As a genealogist, one of my favorite places to visit is cemeteries. While that might seem odd to some, there’s so much to learn about your ancestors from their grave markers and cemetery records. Surprisingly, not many of my ancestors have grave markers, including those buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Perhaps that’s why family members have long wondered who exactly lies buried in the plot alongside my paternal grandparents and great-grandparents.
Relatives pointed out that the plot contains many other burials, likely Bucken ancestors. The Bucken family are ancestors of my great-grandmother, Olive (Anderson) Hendrickson. I didn’t know their names or exact relationships, but I was determined to find out.
I first visited Green-Wood Cemetery in 2014. Section 72, plot 9115, sits in the center of the cemetery, just outside the ‘Cedar Dell,’ which holds many of the oldest burials. The plot has twenty-one souls buried in plain sight, but you can’t tell by looking at it, because most are unmarked.
Someone asked me if it was unusual to bury that many people in the same plot. While not so common today, a little history explains why it wasn’t so unusual in the past. Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 when New York City’s overcrowded burial grounds became a public health concern.1 Rural or garden cemeteries became popular in the mid-nineteenth century as people started thinking differently about death and burial.2 In the Victorian Era, high mortality rates, especially among children, meant that families planned ahead.3 Those who could afford it often purchased large family plots. 4
With over 580,000 burials, Green-Wood is the largest and most popular cemetery in Brooklyn. 5 Known for its beauty, Green-Wood Cemetery is a national landmark. 6 My ancestors couldn’t have picked a more beautiful resting place.
Green-Wood is a living cemetery that brings people closer to the world as it is and was, by memorializing the dead and bringing to life the art, history, and natural beauty of New York City.”
-Green-Wood Cemetery mission statement
Who are the twenty-one?
My ggg-grandfather, William T. Bucken, purchased the plot likely in March 1855, when his daughter, Julia Augusta Bucken, died at the age of five.7 His father, James Bucken, was buried there just a few months later.8 Most of the burials are descendants of James and his wife, Eliza.
Thankfully, the Green-Wood Cemetery website has a burial search database that provides the lot, section, grave numbers, and burial date. The website also has burial and vital records, available from 1840–1937. These records helped me identify all individuals buried in the plot, which was particularly useful as New York City only began recording deaths around 1881.9
| Name | Death | Age | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Bucken10 | 19 September 1855 | 55 | consumption [tuberculosis] |
| Eliza[beth] Bucken11 | 6 July 1882 | 78 | old age |
| Martha Washington (Bucken) Ruland12 | 20 January 1864 | 21 | remittent fever |
| Eliza J. Ruland13 | 8 February 1864 | 2 | typhoid fever |
| Mary F. Ruland14 | 15 November 1872 | 9 | scarletina [scarlet fever] |
| William T. Bucken15 | September 1867 | 42 | phthisis [pulmonary tuberculosis] |
| Augusta (Oliver) Bucken16 | 25 April 1877 | 50 | bronchial consumption [tuberculosis] |
| Julia A. Bucken17 | 7 March 1855 | 5 | congestion of the brain |
| Sarah F. (Bucken) Anderson18 | 22 October 1939 | 85 | chronic myocarditis |
| Clarence Giles Anderson19 | 26 November 1875 | 1 | pneumonia |
| Edward M. Anderson20 | 9 February 1879 | <1 | meningitis |
| Peter Anderson21 | 22 July 1880 | <1 | convulsions |
| Ellen A. Anderson22 | 25 April 1884 | 2 | measles |
| Sarah Frances Anderson23 | 4 August 1884 | <1 | colitis |
| Regina L. Anderson24 | 2 May 1890 | 2 | pneumonia |
| Olive (Anderson) Hendrickson25 | 1980 | 90 | |
| Clark Hendrickson26 | 21 April 1964 | 74 | |
| Carlton N. Hendrickson27 | 13 January 1976 | 61 | |
| Dorothy R. Hendrickson28 | 2 February 1983 | 61 | |
| Mary Emma Aldrich29 | 20 April 1937 | 85 | bronchial pneumonia, possibly complications of a fall |
| Helen Louise (Doran) Aldrich30 | 21 July 1910 | 38 | pneumonia |
James and Eliza Bucken and Their Descendants
James Bucken, a ship joiner, and Eliza were both born in New York and lived in Lower Manhattan.31 James’ death notice, which appeared in the New York Sun, specifically invited the Independent Order of the Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria, temperance organizations, to the funeral, suggesting that he was a member.32 They buried two of their five children in the family plot.
Their daughter Martha Washington (Bucken) Ruland was buried there along with her two young daughters, Eliza J. and Mary F. Ruland.33 Her death notice also invited the Olive Branch Order of the Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria to the funeral, suggesting membership.34
Their son, William T. Bucken, married Augusta Oliver on 1 March 1848 35 William was a merchant and worked at an auction house. 36 He served with Company B, 7th Regiment of N.Y. State Militia during the Civil War.37 The couple had five children, and they buried three of them in the plot: daughters Julia Augusta Bucken, Mary Emma (Bucken) Aldrich, and my gg-grandmother Sarah (Bucken) Anderson.38
Sarah F. (Bucken) Anderson died on 22 October 1939 at Brooklyn State Hospital at eighty-five years of age.39 She married Francis Anderson, a tinsmith, on 16 June 1871. 40 The couple had ten children together, including my great-grandmother Olive. They lost six children under the age of two between 1875 and 1890. All six children, along with my great-grandmother Olive, are buried at Green-Wood. Sarah left her husband sometime after the death of their daughter, Regina, in 1890. She took her children and moved to Lockport, New York. 41 She worked as a washerwoman to make ends meet.42
My great-grandparents, Clarkson and Olive (Anderson) Hendrickson, married on 28 November 1912 in Brooklyn, New York.43 “Clark,” a mechanical engineer and patent holder for a fixture support, died of carcinoma of the larynx at age seventy-four.44 Olive died in 1980 at age 90.45 Before her marriage, she worked as a beer-bottle labeler. 46 The couple had two children.
My grandparents, Carlton Hendrickson and Dorothy McKnight, became the last people buried there. Carlton, a mechanical engineer like his father, died in 1976.47 Dorothy passed away in February 1983, and burial took place on February 7th.48 They had seven children.
Unmarked but not Unknown
Only Julia Augusta Bucken, Mary Emma (Bucken) Aldrich, and Helen Louise Aldrich have gravestones in the plot. I’m not entirely sure why—maybe they were early pioneers of ‘green burials,’ way before it became a thing. More may have been lost through time, but I won’t know that until I go through a bunch of hoops with the cemetery. William T. Bucken obviously had the money to purchase the plot, but neither he nor his wife has a grave marker. He purchased a gravestone for his daughter, Julia. As you can see in the photo, it is toppled over.
It was different for William’s daughter, Sarah (Bucken) Anderson, who was destitute. She and her husband, Francis, lost six children under the age of three, which likely took a toll on their bank account and their marriage. It’s probable that they just couldn’t afford to pay for gravemarkers. Francis applied for a military pension in 1890, claiming he was disabled and could not work. It was around this time that Sarah left him. She claimed that he frequented the company of “dissolute women” and left the family in “great want.” 48 49
Planning a Visit?
The plot is a large, unmarked area, so if you visit and aren’t sure where you are, look for the wine bottle relatives tucked in the tree hollow. I’m not sure what our Bucken ancestors would think of that, given that they were members of temperance organizations who admitted and aimed to rescue “those addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks, restoring them to the ranks of sober and respectable people.”
— Cheers!
