner’s Private)
#15 Pomeroy Cemetery

Hartland

#1 Saint Patrick Cemetery
#2 LeValley Cemetery (aka Pearson Road)
#4 Hartland Central Cemetery

Lewiston

#1 Dickersonville Cemetery
#2 First Presbyterian Church Cemetery (aka Lewiston Village)

Lockport

#4 Stahler Cemetery (mistyped in the book as Stabler)
#5 Shaeffer Cemetery
#8 Cold Springs Cemetery
#11 Glenwood Cemetery
#14 Chestnut Ridge Cemetery

Newfane

#1 West Lake Road Cemetery (aka Olcott)
#2 Lakeview Cemetery
#3 Hess Road Cemetery
#6 Corwin Cemetery
#9 Wisner Cemetery

Niagara & Niagara Falls

#2 Oakwood Cemetery
#5 Witmer Cemetery

North Tonawanda & Wheatfield

#1 Ward Cemetery
#4 Saint Mark Lutheran Cemetery
#10 Sweeney Cemetery (aka City Cemetery)
#15 Wheatfield Cemetery

Pendleton

#3 Good Shepherd Cemetery
#5 Bear Ridge Cemetery
#8 Poole Cemetery (aka Beach Ridge)

Porter

#2 Old Fort Niagara Cemetery (1812 Fort Niagara Cemetery)
#3 Oakland Rural Cemetery (aka Hosmer Cemetery)
#5 Filmore-Halstead Cemetery
#6 Ransomville Cemetery
#9 Universal Presbyterian Cemetery

Royalton

#1 Orangeport Union Cemetery
#4 Royalton Union Cemetery (aka Dysinger Baptist)
#5 Gilbert Cemetery
#8 Ketchum Cemetery (aka Griswold Street Cemetery)
#9 Mount Ridge Cemetery
#10 Mabee Cemetery

Wilson

#1 Greenwood Cemetery

July 3, 2025

Niagara River Cemetery Removed to Sweeney Cemetery, North Tonawanda

I have seen a few different notations concerning an old burying ground along the Niagara River in Tonawanda where the bodies were removed to both the Sweeney Cemetery in North Tonawanda and the City Cemetery in Tonawanda.

Being curious as the bodies were relocated to a cemetery in Niagara County, I started doing some searches but wasn’t having much luck finding out when this Niagara River Cemetery existed and exactly where. I tried newspaper searches and found a reference to a recorded deed that I looked up on FamilySearch. The deed included a picture:

The deed was written in 1897 and recorded in 1900: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99WX-XZY1?.

Having a few street points now, I looked at various Sanborn maps around the same time and found only one reference to the cemetery in the 1889 map (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3804tm.g3804tm_g063041889/?sp=7&st=image&r=-0.217,0.722,1.184,0.58,0) and not the 1886 or 1893 ones.

I would be curious to learn if Sweeney Cemetery records indicate the bodies that were once buried at this Niagara River Cemetery and when they were removed to it.

February 10, 2025

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Burials, North Tonawanda

One of the FamilySearch microfilms that has been digitized is the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church records. Included in the records is a section titled “Burials” in which there is a chronological listing of deceased members. Information includes:

Day
Date
Number [a count of those added into this register]
Names
Age
B. C. C.
Residence
Date of death
Cause of death
Place of burial
Signature of Clergyman

In Volume 1 there were less than 100 burials recorded between August 1869 and July 1886. Images 60-62 of 276 can be found at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3WH-V9WV-L?i=59&cat=52640.

Volume 2 burials begin September 1883 and end October 1903. Images 149-154 of 276 can be found at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3WH-V947-G?i=148&cat=52640.

The burials in Volume 3 begin February 1904 and end April 1939. Images 240-249 of 276 can be found at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3WH-V9WF-B?i=239&cat=52640.

Of the burial listings, the following Niagara County cemeteries were found:

Cambria
Hartland
- Hartland Central – Skeel’s
- LeValley
Lewiston
- Village Cemetery
Lockport
- Cold Springs
- Glenwood
Newfane
- Wright’s Corners
Niagara Falls
- Oakwood
North Tonawanda
- Fairmount
- Sweeney
- Ward
Pendleton
- Acacia Park
- Bear Ridge
Royalton

July 13, 2024

Sweeney Cemetery Book, North Tonawanda

The Niagara County Historian’s Office has a spiral-bound book for Sweeney Cemetery. The book begins with a printout of a website in 2003:

That website is no longer accessible, but the Wayback Machine imaged it and you can access it at: https://web.archive.org/web/20050210153612/www.northtonawanda.org/cemetery_records.htm.

The Sweeney Cemetery book at the Historian’s Office also includes addendums:

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