Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[L Verge]

I believe that Mr. Hall checked records there early on because in the early-1840s, St. Peter's was the closest Catholic church to where the family was living (now half in and half out of D.C. and in a bad area). When John and Mary Surratt were married, the ceremony was in D.C., but in a private home of a friend, not in a church -- another good indication that John did not convert to Catholicism.

Until 1850, Catholic families in that area known as Oxon Hill attended Masses in the home of Mrs. Christiana Summers Edelen. Mrs. Edelen's husband was an Episcopalian who, along with another Episcopalian, Dr. Folsom, gave the land for the future St. Ignatius.

St. Ignatius, the church that Mrs. Surratt solicited funds for, had not been established at the time of the Surratt children's baptisms - the cornerstone was laid in 1849 and the church dedicated in 1850 by the Archbishop of Baltimore. It was a mission church for St. Mary's in Alexandria, Virginia (where Mary had received her education), and a young priest from St. Mary's was sent to be the first pastor. Some of you may know that there has been lingering gossip about that priest (Fr. Joseph Finotti) and Mrs. Surratt having an affair that got him shipped up north.

Back to St. Peter's in D.C., I have been there, but I don't remember a graveyard, and most city burials were within larger cemeteries. Mrs. Surratt, Anna, husband, Isaac, and some of Anna's children are in Mt. Olivet in D.C., but that plot was donated by the diocese to the family at the time of the release of Mary's body by the government. Husband was not there waiting.

I'm still betting on the descendants being correct that he was buried on the old Jenkins farm about four miles from their tavern. The grave was never marked and became forgotten (on purpose?) during the 1865 chaos. It was gobbled up decades later when villages were established around that farm. You have no idea how many private cemeteries in Prince George's County alone have been destroyed by developers.