In regards to the Quick Tip Article by William (ADN-11/11/2005) about visiting an American Military Cemetery in France, and the "man in charge" of the cemetery rubbing fine sand into the inscriptions of a marker, so clearer pictures could be taken.

I would venture to say that this action would be performed very few times on any given headstone in this particular cemetery. Even so, it's causing at least minute damage. They polish and grind stone with sand. While this may have been specifically chosen sand for this purpose on these stones, I would not advocate that everyone take buckets of wet sand to the graveyard to rub into a stone from the 1800s, so they can read it easier and get clearer pictures. Many of those stones were sandstone in the first place, and the simple act of cleaning lichen, etc., is wearing down the stone. True, it may be imperceptible to you to me, but every grain of rock rubbed by nature or by human from a given surface is erosion.

If we want to leave these stones for the next generation (and next and next and...), we need to think about what we are doing. Shaving cream, whipped cream, permanent (and other) markers have chemicals that eat the stone (no matter how fast you wash them off). Even the act of cleaning it with a soft brush (wire? you're kidding, I hope) is wearing on the stone. Brush anything continuously and logic tells you that at some point, you will gouge a hole in it, no matter how soft the brush is. Vandals do enough damage to graveyards. Are we to become vandals for simple pictures? To me, light (shadows) and cemetery records should be enough.

Another thing: I wish there were a non-profit historical foundation out there, that uses money from donations and grants, who would (for free) create mini-headstones from marble or brass (or some other material that will not erode very quickly) with the information on some of these headstones that are unreadable (or almost so), to be permanently erected at the grave, by/near the original stone. Anyone know of one, or know how to start one?

Thanks to Bill for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

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