Holy Sepulchre Cemetery

125 Central Ave.
East Orange, NJ 07108
973-678-3757

Photos - If you have any photos of this cemeterery please email me.

1,800 interments, 50 acres (1886)

Central Avenue Entrance - Photo from Agnes Wolf - 2001

CHS Fee Notice

The Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark

LDS Microfilm numbers are at the bottom of the page.

Newspaper Articles

May 28, 1882 - The Year in Review
October 27, 1901 - Fought at a Grave

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery's mailing address is in East Orange, but half of the cemetery lies in Newark and has served the residents of Newark, NJ throughout it's years of operation (founded 1859). It is not a parochial cemetery (i.e. one that is connected to a parish) but is rather a diocesan cemetery. The cemetery lies just four blocks from Fairmount Cemetery and is almost as large, over 20 square blocks between Grove Street, Central Ave., Birchwood/Maybaum Aves. and South Orange Ave. Holy Sepulchre's entrance is also on Central Avenue (Cemetery Office), with a side entrance on Grove Street. The cemetery is split into two parts by the New Jersey Garden State Parkway, with some headstones just four feet from the shoulder of the roadway.

The records, (Indexes and Day books), for the Cemetery are available in three places. They have been microfilmed by the LDS Family History Center Library and you can order them for viewing through their branches. When accessing the Family History Center's Catalog; look under cemeteries in East Orange to find the holdings for Holy Sepulchre.

Seton Hall University (973-761-9476) also has microfilmed records at it's Walsh Library Special Collection Center. Be aware that there is sometimes a 6 month waiting list to view films due to availability of microfilm readers.

The last place that has the records is the Cemetery itself. Please be aware that the cemetery doesn't employ people to assist genealogists and contacting the cemetery may not yield the positive results of the first two choices.

Father Curley has transcribed some of the headstones, principally those that mention an Irish place of birth.

For further information contact Augustine J. Curley, O.S.B

From "Hand book and guide for the city of Newark, New Jersey: carefully edited and compiled from authentic sources" Newark Daily Advertiser Print, 1872:

"The Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre, or The Bishop's Cemetery, as it is also called, occupies a most admirable situation in what is destined to be one of the handsomest sections of the city. It fronts eastwardly on Grove Street, and northward on Central Avenue, and contains thirty-eight acres. It is in contemplation to purchase some adjacent tracts of land which will extend the area to about one hundred acres, and give a third front to the Cemetery on South Orange Avenue. The charter was secured in 1871, so recently that of course improvements may only be said to be beginning to developed themselves. The grounds fronting on Grove Street have been divided into three sections, separated by broad avenues, running westward. On the central section of these, improvements have been in progress for sometime, in a way that promises a most beautiful Cemetery in the future. Numerous interments have been made, and many tasteful monuments already erected here. The entrance is by a neat gateway on the principal avenue, called The Way of the Cross. Half-way on, and at a point where the grounds slope gently to the western boundary, this avenue is intersected by another, called The Way of Angels. At the point of intersection, both wind round a small heart shaped reservation, on which is shortly to be erected a mortuary chapel, with receiving vaults where a clergyman from the cathedral will be in attendance to conduct all burial services. Already graves have begun to thicken on the western slope, though for the most part, interments are confined to either side of The Way of the Cross towards the gate. The arrangement of the grounds in the central section are essentially different from that contemplated for the portions to the north and south. The former being intersected by straight walks, running across the grounds on either hand, while in the latter they will be laid out in serpentine walks. On the avenue furthest north, called The Way of the Apostles, a very neat private chapel has been built by the Very Rev. M. A. Corrigan D. D., president of Seton Hall College. Until very recently the woods around the Cemetery had scarcely been opened, but now streets and avenues stretch on every hand, and the handsome character of the villa residences already erected to the north, indicate a section of unusual elegance and beauty."

Surname "LANE" Burials at CHS

Surname "PINFIELD Burials at CHS

Microfilm Numbers of the LDS FHC for Holy Sepulchre

ALPHABETICAL INDEXES

DAY BOOKS