Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois

Waldheim Cemetery Office
1400 Des Plaines Avenue
Forest Park, IL 60130
(800) 222-4541
(708) 366-4101

Waldheim Cemetery website

Emanuel Congregation was founded in 1880 as an Orthodox congregation and initially met in a rented room over a dry goods store on Sedgwick Street. A section of Waldheim Cemetery was purchased soon afterward.  In 1883 Agnes Sachsen was the earliest burial - and the most recent was in 2004, Rose Finkel. Emanuel Congregation secretaries updated the cemetery records until the 1990s; maintenance was then turned over to Waldheim Cemetery. The book is divided into two sections: the first section is organized by plot number, and lists dues paid for the upkeep of the graves. There are handwritten entries that provide information on burials going back to the 1880s. Small sketches at the top of some of the pages show the placement graves. Some of the entries are poignant: an entire page is devoted to listings of infant graves. Some correspondence of genealogical interest is included.

JGSI volunteered to preserve the genealogical data and make it available online. The project was made possible by the dedicated work of JGSI member volunteers. There are 823 records in this database and they were indexed by JGSI member Sheryl Levin.