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Posted: Wednesday, 15 July 2009 12:30PM
Cemetery records a moldy, mildewed mess
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Steve Miller Reporting
ALSIP, Ill. (WBBM) - Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says he hasn't found any grave stones in the area of Burr Oak Cemetery known as Baby Land.
Sheriff Dart says he has spent a lot time in what's known as Old Baby Land and New Baby Land at the Alsip cemetery.
"We don't have any baby headstones. I don't know if I've found any yet."
Dart says it's possible that a lot of the babies were interred without a headstone.
"But as far as areas that were specifically pointed out to me by women who told me they had headstones for their children in certain areas, I have not found those."
The sheriff's department has received more than 55,000 written and verbal requests from families searching for loved ones buried at the historic Alsip cemetery where four employees are accused of digging up graves and reselling plots in a moneymaking scheme for four years.
The records of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs show that about 2,000 military veterans were buried at Burr Oak.
A spokeswoman says they represent every major conflict, beginning with the Spanish-American War in 1898.
There's no word yet on the condition of any of the veterans' graves.
The sheriff's department has been sorting through the cemetery's records trying to get a handle on the more than 100,000 known graves at Burr Oak but shoddy record-keeping and tampered records are making the task increasingly difficult.
Dart says the sorry condition of cemetery records is a story in itself.
He's been trying to go through all the burial records kept at Burr Oak.
"What you see here is a cabinet that is rust-covered. Dilapidated.
"And when you open the few drawers you can open, the cards are completely encased in mold and mildew and actually, they have congealed into one piece of paper."
Dart says the cemetery's entire 2005 book is missing.
On Burr Oak's owners, Perpetua, Dart says they haven't showed up yet. "They know the address," Dart says.
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