In a recent issue, a reader mentioned that if you used chalk to highlight inscriptions on a stone, you should wash it off. The St.Louis-L mailing list just had some information on researching headstones from a society that seemed to know a great deal about it. Unfortunately, I did not keep the information, but I remember that they did not consider chalk a good idea. Maybe a search would find the group who could really give you some good advice that wouldn't damage the stones.

LaVerne

Note: Good point LaVerne! The Association of Gravestone Studies (AGS) recommends, "Don't use shaving cream, chalk, graphite, dirt, or other concoctions in an attempt to read worn inscriptions. Using a large mirror to direct bright sunlight diagonally across the face of a grave marker casts shadows in indentations and makes inscriptions more visible." AGS has posted its list of "Gravestone Rubbings Dos and Don'ts" on its FAQ page.

While the cemetery lot cards may not have dates of death, they usually contain dates of burial. If you can find the local newspaper on microfilm in a local library or history center, start searching three days prior to burial for the obituary. I always look at the graves surrounding the identified family plot, and I have found other family graves in this manner.

Also, many of the cemetery lot cards do not show all of the people buried. However, most cemeteries keep a chronological log of burials. If you know the approximate date of death, or have enough time to read through a long time period in the log, you can find very useful information, including the undertaker—another set of records to search.

Mark Kudzy
Stamford, CT

If you don’t find the stone you are looking for, don't give up. While visiting the graves of my great aunt and cousins, I had a hard time finding the tombstone (a unique brownstone obelisk). I went to the groundskeeper's house and asked for the Dostallier family plot. I was not sure of the spelling, but nothing close could be found, so I asked him to look up the name La Porte. Nothing. Insisting that we had only buried Irene La Porte a couple of years before, I urged him to keep looking. Finally he looked up Irene's burial record. It turned out she was buried in the plot of a Josephine Savoit! My great-grandmother's first name was Josephine, but it turned out that the only family member NOT buried there had her last name on the plot. My grandmother, Florestine Dostallier Savoit, is buried in another city with her husband.

To make matters worse, my cousin Cele's grave was given to a boarder named Joe Lusty, no relation to us at all. Picture his descendants trying to find him.

Moira Neville

Recently I had to literally dig up two headstones from a dense wooded area behind some cornfields in Wisconsin. Since this obviously was not a marked cemetery, I took pictures of the woods and the farm buildings they were near for future identification, in addition to writing a brief narrative describing the surroundings and the farm address. I asked the farmer who owned the property if he knew of any other stones, and sure enough, he led me to another seemingly undocumented stone. When queried, he told me that the reason they were buried in such an obscure location was because they died of black smallpox, and people were frenzied at that time about the spread of the disease. He then pointed out the location of the house they lived in; it was burned to the ground for the same reason.

Maria Johnson
Yuma, Arizona

While researching my family in Harrisburg, Penn., I searched at the East Harrisburg Cemetery, and the office staff was very helpful. Not only did I find where my relatives were buried, but I also found their next of kin, address, type of casket and headstone, and the cause of death, along with an obituary, if one was posted. I then took the information on causes of death to my doctor, and I am now being treated for them. The doctor said he wished more of his patients had the health history I gave him. Most of what I have can be treated, but left untreated, can lead to death.

Cheryl Odom

After reading tips for visits to cemeteries, I would like to submit some advice for visitors to cemeteries who are researching genealogy. I work in the office of a large cemetery, and we have a lot of people visiting and looking for graves at this time of the year. As a genealogist myself, I try to help researchers as much as I can.

May I suggest:

1) If you mail a letter requesting information, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for your reply.

2) Please limit requests for grave locations to a few. It is very time-consuming to look up all the cards needed and to show where they are on the maps. We have maps of the cemetery that we give out on request. If you have quite a few names that need to be searched, it will help all concerned to request the information by mail before you visit. This way, the office workers can work on them in their spare time, and you will not have to waste time when you get to the cemetery waiting for this information.

3) Our cemetery does not have death or birth dates, only burial dates. We do not have any family history information on the people buried here, such as next of kin or whether someone’s family is buried here, unless you have the name. We do not have the cause of death or the location each person lived at the time of death. Each cemetery is run differently, though, and has its own way of keeping records, so the amount of information that is available will vary.

4) Not all graves are marked. If you have a date of death or a guess as to when it occurred, check with the local library or newspaper for obituaries.

I do not know if this will be of any help, but maybe it will help researchers understand why we sometimes cannot give them all the information they want. I have had people become very angry with me, thinking that I am keeping information from them.

Sincerely,
Patricia Greer

Previous cemetery tips submitted by readers can be found in the following recent issues of the Ancestry Daily News:
12 July 2000
28 June 2000