Until Death Do Us Part

When couples marry they vow to be together until death do they part.  But what about after death?  One naturally assumes that when one of a couple dies the second one will ultimately be buried next to them.  Is that always the case though?  In the case of my Great-Great-Grandparents, William and May Weil it was not.  They where laid to rest in cemeteries ten minutes away from each other on Joliet's East Side.  The reason for this being rules governing the church that May practiced in.                                                

May Chidsey-Weil was a lifetime member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  This church is located near the corners of Ottawa and McDonough Streets.  It was near the home she grew up in directly behind Eliza Kelly Grade School.  When May married William Weil in 1897 it was at Sacred Heart Church.  Or so we thought.  The parish register gave no indication that the ceremony was performed outside of the church.  When my grandmother went through the marriage register there is stated that May Chidsey married William Weil, acatholic.  Upon further research I discovered that meant he was not a member of the Catholic Church.  William was raised in the Presbyterian Church.  William grew up on Benton Street and his family attended Second Presbyterian Church on Jackson Street.  It was not until we received an original copy of their marriage invitation we discovered that they where married in the parsonage of the parish.  The reason for this probably being that William did not convert to Catholicism  but continued to practice in his church.

May and William went on to have three children and baptize them in the Catholic Church.  Only one of them survived to adulthood.  Their two youngest children both died before the age of five and where buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery next to May's parents.  When William died in 1931 he was buried at Elmhurst Cemetery in the plot of his parents.  According to church law William would not be allowed to be buried in blessed ground since he was not baptized in the Catholic Church.  The only way he would have been able to be buried there was if his grave was first lined in brick or stone.  This would have prevented his casket from touching the blessed earth.  When May died in 1958 she was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery next to her children.