St. Mark Lutheran Cemetery is located on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield, NY (with a North Tonawanda mailing address). The cemetery does not have a website but their church does: https://www.stmarknt.org along with an active Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StMarkNT/.

The Niagara County Genealogical Society’s library does not have any cemetery records of significance for this cemetery. I called the church and was put in touch with a member of the Church’s Cemetery Board. He said that they are in the middle of creating a database of the cemetery.

I offered to help do data entry in hopes that an index of names could be shared with our library. He was agreeable (pending speaking to the Pastor and approval from the Cemetery Board). If all goes well, we may be able to add an index of this cemetery to our library at some point in the future. Fingers crossed!

Many pictures have been taken and memorials made for those that are buried in this cemetery. You can visit the following websites:

Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/66057/saint-mark-lutheran-cemetery

Billion Graves: https://billiongraves.com/cemetery/Saint-Mark-Cemetery/71262

Located within this cemetery is a bench tombstone for Laird Alton and Kathy Ann Burkett. According to a blog post by BillionGraves, I believe the leaves and flower surrounding the cross is Primrose. The post states that the Primrose can have many different meanings: “The primrose was a Victorian symbol for a silent love or bashfulness. This flower can also symbolize eternal love, hope, sadness, or youthfulness. primroses had medicinal uses, so it could have indicated healing of the medical occupation of the deceased. Primroses have evenly spaced petals, making them easy to carve so they may have simply been aesthetic.”¹

Do you have any family/ancestors located in this cemetery? Please share your stories with us in the comments below.

1. Cathy Wallace, “Understanding Cemetery Symbols, Part II,” BillionGraves, 2019 (https://blog.billiongraves.com/understanding-cemetery-symbols-part-ii/ : accessed 7 Feb 2021), paras. 21-22.