Luke Finn #2
This Luke Finn was troubled. I first saw him in the Rochester newspaper index from the Rochester Public Library. The Union-Advertiser dated Dec. 1, 1882 says “Luke Finn, who disappear from his home at No. 3 Webster Street on Nov. 30th, has not been seen since. He is 27 years of age and is said to be out of his mind.”
On Ancestry I found a record indicating that he was admitted to the Monroe County Poor House on Dec. 7, 1882. The document gave lots of information on him. He was born in Ireland about 1855. It said that he came to the US through the port of Boston about 1880 and had only been in Rochester for about 3 months. A note on the bottom of the form it said “has sister living somewhere in Rochester.”
The address of 3 Webster Street in 1882 has a Bridget (later called Winnifred), widow of Andrew Finn. She MAY be Luke’s mother or a sister-in-law.
In the Union-Advertiser dated May 27, 1892 it says “Luke Finn, aged 38 years, died at Willard State Hospital yesterday. The funeral took place from St. Bridget’s Church at 9 o’clock.” Willard was a mental hospital. The NY death index says he died May 24th. Holy Sepulchre records confirm that he was buried May 2th in grave 94, tier 4, section D (alphabet).
This Luke Finn never showed up in any census records.
Luke Finn #3
A lot of the time when I search for Luke Finn in census records it would show me records for Luke Finn #3. This one shows up in a lot of census records in and around Albion, Orleans County, NY. From FamilySearch Family Tree,[#GVK8-NK9] he was born about 1835 in Ireland. He died May 27, 1898 in Albion. He and his wife, Katherine, had 6 children. One of those children was Luke (Jr.) who was born about 1870 and died Oct. 13, 1906 in Albion. I quickly decided that this well reference line had nothing to do with the other two men named Luke Finn.
The Big Mistake
In 1938 the Monroe County Veterans Committee ordered a tombstone for Luke Finn (#1), the Civil Wat veteran.
They must have not done their research very well because they placed the tombstone on the grave of Luke Finn (#2) that died in 1892. Yes, the tombstone is on the wrong grave. As I explained in the previous post, I believe that the veteran was probably moved to an unmarked grave in Holy Sepulchre in 1935. That was when all remaining graves in St. Patrick’s Cemetery were moved to Holy Sepulchre.
Nice detective work Dick.
Very interesting!
Tombstone errors like this may be one of the many reasons there are errors in family trees posted online. Your detective work matters, and may even help someone doing research on the Finn family some day.
I found an errors in the records of a cemetery in Pennsylvania and of another cemetery in Wisconsin that have to do with Rochestarians who moved to those states.
Where was St Patricks Cemetery?
On the southwest slope of Pinnacle Hill. Entrance on Field Street in Rochester but as you went up the hill most of the cemetery was in the Town of Brighton.