If this is your first visit:

Discover great facts and stories about 272 Chicago area cemeteries.   You will be surprised to find where the dead have been  in and around Chicago.

803 cemetery listings:

Thumbnail information of 272 cemeteries,  258 cross references all found in the “list of all cemeteries” pages as well as over 300 Jewish cemeteries  within other cemeteries, the majority in Jewish Waldheim

The blog posts

contain my best and most interesting feature stories. Most will be about the Chicago area, Chicago area cemeteries, people you should know, historical events or simply strange.

Don’t miss! I’m the kid behind the birdcage.

Growing up in Chicago in the 1950’s

or Lane Tech High School

Three LANE Schools over a Clay Pit

Read about Funeral trains serving the Cemeteries

Funeral Streetcars

Check out  The Architecture of Death

or ROLLER COASTERS BETWEEN TWO CEMETERIES!

Don’t miss this just updated story (july 2022)

 Liquor License in a Cemetery?

or some other popular ones An Elevator in a Cemetery! or  The Battered Helmet

or even the very weird story   Burial Cards: John’s left foot

There are more than 100 stories in  the archives. Check back often as I have so many more stories to tell .

Don’t miss these most popular posts

“Absolutely fireproof” –A human Tragedy  Iroquois Theatre Fire December 30 1903

61 years ago -December 1, 1958      Our Lady of Angels school fire

When Chicago Cried     The Eastland disaster

Ghosts of Riverview Park 

Don’t miss these useful posts

Finding your Uncle Louie 

how to find one of your missing relatives

Why are Cemeteries where they are?

Cook County Cemetery at Dunning

Grave Mistake-the Story of Cook County Cemetery at Dunning   link to blog

the incredible story of how we lost and rediscovered

a cemetery containing 38,000 souls.

special note August 25, 2025

My other website, Cookcountycemetery.com is no longer online and was beyond my control It is gone  due to an inept hosting service.

It had provided a wealth of information on the Cook County Cemetery at Dunning as well as the Dunning Institution .  Most valuable was my database of over 8000 souls buried at Dunning. It also contained information on the “daughter” cemetery, Cook County Cemetery at Oak Forest 1912-1971.

in the near future and as time permits, i will try to migrate all that great content to this website including the database. In the meantime if you are looking for someone that might have been buried at Dunning 1871-1912, please email me and I will check my database for you at no charge. I can also help you find missing relatives that lived in the Chicago area. My fee is one Oreo cookie.

My email is bartonius84@hotmail.com

A GOOD READ about Cook County Cemetery (Dunning): Grave Mistake by Harold Henderson Sept 1989 https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/grave-mistake/Content?oid=874451

If I can help you

with your question on a burial location of a  lost relative, understanding a death certificate, or any cemetery question in general, email me and I will be happy to help

More often than not, my fee is

write me

Barry A Fleig  bartonius84@hotmail.com

About this website

This  is the modern version of a cemetery book research project began about 1988. After visiting hundreds of cemetery sites, libraries, and other resources, I had decided to document all burial places in Chicago and Cook County. So instead of  writing about the just most obvious and large cemeteries,

Why?

There is an urgency for us to know and appreciate all of these burial places and their stories. The landscape of Cook County, Illinois is constantly changing, often at the expense of our cemeteries.  Farmland has given way to shopping centers, expressways, toll roads, airports and subdivisions. Neighborhoods, and communities of yesterday have been replaced with new construction, altering our land and disguising our rich history.

Saint Johannes Lutheran Cemetery within O’Hare International Airport, perceived by the City of Chicago to “be in the way”. The entire cemetery was disinterred and all graves were moved elsewhere.

Please come back to this website often and enjoy!

THIS WEBSITE IN THE NEWS: 

How do you lose a cemetery!

Barry Fleig was interviewed on Extreme Genes radio by Scott Fisher. paste into your address bar, Turn up your speakers and enjoy :

https://extremegenes.com/2018/05/13/episode-236-lose-a-cemetery-chicago-native-can-help-you-father-and-step-son-make-remarkable-dna-discovery/

Famicity, based in France,  posted November 24 2017 written by Erin Harris.  https://blog.famicity.com/2017/11/preserving-cemeteries-in-chicago-illinois/?lang=en

DNAinfo was a great print and electronic media in Chicago. Check out their Oct 29 2017 Article  https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20171030/west-ridge/barry-fleig-cemetery-blog-sheiners-picnic-grove