Montefiore Cemetery

We drove out to Lawnview to locate the grave of Alexander Mervine, my paternal great great grandfather who like my maternal great great grandfather, John Keller, fought in the Civil War.

Alexander Mervine was originally interred in Odd Fellows Cemetery but since that cemetery was bought then sold to the City of Philadelphia in 1950, the interred bodies were relocated to Mount Peace and Lawnview in 1951.

Unfortunately for us, Lawnview's office was closed so we could not be directed to the actual grave site. However, we did ride out and check the grounds. The place is kept in immaculate condition and we will return next weekend when the cemetery's office is actually opened.

But in the meantime, we checked out the cemetery located next to Lawnview. Upon entering its gates, we realized that this particular cemetery was not part of Lawnview (as we first thought) but was a Jewish graveyard. We had never been in a Jewish Cemetery so we were taken aback on its grounds especially how crowded it was. The headstones were so close together it appeared by our eyes that these folks could not have been possibly buried in the horizontal position. Of course, we (being Catholics) had no idea on the actual burial rituals of the Jewish population so you know I will be researching this in the future.

What I know about this cemetery so far;

It was opened in 1910 and located at Church Road and Borbeck Streets in Rockledge, PA. You can view this cemetery while standing in parts of Lawnview cemetery.

History of the name known as Montefiore;

Moses Montifiore was born October 24th, 1784 in Livorna, Italy. He left Italy and made his home in London, England. He was a successful business man. In 1812, he married Judith Cohen. Knighted by Queen Victoria in 1846 he received the title of 1st Baron. He was given this honor due to his extraordinary service on behalf of the Jewish community. He died July 28th, 1885. He had no children.

Montefiore cemetery pictures to follow at a later date.