Certain cemeteries are famous because of the people who are buried there. Once in a while, you hear stories about graveyards that are haunted by a ghost. Genealogists have tried to discover who the ghost called “Resurrection Mary” was, before she died.
When genealogists visit a graveyard, they go in order to search for the dead. Genealogists can gain a lot of information by reading the headstone of their ancestors. Some genealogists will bring a person along with them when they visit a cemetery. In general, though, most genealogists aren’t expecting to run into anyone while they are walking through the graveyard.
Some graveyards are famous because they are haunted. You can find news articles and blogs about these types of ghost stories popping up every year as it gets close to Halloween. Ghost stories seem quite fitting at this time of year. Genealogists might be influenced to do some research to learn more about who a particular ghost might have been, before he or she died.
In Justice, Illinois, there is a graveyard called Resurrection Cemetery. It is a few miles southwest of Chicago. This particular cemetery is linked to Chicago’s most well known ghost: Resurrection Mary. This ghost story has been going on since the 1930’s.
People have reported picking up a young, blond, female hitchhiker, from somewhere on Archer Avenue, between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery. The young woman has been described as dressed in a white, formal, party dress. Some have seen her wearing a thin shawl, dancing shoes, and carrying a small purse. Others say that she is unnaturally quiet.
People who pick up this hitchhiker report that she asks to be let out of the car when the driver gets close to Resurrection Cemetery. She then goes towards the cemetery, and disappears. There are other stories involving this ghost, but the most commonly repeated one involves a person who unwittingly picks up this unusual hitchhiker. Essentially, this particular ghost story fits into the “vanishing hitchhiker” type of theme.
Part of the ghost story says that “Mary” was at the Oh Henry Ballroom one night, dancing with her boyfriend. The couple got into a fight, and she stormed out, and tried to walk home. She was struck, and killed, by an unknown hit and run driver, (who fled the scene). “Mary’s” parents buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, in a beautiful, white, dancing dress, (and dancing shoes).
Genealogists have wondered if there really was a woman buried in Resurrection Cemetery who the ghost might have been based on. So far, the research done has been inconclusive. A prevailing theory is that Resurrection Mary is the ghost of Mary Bregovy. She died in 1927 from an automobile accident while she was on her way to the Oh Henry Ballroom.
Image by Richie Diesterheft on Flickr