Graves in people's front yards? (Raleigh, Greenville: chapel, home, residential)

[Bill Hitchcock]

.......the proliferation of graves in people's front yards.

Perhaps an indication of the housing market and not the home owner?

[gigimac]

Dear Kayo,
The reason you see little cemeteries near homes or near roads is because long time ago, Eastern North Carolina was primarily rural, folks owned acres and acres of land, roads weren't paved, and so cemeteries were put closer to the big house. As people and families died, their land was sold into parcels and then developed, dirt roads became hwys, and the cemeteries remained, without all the huge fields surrounding the main houses anymore to indicate how come a cemetery is there, and even some without the houses long since torn down. You may have seen fairly recent headstones (altho 50 yrs old is not too recent) in those plots, probably because that was the last of that clan. As for not seeing too many cemeteries near churches, this is not exactly true, particularly old churches that have been preserved, and even today many newer churches will have a cemetery nearby. But in the last 100 years or so, since city cemeteries had to be established, plus homesteads were being sold off, this led to family members thruout a region coming together in a family section of the cemetery just outside the nearest larger town. Which that explains how come in a city you'll find a historic cemetery in an old part of town, becuz at one time that was just outside town. But anyhow, to sum up, way back when, the farming people all lived together in a group of nearby houses, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, to work the land, and when they were buried, they went into the family cemetery on a dirt road on that property. I hope this explains it to you. In most cities and a few counties, laws basically don't let you bury people, not even your dog (altho nobody pays attention to that part), in your yard, unless you can get a variance of some kind for children perhaps.

[kayoztom]

Thanks Gigimac. That's kind of what we had come up with here. 50 yrs old, I guess you're right, it's not that new. It's just that as I get older, the 60's and 70's still don't seem like that long ago. Most of the grave I saw were along hwy 70 east of Beaufort and near the towns of Davis and Sealevel. (wonderful people there) I saw another outside Jacksonville near the airport along with a few others whose exact locations have slipped from my memory.

[zthatzmanz28]

In Franklin and Nash counties seems almost every yard has 4-8 headstones. Many look to be late 1800s early 1900s. Drove by several (one in Middlesex on NC 222) that had a very recent burial--as in they just held the service the day before I drove by.

Haven't seen any here in Johnston county, though there are a few in strange places like between houses on Live Oak Road and across from the Smithfield Moose.

I am guessing the ones in Johnstoin County were more removed from residences that is whey I see them in the midst of fields. Though again, there is one next to a single wide on Buffalo near Sullivan.

[gigimac]

Kayo,
On the 1960s thing, if you figure some people live 100 years, that puts them being born in 1860, which is just before the Civil War. So, if you can think back on that time period and the way people used to live, farmers with lots of land, you can understand how it might make sense to bury that last person in the old family cemetery. Also, headstones, while SOMEthing is usually put there to mark the locale of the deceased, and perhaps there was even a fence, if it was a flat headstone, it may have become overgrown and maybe even the fence long rotted away, so might be some folks are buried near the 1960s headstones that you saw, that died even earlier than that and thus were born maybe even as early as the 1700s.

I have people that go back that far in the region, I don't know where THEY are buried, but perhaps in a little roadside cemetery like you saw, with a flat and overgrown headstone. And just a little off subject, but I recall going to visit some friends years ago who rented a very old house way out in the country, and beside it in the back side part of the house was a rather nice headstone, and it was engraved with words something like, "Butch, Our Beloved Dog."
GG

[RoaminRebel]

The above posters pretty much cleared everything up as to why these small burial plots appear around Eastern NC. Now if you ever get a chance to look at some of the names, you may see that the family name matches the name of a street nearby.

Some years ago, there was just such a plot in the parking lot in Greenville near what was then called Pitt Plaza (now colonial mall I believe). They poured cement over the surface and built a building in front of it. Not surprisingly, some of the individuals buried here were named Evans.

[BullGoodBearBad]

I've seen several in small coastal towns but they date back to the early-late 1800's.

[kelsie]

We bought our new home because it sits directly in front of a Cemetery which was constructed over 100 yrs. ago. I visit there often, it is a family cemetery with head markings for their slaves. I feel very comfortable with this and they watch over our family "furbaby" who is buried right near them.

[mkozlpn]

I have seen at least 5 homes in Sneads Ferrry NC that had graves on the property that seemed to be at least 100 years old so I'm surprised that more real estate agents weren't aware. I think it's kinda sweet that people kept their departed families close but it is pretty strange to buy a home with someone else s family on the premises.

[macjr82]

There are strict laws about desecrating graves here. You can't just bulldoze them for developments. They have to be reintered, like the graves at the Pitt County Courthouse, or not disturbed at all. I think there may even be specific stipulations on the reinternment. Easier to just put a fence around the grave and build around it. I doubt the real estate agents didn't truly know the reason, unless they were transplants themselves.