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...In doing research years ago I discovered some ancestors had been moved to make way for an apartment building. Like there's not enough land in North America that they couldn't put the building elsewhere? I don't like that kind of thing.
Ditto. It really rubs me the wrong way that history, and even the dead, are so frequently at the mercy of developers who care nothing about the locality except the money it will bring them.
In Massachusetts some years ago I was told that in some of the older burial grounds in colonial America the graves had no markes or only temporary ones. The people were focused on survival and might not be able, we're talking 1600s here, to wonder further afield for new land at that time. So some graves were reused or family members might be buried at different depths in different years.
I suspect they took their cues from practices in crowded England where land use was at a premium. It took a while for more land to be secured and for people to see graves as a sacrosanct permanent place for a specific person and not just a temporary way to dispose of the health hazard of a dead body.
In Massachusetts some years ago I was told that in some of the older burial grounds in colonial America the graves had no markes or only temporary ones. The people were focused on survival and might not be able, we're talking 1600s here, to wonder further afield for new land at that time. So some graves were reused or family members might be buried at different depths in different years.
I suspect they took their cues from practices in crowded England where land use was at a premium. It took a while for more land to be secured and for people to see graves as a sacrosanct permanent place for a specific person and not just a temporary way to dispose of the health hazard of a dead body.
In New Hampshire they have old graveyards all over the place. Highways are built right up to the edge of them or even go around them, via curves in the road. You are right people like to leave them be if possible. Some of them are pretty spooky looking to me.
I had forgotten until my mother reminded me. On Dad's Sunday drives I used to ask him to stop when I saw a small, old cemetery. I once remember shouting, "stop!" when I saw a single marker in front of a farmhouse at a crossroads out in the country.
Sadly, there are many, many cemeteries which have been forgotten. Quire a few have been neglected or vandalized. It's sad, but it is what it is.
In Massachusetts some years ago I was told that in some of the older burial grounds in colonial America the graves had no markes or only temporary ones. The people were focused on survival and might not be able, we're talking 1600s here, to wonder further afield for new land at that time. So some graves were reused or family members might be buried at different depths in different years.
I suspect they took their cues from practices in crowded England where land use was at a premium. It took a while for more land to be secured and for people to see graves as a sacrosanct permanent place for a specific person and not just a temporary way to dispose of the health hazard of a dead body.
I can remember seeing old graves in Ireland where the "marker" was built like a large box, with appropriate carvings. When someone in the family died the top was taken off and the new coffin deposited on top of the prevous one. The graves were rather deep shafts, and the weight of successive burials would crush the burials at the bottom....and on it went for centuries. I even saw this in open vaults in the crypts below one church. The vaults were built as large arched niches, deep enough to hold a coffin put in lenghthwise. Successive burial had been laid on top of the previous layer of coffins until the ceiling of the arch was reached. In several of these vaults the top coffins had clearly been insert with great force in order to fit, damaging the coffin as well as the ones immediately beneath. And, of course, the fellows at the bottom were simply a layer of broken boards and various bones protruding. Quite grisley, and a bit surprising as these were the burial vaults of rich and titled familes...but ones that were clearly going to be buried in the family vault no matter how much force it took or the damage caused.
Also, in Europe oftentimes burials are not permanent, unless you pay a special fee. After a certain number of years the graves are cleaned out and the remaining bones are put in an urn. Unclaimed skeletons are reburied in a communal grave.
Speaking of the U.S., my sister was buried above my grandparents in 1933. When my best friend was buried his family had a plot. This grave year sold double-decker graves, so a single plot could hold two people. I was in charge of his arrangements. There were supposed to be two empty graves according to my friend's family, but I had to have to undertaken ask the church which ones were empy out of six.
The funeral parlor called me and said that there was only one grave, and they had a list from the church. There were four family members and a "Floradora Jones." And, as well they might, the undertaker said, "Who is Floradora Jones?"
OMG! Right away I said, "Lord, don't repeat this to the family. That's my friend's grandfather's mistress....he must have sneaked her in there without the family knowing!"
Volunteerism, get out there with a mower and a weed whacker or prep food and drink for those hardy enough to do the back breaking labor.
GREAT suggestion. We had a group that did just this. We would go into a cemetary that was overgrown and just start weed whacking. The string wouldn't cause any damage and once it was whacked, we could get in with mowers.
It is great to watch people drive by as we set up portable tables and had lunch for about 20 people right there in the cemetary.
We always had the local "historian" come out to see what we were doing, and they ALWAYS gave us a walking tour of the cemetary and a who's who of the dead.
I had forgotten until my mother reminded me. On Dad's Sunday drives I used to ask him to stop when I saw a small, old cemetery. I once remember shouting, "stop!" when I saw a single marker in front of a farmhouse at a crossroads out in the country.
Sadly, there are many, many cemeteries which have been forgotten. Quire a few have been neglected or vandalized. It's sad, but it is what it is.
That reminds me of going to cemeteries as a kid when we were on family outings. YOu can learn a lot about people and life just from studying the markers. Sad to see evidence of a couple burying a child year after year, for instance. Many people today don't understand how lucky we are to live in modern times.
I can remember seeing old graves in Ireland where the "marker" was built like a large box, with appropriate carvings. When someone in the family died the top was taken off and the new coffin deposited on top of the prevous one. The graves were rather deep shafts,...
Speaking of the U.S., my sister was buried above my grandparents in 1933. When my best friend was buried his family had a plot. This grave year sold double-decker graves, so a single plot could hold two people. I was in charge of his arrangements. There were supposed to be two empty graves according to my friend's family, but I had to have to undertaken ask the church which ones were empy out of six.
The funeral parlor called me and said that there was only one grave, and they had a list from the church. There were four family members and a "Floradora Jones." And, as well they might, the undertaker said, "Who is Floradora Jones?"
OMG! Right away I said, "Lord, don't repeat this to the family. That's my friend's grandfather's mistress....he must have sneaked her in there without the family knowing!"
I understand in southeast Asia it is not uncommon for relatives to go and dig up the bones of their parents or grandparents after an interval of many years. They take the bones home and They must store them.
Some old crypts have a shaft at the back so that as fresh remains are pushed in the old ones fall down into a pit below. Morbid, but it dealt with the issue of what to do with the remains of grandpa or his mistress.
GREAT suggestion. We had a group that did just this. We would go into a cemetary that was overgrown and just start weed whacking. The string wouldn't cause any damage and once it was whacked, we could get in with mowers.
It is great to watch people drive by as we set up portable tables and had lunch for about 20 people right there in the cemetary.
We always had the local "historian" come out to see what we were doing, and they ALWAYS gave us a walking tour of the cemetary and a who's who of the dead.
I've also found several graveyards in my hunt for Ghost Towns.
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I don't like that kind of thing. 
Q
They must store them. 
Glad to hear it. 
