Finding Minnie

I wrote a story a while back about the Mora family from Cortez, Florida. Joseph Augustine Mora was one of the earliest settlers in the area and had been fishing in South Florida since at least the 1870s.

Joseph Mora Plot

While I was in the Cortez area recently I went by the Palma Sola Cemetery to see if I could locate the graves of Joseph Mora and his wife Mary "Minnie" Hazel Mora. Minnie died in 1917 and Joseph in 1931.

I knew from newspaper and death records they were both buried at Palma Sola but there was no marker that could be found for them when a census of the older graves was done.

I obtained an old map of the cemetery from the Manatee Historical Library showing the original owners of the plots from around 1920.



The map showed Joseph Mora owned a plot next to my great uncle Nathan Fulford. The older plots have room for 8 graves.



Marker for Minnie and Ernest

I found the Mora plot and also a marker that had the name Minnie and Ernest on it. It is barely legible but you can see the names and the date of death says 1915 and 1914.

It was next to a round concrete grave cover that had the initials "MM" cut into the base.

Next to this was a small marker with just the initials "EM." Joseph and Minnie had a son named Ernest who died in 1916 so this must be his grave.

The one next to him with the MM initials must be Minnie's. The marker has the wrong year of death for both of them but it was probably put there years later.




Joseph A Mora Grave

Next to her is one without any identification just a concrete cover. I am pretty sure it would be Joseph's grave since all the others in the plot are from later years.