Burial record of my uncle

There is no "Veterans Cemetery" on Long Island, NY. Patrick Cullen is buried in the Long Island National Cemetery, SECTION 2Q SITE 2983. He was a Sargent in the U.S. Army during World War II. Is he buried with a spouse or child? You should be able to tell from your family genealogy if he was the brother of your father (your uncle). Fold3 has draft registration card for him(?) born in Janesburg, Ireland and living in Sewickley, PA in July 13, 1942. It lists a friend living in Seacliff, NY. Hope this helps.

• He went to USA and did not keep in touch with his family.  I do not know if person buried in that grave is my uncle.  That is what I am trying to find out.  Buried alone. I know where he was born and when he left Ireland. Grave is listed as in US Veterans Gravesites , Long Island national cemetery. I cannot tell if person butied there is my uncle. 

I cannot tell from family genealogy if person buried in Long Island cemetery  Veterans site is my uncle as he did not keep in touch with any of his family They did not have address for him in USA. His Mother ( my grandmother) tried to find him many years ago via Salvation Army.  I am trying to find death record for person buried in Long Island cemetery. I have only recently found the draft card and address in Pennsylvania. I have been in touch with Nara but his military records destroyed in fire. Thank you. 

Although you can never be 100% sure in genealogy, you can build a strong circumstantial case--if the birthday matches, and you have a draft card and an enlistment record with the same birthday, then odds are that they are the same individual. If you could get a copy of the internment record, which might give a little more information, that might lock it in even more, but I think you have a very strong circumstantial case.

If his name, DOB, and place of birth are correct, he is probably your uncle. The church in the town where he was born should have family birth records to help you document his connection to your father. Emigration records will tell you when he left and where he was headed. Census records will help you track where he lived both before his service and after. If he died in NYC (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx), his death certificate is kept by NYC. As a relative you can apply. If he died in New York State out of NYC, the state has death records. Besides NARA there are many genealogy websites that have military and immigration records that will help you confirm his relationship. If everything you find matches, tell the cemetery you are his niece and request what they have. I don't know that the cemetery will have much to help you other than his basic pedigree. After all your research you will have a bunch of pieces that fit but nothing except a DNA test will say specifically "Liz, Patrick is your uncle". Sometimes that's the best you can do.

Another thought: His draft registration card lists a contact as a “friend”, Dr. Michael Dunne, Seacliff, NY. Check census records for Dr. Dunne – they may have lived together or nearby. Seacliff is in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. The town of Oyster Bay may have a death certificate. It’s a long shot but you might find ancestors of Dr. Dunne who knew of Patrick.

I know where he was born, when he emigrated. This does not tell me person buried in Long Island cemetery is my uncle. I have phoned cemetery office but they will not give me any details. A death record may give me some information. I have searched many sites but that is the missing piece. I do not have his address  when he died. Cannot get death certificate.  

The cemetery probably doesn't have much information. If you look at the information that is recorded on a VA burial card, it mostly focuses on their service, and not so much on their life. But again, if the birthdate is the same, and the information on his draft registration matches, and there's nobody else in Findagrave.com with the same birthdate, then it's probably very likely that it's him. The only thing that might further clinch it would be to request his VA records and see if you can correlate them to him. It's quite possible that he died in a VA hospital; if he did, it would be in that record. Not the death certificate itself, but it would tell you what hospital he was in when he died, perhaps. And with that, you'd know who to contact for the death certificate.

And chances are very high that if he was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery, he died someplace in Eastern New York. The family or his estate was responsible for moving his remains to the cemetery, so it's not likely that they moved them from, say, Wyoming to New York for burial, especially if he didn't have family also buried there (I have a friend whose father died in California and is buried at the Rock Island National Cemetery, but his father and grandfather are also buried there).

• Thank you for reply. I have never seen a VA burial card. Where do I get his records?

It's actually a "Request for Headstone." And until 1970, the Army provided them to the VA.

Here is a link to the series. Unfortunately, they've only digitized them through 1963.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596118 

You could try contacting the Archives at   archives2reference@nara.gov  to see if they could pull the card for you (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't).

To give you a couple of examples of what one looks like, here's two from the early 1960s, picked because they were both buried in VA cemeteries. You can see that one died in a VA hospital, because the request was submitted by the hospital registrar (the person who keeps track of all the patients), the second was submitted by the cemetery administrator. The ones for people buried in private cemeteries were more helpful, because they provided information on who submitted them--wife, widow, brother, cousin, son--it runs the gamut. It also gives enlistment and separation dates and service numbers, which can further be used to make sure you have "the right guy" when comparing to other service records.

And, if he did die in a VA hospital, it would point you towards where to look for a death certificate, and possible relatives, if any.

It's actually a "Request for Headstone." And until 1970, the Army provided them to the VA.

Here is a link to the series. Unfortunately, they've only digitized them through 1963.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596118 

You could try contacting the Archives at   archives2reference@nara.gov  to see if they could pull the card for you (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't).

To give you a couple of examples of what one looks like, here's two from the early 1960s, picked because they were both buried in VA cemeteries. You can see that one died in a VA hospital, because the request was submitted by the hospital registrar (the person who keeps track of all the patients), the second was submitted by the cemetery administrator. The ones for people buried in private cemeteries were more helpful, because they provided information on who submitted them--wife, widow, brother, cousin, son--it runs the gamut. It also gives enlistment and separation dates and service numbers, which can further be used to make sure you have "the right guy" when comparing to other service records.

And, if he did die in a VA hospital, it would point you towards where to look for a death certificate, and possible relatives, if any.

I cannot find headstone application.