When an Oklahoma woman began researching her family tree, she had no idea her quest for information would lead her and her two sisters to 蜜柚直播, armed with grave markers.
Diana Ramirez and her sisters, who lived in 蜜柚直播 for a time as children, arrived from Oklahoma on July 7, hoping to find the graves of their three sisters who died here decades ago.
There was baby Odelia, who died in 1958, and 5-year-old Deborah who was swept away in the Santa Cruz in 1960 when water in the river began to rise 鈥 both of whom Ramirez remembered. But there was also Baby Girl Schlottman, who unbeknownst to Ramirez was stillborn in 1959.
Times were hard for the young family, headed by Henry and Lottie Schlottman. Deborah was laid to rest at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road, in an area reserved for families who couldn鈥檛 pay for burial, also known as Section I, as were the sisters who died before her as infants.
The year after Deborah drowned, the Schlottman home caught fire on Ash Wednesday while the family was at church. A few years later, they moved to Oklahoma, where Lottie Schlottman had family.
Through her research, Ramirez found that gravestones often gave clues to family history, along with birth and death dates. So she set out to find the graves of her sisters and place markers to memorialize them.
After contacting the cemetery and government agencies, Ramirez and two older sisters 鈥 Barbara Holder and Mary Robinson 鈥 drove to 蜜柚直播 with only copies of index cards telling the locations of her sisters by row and grave number.
But the adult sisters were unpleasantly surprised at the condition of Section I.
Metal grave markers that once may have offered information were now blank and many had fallen. Weeds grew all about the area. The ground around the few permanent markers had eroded and several graves had sunk, but at least that showed the position of a grave. There was no marking of rows and grave numbers to identify where the sisters were buried.
Careful searching, counting and matching of information about graves that had been marked by the families of other children buried there gave the sisters an idea where they might be, but there was no way to be certain. Using the names of some marked graves and getting their grid locations might have made that easier, but in several cases the numbers didn鈥檛 match the locations of the markers with names. They weren鈥檛 sequential.
Had some of the children been moved? Had families placed markers on the wrong graves?
One government clerk the ladies talked to mentioned a flood long ago that washed some caskets away. Perhaps those recovered were reburied in the wrong places. A search of 蜜柚直播 archives did not uncover news of caskets washed away from Holy Hope Cemetery.
Before they left town on July 11, the sisters made another trip to the cemetery. As they walked to the spot in Section I of Holy Hope Cemetery where they estimate one of their sisters might be buried, Robinson prayed and sang a hymn.
The sisters took a last moment to look around before leaving 蜜柚直播 with the small markers they brought with them, hoping someone might be able to help them in the future.
The future came sooner than expected when the women connected with Thomas Hanlon, executive director of the Diocese of 蜜柚直播 Catholic Cemeteries, and Manuel Rodriguez, superintendent of field operations at the cemetery.
According to Hanlon, at the time the sisters were buried, detailed records and maps weren鈥檛 kept of burial sites or if they were kept, they have not survived. When families could not afford markers, grave locations were often lost to time.
Vowing to work with the sisters to find a satisfactory solution, Hanlon asked Ramirez to ship the markers to Holy Hope Cemetery, where Rodriguez would search records and try to locate the burial sites.
Hanlon and the sisters agreed the markers would be placed as close as possible to the right locations if the exact spots could not be found.
Rodriguez located the graves based on the dates the girls were buried, and while he is not 100 percent positive about the exact locations, he is quite confident that he has found the right sites.
On July 27, Rodriguez and groundskeepers Juan de la Rosa and Henry Gallego placed the stones on the graves of the three little Schlottman sisters.
While their surviving sisters could not be present, the children who passed away long ago are now memorialized at Holy Hope Cemetery.
Photos: Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Mother's Day Picture of the Schlottman family from 1957
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
Three sisters, seeking the graves of three other sisters, get cemetery's help
If you are interested in researching your family tree, it's difficult to know where to start. You might find a history buff in your family who is already doing more advanced research, but here are some tips:
Talk to family members 鈹 especially the older ones 鈹 and ask about the relatives who went before. Get the old family stories recorded before it's too late.
Never throw away an old diary. Even if you don't want to reveal a once-young girl's private thoughts to the world, references to family members are important clues.
Find out who has the family Bible, if there is one. Maybe names haven't been added in a while, but earlier generations often kept this record and this can give you more information for your search.
While you should record everyone's stories while you can, when researching a family tree, start with one branch of the family and save the other stories for later. Researching too many family branches at once gets confusing.
If your family name is unusual, search for it online. In this case, it's helpful to know some first names and perhaps the state where the family first settled if you are descended from immigrants. This is one reason you should talk to older family members 鈥 they will remember this information.
Find out where people are buried. is an excellent resource for this. Enter a name and you'll get a list of possibilities. If you know the state where that person might be buried or the year he or she died, that will help narrow the search. Often the results tell you about other family members as well and you may even get a photo of the grave marker or tombstone.
The Mormon Church has excellent resources and will let you use them. You don't have to be a member. will get you started with a free account, but you can also try contacting the church nearest to you and ask them where you can search in 蜜柚直播.
Helpful websites:
The : this is now a part of ancestry.com
is a subscription service, but you can start with a free trial.
has a list of genealogy websites, many of them free.
also has a list of free genealogy sites.
, another subscription service, allows you to search thousands of newspapers. Obituaries almost always list family members. This site also has a free trial and short-term subscriptions.
The National Archives has helpful tips for genealogy research at
A helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community.
鈥淢y Dharma Box,鈥 the book of 50 short poetic prose pieces, opens with one Gilmore wrote shortly after he was diagnosed with ALS late last year.
Mary Robinson, Barbara Holder and Diana Ramirez had hoped to personally place marble tombstones marking the spots where their sisters were laid to rest decades ago.