By Marissa Amoni, The Beacon News

Calvary Cemetery, Aurora, Illinois: Tombstones and Obituaries: Michael Fichtel and Jane Haldeman walked among the dead for the last couple of years. They were not spooked. They were intrigued. As members of the Fox Valley Genealogical Society, Fichtel and Haldeman make it their mission to become acquainted with those supine and six feet under in the Aurora area.

Now they share their latest findings with the public in a large 180-page hardcover book on sale at the David L. Pierce Art and History Museum in Aurora.

What began as a reading of the graves in the Calvary Cemetery on the city's West Side resulted in 208 photos of stones, around 150 obituaries and death notices and maps of the cemetery.

"It started with walking the cemetery. We would write them down as we read them," said Haldeman.

She was assigned the task of scanning and "cleaning up" all of the old obituaries that Fichtel found for the book.

He scoured old newspapers and microfiche from Aurora, DeKalb, Sandwich and other surrounding communities, looking for clues of the departed.

Linking the obituaries with the gravesites was the exciting part for Fichtel.

As project chairman, he dived into the challenge and excavated some fascinating historical information about individuals and the Aurora area.

"Calvary was the only Catholic cemetery until St. John's in Somonauk in 1870. Catholics were very fussy about being buried in consecrated ground," Fichtel said.

The earliest gravestone in the cemetery dates to 1848. However, the deed is dated 1855, which suggests that the bodies were possibly moved at one point.

The cemetery is on the east side of Lake Street just south of Indian Trail.

The last burial there was in 1947.

"Genealogy is real history. There is a story and mystery to tracing down who (is buried)," Haldeman said as Fichtel described the research involved in such an endeavor.

Several grave markers simply read "Mother" or "Father," so he was left to investigate with very few hints.

Many stones were hard to read, and more than 20 of the gravesites have no visible tombstone, Fichtel said.

The legible stones mostly belonged to folks of Irish decent.

"So many stones tell you about the person. The symbols that were used give clues to the organizations they belonged to ... there were many who worked the railroad, and an unusual number of military vets," he said.

One colorful obituary that received a chuckle at a recent book signing event at the art museum was that of Roger Brown.

The fellow died in 1880, and it was published on the front page of The Aurora Beacon that Brown lived as a drunken "sot" in his later years and wasted all of his money on whiskey.

Jim Hollon attended the signing and with book under arm said "it is kinda creepy to see your name."

Hollon's great-great-grandparents and some of his family are buried at Calvary and the name "James Hollon" is chiseled on one of the gravestones.

Hollon, whose family came to the United States during the Irish potato famine, looked forward to learning more about his predecessors "in the comfort of an armchair."

Auroran Rosemary Schielke said her grandparents are buried at the cemetery.

"I don't even know (this history) myself," she said.

"Cemeteries present a whole universe. They represent all walks of life," Fichtel said.

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