The Cemeteries of Colma

A Colma Timeline

Notable Inscriptions from Colma

Corrections to Permanent Californians

Notes for San Francisco Genealogists

Famous San Franciscans NOT Buried in Colma

Other California Cemeteries

It is illegal to operate a cemetery in the City of San Francisco.

Concerns about the public health, crime, and the need for space forced the City and County Board of Supervisors to outlaw further burials in 1902. The larger cemeteries such as Laurel Hill and Calvary Cemetery were told to remove their interments. The fight to keep the cemeteries lasted for many years, but in 1942, the last bodies were removed from Laurel Hill Cemetery. Today, only two cemeteries remain in the City -- the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio and the Mission Dolores Cemetery. Neither accepts new interments.

Led by Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Riordan, San Franciscans sought to create a new necropolis in a fault-carved valley five miles to the south. When Riordan walked out and blessed a potato field as the new site of the Catholic Cemetery in 1892, he started a movement which culminated in the establishment of the world's only incorporated city where the dead outnumber the living....

The Tales

Doc on the Rock: Ripples from the Fall of Arthur Barker

The Murder and Afterlife of Senator David Broderick

The Martyrdom of Mayor George Moscone

The Madness of
Joshua Norton


California Taphophile Mailing List

Emperor Norton's Chatroom

In preparation:

The Convict General:Bernard Paul Coy
Ishi, the Last Yahi
The Misfortunes of Makoto Hagiwara
The Secret of Adolph Sutro
The Avenging of James King of William
James Rolph: Bright and Dark
Abe Ruef: An American Dreyfuss?
The Prince of the Fillmore: Bill Graham
Firebelle Lillie Hitchcock Coit
Remember Tom Mooney!

Travel the Ring of Death
Return to City of the Silent
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