St. Louis No.2

Those of you who are cemetery lovers will appreciate it when I say that I am really excited about new work they are doing in St. Louis No.2. Currently, there is only one survey that I know of for St. Louis No.1 available online, which is Dead Space cml.upenn.edu. This survey has been very useful to me and my wanderings through St. Louis No.1, but I have been continually frustrated by the lack of a survey or map available to the public for St. Louis No.2 (which is a larger cemetery). Because No. 2 is set up more like a neighborhood than No.1 is, it is easier to navigate without getting lost, but that being said, without a map you can get lost and confused in a New Orleans Cemetery just as easily as getting lost in some of New Orleans neighborhoods!(for those of you that are not familiar with our cemeteries, the majority of them are laid out in city block types with street and alley names, the newer ones have street signs and stop signs; they really are mini cities.)

Saturday I attended a genealogy workshop at the New Orleans Public Library and the hostess, Ms. Barbara Trevigne, explained that she couldn't stay long after the workshop because she had to run off to do work in St. Louis No.2. That immediately caught my attention. While I wanted to tackle her as she left the room to get more information from her, I decided it would be in better taste if I simply inquired through other sources what was being done. As these things go, the information came to me by chance the following day. A very wonderful lady, Ms. Pat Dupuy, who is a member and tour guide of Save Our Cemeteries sent me an email. (she is preparing a power point presentation on New Orleans Cemeteries which she will present in March at the Cabildo. I believe it is open to the public for the modest sum of $5. I'm going to put some of her work on my website so I will be plugging it soon. It would be worthwhile to check out.)
Pat explained to me that Xavier University and other volunteers are doing a survey of St. Louis No. 2 that they hope to make available to the public. Save Our Cemeteries has been asked to help fund the project. I was elated to hear this!! Finally!!! As much as I love wandering aimlessly through St. Louis No. 2, it would be so nice to be able to easily find the tombs I am actually there looking for!
As soon as this survey is done and available I will post a link to it, or do whatever possible to make it available and easy to get to. St. Louis No.2 is a fantastic cemetery and worth visiting even if you don't have ancestors buried there. (note: don't ever visit this cemetery alone, even if you're a local; it is in a bad area!)
In the meantime, don't forget to visit my website and read my Featured Article: New Orleans' Cemeteries and Burial Customs: How and Why the Dead are Buried in "Cities". neworleansancestry.com. I will also post a blog soon with a link to Pat's info and pictures of the cemeteries as soon as I finish working on it.