Cemetery Preservation, Restoration, and Clean-Up

Marking Burials and Monument Repairs

A related problem is what to do with old cemeteries that are abandoned, close to being abandoned, or very neglected.  One possible solution is to make the cemetery easier to maintain.  This can be achieved by laying the old slab style burial monuments flat and cementing them at ground level.  This will make mowing the cemetery grounds easier as well secure the burial monuments for future generations. 

What to do with damaged burial monuments is another common problem. One of the cemeteries I visited during the past few years cemented some of their burial monuments to keep them upright. The cementing saved the burial monuments for future generations. If you look at cementing as a fix for broken burial monuments please make sure you are not covering up any data and be careful where you are using the cement. You might want to determine if the cement is compatible with the burial monument material. Please also remember cement is caustic and it can burn you skin.

A problem common to every cemetery is unmarked burials.  The pictures below were taken in an old church cemetery.  The church for the congregation was torn down long ago. It appears that someone contacted a local funeral home and purchased or asked for some temporary metal burial markers to mark graves, and then cemented them in place for the long term. 

Another cemetery that I visited marked the unmarked burials with plastic crosses.

If you have any ideas, especially the cost saving or low cost ideas, I am always open to suggestions.  If you are or have been a member of a cemetery 'friends' group and have suggestions of what worked for your group (or what did not work?) I would love to hear from you.

Some other suggestions:

** If the cemetery is completely public and not connected to any religious group, the local 'sentence to serve' or 'community service' organizations may be able to offer some assistance with mowing and clean-up.  Even if they are not completely public you can always check into this option as the rules may be different where you live.

**If you are with some sort of service group and are thinking about what might be helpful for your local cemetery, you might contact your local cemetery sexton and offer some help in removing grass that is growing up, around, and over some of the sinking burial monuments.  This is particularly a problem with the newer style flat burial monuments.  If your group members feel a little stronger, you might want to check into trying to relevel some of the sinking burial monuments.  I would, however, recommend you get some sort of permission before doing anything with burial monuments. 

** If you are the sexton of some local cemetery records, or know who is, please leave or ask them to leave current contact information with nearby town offices, as well as the local historical and genealogical societies.

**In the age of 'pre-paid' burials, there may be some money that was set aside by the deceased for their burial in a specific cemetery.  If you know of someone who is buried in one cemetery and may also have had burial plots in another cemetery please contact the cemetery.  In pre-paid situations cemeteries have to hold pre-paid burial money for a certain period of time unless they are informed by the decedent’s next of kin.  If you are the next of kin you may be entitled to the pre-paid money and the proceeds from the sale of the burial plot.  

This page was last modified March 6, 2010.

This web page is maintained by Debbie Boe debbieboe@pressenter.com

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