hurricane katrina
august 2005
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the deeds and records for St. Mary Cemetery which were kept in the Our Lady of the Gulf parish office as well as the maps, plats and records kept in the personal files of Mr. Ames Kergosien who has managed the cemetery on a volunteer basis since taking it over from Mr. Vincent Piazza in 1981.
Since many residents of Hancock County also lost their belongings and records in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the effort to reconstruct the cemetery’s records has been a challenge.
In 2010 and 2011, Our Lady of the Gulf began documenting the existing headstones and burial plots of St. Mary’s. All markers and headstones have been photographed and preserved digitally on computer. Information from the headstones regarding individual burials and their locations within the cemetery has also been included in a computer Excel record. In addition, all plots have been measured in the hopes of creating a digitally preserved master plat of the cemetery as a permanent record for the future.
Recently a few parishioners have shared with the parish their salvaged copies of the partial maps and plot layouts. These documents have led to some interesting insights about the layout of St. Mary’s but have also led to many more unanswered questions. Hopefully more old plats, deed records, or cemetery history information will be forthcoming in the future to help complete the lost history of St. Mary Cemetery. If you have information on the cemetery to share, please contact Kathleen Monti @ [email protected] or call 228-216-0711.
