Dedication of Monument at Mt. Elliott Cemetery

  
On Saturday, 24 July 2010, the 309th anniversary of the founding of the city of Detroit, FCHSM members gathered at Mount Elliott Cemetery in Detroit to witness the dedication and blessing by Edmond Cardinal Szoka, former Archbishop of Detroit, of a monument donated by FCHSM to commemorate and honor all the dead from the Church of Ste. Anne de Detroit whose remains lie buried in Section A of the cemetery.
 
Photo, by Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, taken 24 July 2010, after the dedication ceremony at the Solanus Casey Center.
 
Those remains, approximately 1490 individuals, had lain unnamed, unmarked and largely forgotten in Section A since being transferred there from the Catholic section of the old city-owned Clinton Street Cemetery in 1869. Undoubtedly, many of those remains are those of the early French settlers of Detroit and thus are probably relatives, if not direct ancestors, of many FCHSM members, myself included.

The dedication ceremony included a roll call by FCHSM members honoring their own ancestors or other individuals who may or may not be buried in Section A, but whose memory the member wanted to acknowledge. As I listened to those names, a number of which I recognized as belonging to families to which I am also related, I was reminded of why it was that I, and probably many, if not most others, had gotten into genealogical research in the first place. It was simply from a deeply-rooted need, at least, to identify, acknowledge and thank for the gift of life as many as possible of those long forgotten ancestors, traces of whose blood and DNA still permeate every cell of my being and without every single one of them having gone before, I could not exist.

 
Al Trudeau, FCHSM member
 
Back of monument. Photo taken 20 July 2010 by Loraine DiCerbo.
 
A limited number of copies of the October 2010 Michigan's Habitant Heritage with an article about the monument dedication and more photos are still available. Click the JOURNAL button for directions to purchase one.