I am looking for any pictures that were taken of the East Helena Cemetery in East Helena, MT prior to the 1950's. My great, grandmother was buried in the cemetery in the mid to late 1890's. I think I have found the plot that she is buried in, but there is no longer headstone. I am hoping that I might be able to confirm her burial location by locating some old pictures.

This post was deleted by a board administrator on 7 Jan 2013 11:26AM GMT

Yes. I also met with Wayne Kreiger, the gentleman who oversees the cemetery, on a recent trip back to Helena. He had an original plot map of the cemetery. From this, I was able to determine the plot that was bought by my great, great grandmother's brother, Louis Hansen.

Based on stories passed down, my great, great grandmother; the baby that died with her in childbirth; and her two brothers, Julius (twin sibling of Josephine) and Louis (younger brother) should be buried in this plot.

Interestingly, the one surviving headstone (Julius Hansen) is in the plot in front of the one bought by Louis. This plot was originally bought by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). I have a genealogy research request into the IOOF Grand Lodge in Great Falls to see if Julius was a member of the IOOF.

I know that over the years, the cemetery has gone in and out of different states of disrepair. It's all together possible that at some point, his headstone was placed in this plot in error.

I also have other great, great grandparents (George and Bertha Dibert) and their two sons (Arthur and Frank Dibert) who are buried in the cemetery too. All of their headstones are located in the same plot. This is different than what my Mom and I remember when we took a trip back to Helena in the early 1980's when I was a teenager. I distinctly remember Arthur and Frank being the only headstones in the plot. The headstones for George and Bertha were up towards the front of the cemetery in an open area with other headstones. Again, I wonder if during one of the states of disrepair, that the headstones for George and Bertha some how got moved.

These are the types of questions that I am hoping I might be able to answer if I could find some older pictures of the cemetery. I did contact the Montana Historical Society, but they unfortunately were not able to find any pictures. If you have any other suggestions or thoughts, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

James