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In our old house we had a small graveyard adjacent to the back corner of our lot. I didn't even know it was there for a few years, until our next door neighbors were talking about it (it was adjacent to their lot too). I didn't care about having it there either way, but when we were selling our house, we did have a few people comment that they did not prefer our house because of that.
I'm with the group that finds cemeteries interesting. Raleigh has a great historical cemetery, Historic Oakwood Cemetery. They give wonderful, informative tours as well - here is their tour schedule, with one coming up this weekend.
Old cemeteries are one of my favorite places to photograph as well.
Wow, I thought it was weird that I find old cemetaries interesting and peaceful. There are a lot of old family graveyards near where I live (NY) and no one touches them. They are all over the Northeast. Everyone used to get buried like that way back.
Now that I think about it, it is historical. They have a good point! It doesn't seem like it'll affect the value of the house. I don't think I'm worried about it anymore. Still want to check out Herritage but Amberly is #1 so far.
I sold an older home in North Raleigh that is on an acre lot. There is a very small very old family graveyard with about 4 graves (between houses). Legally, it cannot be moved without the consent of all family members and since it was from the 1800s, where are they going to even FIND the family members? So it remains. The sellers did have to disclose that it was there.Vicki
To be precise, the owner of an abandoned gravesite can remove the bodies, even if the family members can't be located, but it's a bit of a logistical pain (see section 106 and following). Briefly, if you own land on which there's a grave, you need to get the approval of the municipality or county in which the land resides, give reasonable notification to the next of kin (meaning, you need to do a reasonable search for them but there's no absolute requirement that you find them) and post a weekly notice in a local newspaper for four consecutive weeks, and after following the requirements for disinterment and reburial, file certain paperwork with the county.
Of course, if someone else owns the property and that owner is long lost and forgotten, then you'd need to take possession of the property before you could remove the graves, but if you live there long enough that's potentially doable.
The whole burial law is pretty interesting, actually. Me, I'm going with cremation. No reason for me to take up space after I'm gone, and why pay big money for a grave and a tombstone and upkeep and all that jazz...
"Do you believe in life after death?" the boss asked one of his employees.
"Yes, Sir." the new recruit replied.
"Well, then, that makes everything just fine," the boss went on. "After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother's funeral, she stopped in to see you."
FWIW, there is a portion of the Garden State Parkway in Northern New Jersey that is bordered on both sides by a very old and large graveyard. Trust me, the graveyard was there long before the Parkway was ever built through the middle of it.
LOL, I know this area. Every time we drove back from the airport I always thought of the poor family members visiting the gravesites of their loved ones. Not my idea of a peaceful resting place, some of those graves couldn't have been more than 10-15 paces from the 6-8 lane, noisy, industrial looking GSP. Argh. But, I'll say this, other parts of the GSP are actually pretty and quite worthy of its name--Garden State Parkway.
I can think of at least 5 different small family plots in my daily travels, one is at the top of my neighborhood and until they did some brush removal I didn't even know it was there. Doesn't bother me. Some have rather ornate iron fencing around them. I agree with the historical aspect, but can honestly say, I'd be creeped out if it were in my direct backyard. Otherwise, no biggie.
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Interesting
