Kendaia Cemetery

Date: [unknown]
Location: Romulus, Seneca, New York, United States

Contents 1 Graves 2 Alternate names used for the cemetery 3 Location and access 4 History of the church and cemetery 5 Burial information and plots 6 Sources of burial and vital record information 7 Other sources of family and general information

Graves

The Table of Graves page lists profiles in order by Last Name at Death. It also includes plot numbers and relationship information.

The Cemetery Category page lists profiles in order by Last Name at Birth. (It can also be sorted by "Current last name".)

Alternate names used for the cemetery

• First Baptist Church Cemetery
• Kendaia Baptist Cemetery
• West Romulus Cemetery
• and other combinations of the above.
  

The official name seems to be "First Baptist Church & Society of Romulus, N. Y. Cemetery Association". The association was organized in 1864, and from then on was in charge of the cemetery instead of the church trustees.

Location and access

The cemetery is located behind the fences of the former Seneca Army Depot in Seneca County, N. Y., coordinates: 42.73585, -76.87604, and is not generally accessible. Each year on the Sunday before Memorial Day, (last weekend of May), the cemetery is open to visitors, typically from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with directional signs set up from the north depot entrance off Rt. 96A, coordinates: 42.756225, -76.896181. For access information other times of the year, contact the Seneca County or Romulus town historian.

History of the church and cemetery

--as told in a newspaper article from 1961, or see transcript on this page under Images.

--as told in a newspaper article from 1969, or see transcript on this page under Images.

--as told in a newspaper article from 1995.

--as told in a paper by the Seneca County historian.

--on the Kendaia Church history site.

--Pastor profiles on Wikitree, (years of service)

• Jehiel Wisner, (1802- cir 1804)
  
• John Caton, (1808-1818)
  
• Louis Gross, (1875-1882)
  
• Philo Frisbee Ogden, (1890-1894)
  
• Wisner Kinne, (1895-1901)
  

Burial information and plots

Family surnames have been added to the plot diagrams. To find a plot number for a particular person, see the Table of Graves page. The page also contains links to the Wikitree profile for each person, along with a gravestone photo if available.

Locating a plot: The cemetery is divided into two sections, which have been called "New Yard" and "Old Yard" in the cemetery records. They are oriented facing east in the plot diagrams.

New Yard Plots

The New Yard is the southern half of the cemetery. It contains plots numbered with the format N-XXX-XX, with the first number referring to the plot and the second to the grave. Plot numbers are 1-105.

Old Yard Plots

The Old Yard consists of three sections: Old North, Old South, and West (for purposes of this description - not an official name). The plot format for Old North is ON-XX-XX, and that of Old South is OS-XX-XX. The plot format for the West section is N-XXX-XX, with plot numbers over 105, although not all numbers are used. These sections are less exactly defined and seem to overlap a little in the middle. Some plots may contain more than one line of stones.

The number of Find a Grave memorials is higher than the number of Wikitree profiles. Some of them have been determined to be cenotaphs, or memorials added without definite evidence of burial in the cemetery. See the Uncertainties and Anomalies file on the Table of Graves page for more details.

Sources of burial and vital record information

--Some Cemeteries of the Between the Lakes Country (portions of Seneca, Schuyler, and Tompkins Counties, N.Y.), collected by Jessie Howell Finch and others; compiled and edited by Carl W. Fischer and Harriet Jackson Swick, Interlaken Review, Interlaken, N. Y., 1974. Kendaia Cemetery pp. 89-97. Viewable or downloadable from the Family History Library. The first volume contains the Kendaia records. The third volume contains the index and some additions to the cemetery.

The book has transcriptions of stones mostly from the "Old Yard". Since the cemetery readings were done mostly in the 1950s and 60s, sometimes it has better information than current day readings, although some discrepancies can be noted when compared with the cemetery association records below.

--Record of interments: in the cemetery of the "First Baptist Church & Society of Romulus, N.Y. Cemetery Association", Author: First Baptist Church & Society of Romulus, New York Cemetery Association; Hudson, William H.; Hudson, C. Phyllis, 1993. Copy available upon request from the Family History Library.

Since this is a transcription from hand-written records, there are some inevitable errors when compared with other sources. This is the source for the original plot maps and numbers that were adapted for use here.

--A slightly updated version of the above list was used for the generation of the currently posted list at the cemetery kiosk, although there are some irregularities in formatting, and some errors in the data when compared to other sources.

--This old cemetery list from the NYGenweb site is incomplete and has numerous errors, but helped in giving clues to some relationships.

--Many of the obituaries and other stories in the profiles, as well as some birth, death, and location information, came from newspapers on the Fulton History web site. A few others came from the New York Historic Newspapers site or the Interlaken (N.Y.) Public Library.

Other sources of family and general information

--American Agriculturist Farm Directory of Yates, Schuyler, Tompkins and Seneca Counties, New York, Orange Judd Company, N.Y., 1914. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--Bruno, L. Dean, Dispossession and Remembrance of a Central N. Y. Landscape, Dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., 2018.

--Child, Hamilton, Gazetteer and business directory of Seneca county, N.Y., for 1867-8, Syracuse, N. Y., 1867. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--Child, Hamilton, Reference Business Directory of Seneca County, N. Y., 1894-95, E. M. Child, Syracuse, N. Y., 1894. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--Coryell, J. Wallace, n.d. The Coryell & Smalley Families of Seneca County, N. Y

--Folwell Family Bible: search for "Waterloo Ny Stanle Reynolds Records 3 - 0481.pdf" on Fulton History website.

--History of Seneca Co., New York, Philadelphia: Everts, Ensign & Everts, 1876. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--McMath, Frank M., Memorials of the McMath Family, Speaker Printing Company,1898. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, N. Y., Chapman Publishing Co., 1895. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--"Romulus Revisited", Rochester History, April 1980. Contains entries from the Henry McLafferty Diary.

--Sayre family genealogy website.
See also: Banta, Theodore M., Sayre Family: Lineage of Thomas Sayre..., New York, The De Vinne Press, 1901. View or download from the Internet Archive.

--Seneca County, N.Y. Biographies.

--Willers, Diedrich, Centennial celebration of the official organization of the town of Romulus, Seneca county, New York, Geneva, N. Y., Courier, 1894. View or download from the Internet Archive.