Amazing! I had never heard of this. Here's a good Wiki page with detailed photos
and information on the "residents".
Posted on 05/10/2017 11:43:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The mysterious little girl holding a single flower, found buried in a casket underneath a San Francisco home — captivating the Bay Area’s curiosity — has been identified.
Edith Howard Cook, the second born child and first born daughter of Horatio Nelson and Edith Scooffy Cook, died Oct. 13, 1876, at the age of 2 years, 10 months and 15 days, according to nonprofit Garden of Innocence, which spent a year trying to identify her. The girl was buried in the family plot in the Yerba Buena section of the Odd Fellows Cemetery two days after she died. That year, Ulysses S. Grant was president and San Franciscans had their first opportunity to ride the Transcontinental Express to New York in under four days.
“We’re really excited. They did a lot of crazy work to find out who she was,” said Garden of Innocence volunteer Erica Hernandez, whose organization released a detailed nine-page report Tuesday. “All the information that should’ve been kept by the cemetery wasn’t kept.”
The girl had been given the name “Miranda Eve” last year shortly after a family found her in her airtight metal casket in the Lone Mountain neighborhood of San Francisco during a remodeling project. The casket contained a leaded glass window through which they could see a 2-to-3-year-old girl holding the flower. The resident turned the ornate casket over to the Garden of Innocence, a charity that buries unclaimed children, to handle the girl’s affairs.
Funeral home records show Edith died from marasmus, or severe undernourishment. It’s not clear what caused the illness, but in late 1800s urban living could have led to an infectious disease, the nonprofit said.
Information released Tuesday reveals that Edith was born into two prominent families in the world of commerce and society.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Didn't Bill Clinton say something similar about a Peruvian (?) mummy?
Oh my!
Yes, thanks for mentioning that. In my earlier years, I did a lot of research on The Civil War, and the Lincoln Assassination. I also read many books about him. Gave a lot of my research material, and some books to the museum at Ford’s Theater, and shared everything I’d discovered with authors who specialized in the Lincoln Assassination. It’s a great way to get acknowledged in books, and a free copy of the book to boot! I miss my researching days. I met a lot of great people back then.
She’s dead, Jim.
When I was about twelve, there was a new girl that moved to our small town. She lived with her grandmother, in a “rented” house and not a great street. I thought this girl was the berries and my mother didn’t like me hanging with her. Finally after months of begging, my mom let me walk to her house after school. We had a snack in the dining room and hanging on the wall was a large oval ornate framed picture of a little toddler in a coffin. I could not wait until my mom picked me up and I never went back, scared me to death!
Just imagine, when she was buried nobody had any idea there would be a genetic test to verify her identity 140 years in the future. It makes me wonder what will be possible many years in our future.
In Buenos Aires there is a cemetery named Cementerio de la Recoleta. It is like a city with all the graves above ground in small mausoleums. Each one is unique. Many have glass doors and pictures inside and chairs for sitting. Some have windows in the casket. Many are very elaborate inside and out. It is a fascinating place to visit.
What creeps me more is that anyone would manufacture a casket with a window.
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Perhaps to allow viewing at the funeral without odor at a time when embalming wasn’t normal..
Amazing! I had never heard of this. Here's a good Wiki page with detailed photos
and information on the "residents".
I remember always seeing photos on my Grandmother’s dining room sideboard of one of her dead friend in a casket. She would leave it there a couple weeks and eventually a new one would show up.
Previous gens perceived death very differently than we do. Very
I lived in BA for a year almost 50 years ago. I visited that cemetery several times and it was quite intriguing. There really wasn’t a “creepy” factor to it, even though it was a “city for the dead”. People had so many different ways to honor their families. Some had little “living room” types of mausoleums,.... with furniture and photos and flowers in vases with the coffin there and wrought iron doors and glass to look through. Others were traditional with several coffins and photos on the wall. Lots of artwork both inside and outside. Lots of windows in coffins. Others were completely closed. It obviously made a big impression on me.
A vivid memory is of the package that arrived after my Italian grandmother died. My mother opened the packet. Inside it among the personal effects there were three pictures. My mother held them up. I realized that the feet were bare and the toes were pointed down. I kept turning it sideways, she kept standing it up. All of a sudden she realized they were pictures of her dead mother on a sheet. She cried. I was about 9.
-——Marasmus, huh? In a kid from a well-to-do family? FWIW, I’d have someone take a real good look at those remains.-——
And then what ?
Dug up her mom and press charges?
Fascinating.. thanks, FRiend
Been there, interesting cemetery.
Lots of beautiful funerary art. When my family first came to DC they attended the little Episcopal church there; my father told me often about the Adams Memorial, so I finally went to see it. Have spent many hours wandering and photographing there.
They’ve already been poking around. Why do a half-a$$ed job.
The little girl has been dead for 130 years. Just give her a proper burial and move on....
What can be accomplished by doing a full forensic examination?
Possibly discovering how/why she came to be there. Like I asked, why do a half-a$$ed job? Answering the who, but not the why?
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