Posted by Jeff Richman on February 12th, 2019

As Green-Wood's historian, I never know where our next discovery will be coming from. I just know that it will arrive very soon. So it was this past Friday. I was working at Green-Wood, minding my own business. But, it turns out, an e-mail had just come in to our Green-aelogy supervisor, Christina Bickford. Christina, ever conscientious, thought that I, as the cemetery's historian, might be interested in an inquiry about a doctor who had practiced medicine in Canada before his death in 1863. So she forwarded the e-mail to… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on November 26th, 2018

The story of the Prentiss brothers of the Civil War is one of the most fascinating tales of that event. It has it all:  brothers from a border state, with different loyalties, one going north to fight to preserve the Union, one going south to fight for the Confederacy.  Then, after fighting for their cause for several years, and with the Civil War about to dramatically end just a week later, they would both be mortally wounded within feet of each other, one leading his regiment in the attack on… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on November 15th, 2018

Sue Ramsey has done it again! Sue is one of Green-Wood's Civil War Project's wonderful--and tremendously dedicated--volunteer researchers. Retired from the Southern California Gas Company, she has been working her way, since 2005, through the now 5,200 volunteer-researched and written online Civil War biographies (thanks Susan Rudin for your incredible work translating all of this research into biographies!) of veterans who are interred at Green-Wood. Sue does careful and time-consuming follow-up research to flesh out biographies and solve mysteries. It was Sue who made it possible and inspired me to… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on November 6th, 2018

On Friday evening, November 1, 1918, a Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway train left the Park Row station in Manhattan, ran east across the East River, then south through Brooklyn. At 6:42 p.m., it crashed near the intersection of Malbone Street, Flatbush and Ocean Avenues; 93 people died and hundreds were injured. It was the deadliest transit disaster ever in New York City. 14 of the victims are interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. One of the lyrics in the hit musical "Hamilton" is "who will tell your story?" Part of our mission… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on August 20th, 2018

There is always another story to be discovered at Green-Wood. I was recently out in section 52, lots 8022-8027--the Bangs Family Lots--looking for a particular gravestone. These lots form a large circle, just feet from the intersection of Locust and Southwood Avenues. Several prominent people are interred in those lots, including Francis N. Bangs (1828-1885), a prominent lawyer who founded the precursor law firm to the very famous and existing firm of Davis, Polk, and Wardwell. Francis N. Bangs also was a founder of the New York City Bar Association… Read more