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I think my dad is considering it for his grandparents. We recently visited and the headstone appears to be missing. An employee at the cemetery explained that in the 70s, the area had a big meth problem and people would steal gravestones and sell them (to be shaved down and reused) for drug money. Why no one was contacted, I don't know - apparently, no one in my family had visited these graves since the funeral (despite several of their children still being alive). I guess they are just not grave-visiting people. So I think he might approach other members of the family and see if a bunch of people want to go in on replacing the headstone.
That has been true in recent years with brass monuments as metal prices have risen.
I think there ought to be a special place in Hades for those who desecrate or vandalize graves.
I need to buy one for my gg grandmother. I don't know why she didn't have one unless it was because she died during the depression. A cousin was going to do it, my mom was going to do it, yet it never got done. Since I'm one of the last to know it's her grave, I really need to do this. I don't think I'll have a problem with the cemetery because it's under control of a historical association now. I found this website Headstone - DIY Headstone - Make your own headstone
which I thought was interesting.
I know how you feel. I marked one set of ggparents graves some years ago after learning they had no marker.
I'd really like to mark this other one for a ggm and her brother, but can't yet.
Yes, we finally found my Great, great grandparents buried side-by-side in unmarked graves in a small cemetary. They were the founders of a church and the first immigrants in our family. We found out that they were supposed to have nice markers made, but the gentleman in charge of that took the funds and left town. We were happy to pick out appropriate markers and have them laid.
I need to buy one for my gg grandmother. I don't know why she didn't have one unless it was because she died during the depression. A cousin was going to do it, my mom was going to do it, yet it never got done. Since I'm one of the last to know it's her grave, I really need to do this. I don't think I'll have a problem with the cemetery because it's under control of a historical association now. I found this website Headstone - DIY Headstone - Make your own headstone
which I thought was interesting.
Great Web Site. Thanks for sharing. About 100 years ago there was a man in the small Clark County AR community of Hollywood who made tombstones from two types of material. One was flat native sandstone he quarried from his own property (we found the quarry) and the other was cast concrete. He would shape both then carve the data the old fashion way and they were beautiful. But the point I'm making is that both have stood the time as good as, and some times better than the "modern" commercial markers. My friend and I record lost and abandoned cemeteries and graves and we can recognize those markers as soon as we see them.
No but I'd be happy to buy one for my great grandad...if we could ever find out where the heck he's buried! And he's a Civil War veteran.
Go to NARA or Library of Congress. They hold the pension files. And you won't have to pay, you petition the Dept. of Cemeteries in the VA for a Civil War stone. Our family did it for a relative in a veterans cemetery in the 1980s -- right person, right record at NARA and LOC, wrong name on stone. You prove the information, they provide the stone. Civil War are vertical stones.
Also went to get a stone from a grandmother and found she was In a family plot! We got one stone for 6 people.
I just found out that my great-grandfather does not have a marker and it bothers me more than I thought it would. Getting him a marker is now on my "to-do" list. Though I am not quite sure how to go about it.
I just found out that my great-grandfather does not have a marker and it bothers me more than I thought it would. Getting him a marker is now on my "to-do" list. Though I am not quite sure how to go about it.
Contact the cemetery, many have an active office, definitely if interments are still ongoing. If not, then someone somewhere willl have administrative office over the cemetery. Ask them their requirements. If the burials are older, they may quickly grant permission. If any burials are more recent, they may want you to get permission from someone who "owns" the plot. I put that in quotes because I had markers put on plots where the other burials were in the 1800s. Any owner is either buried there or elsewhere. Which leads to . . .
Beware dealing with out-of-state monument makers. Years ago I marked my ggp's graves in Massachusetts while living 2000 miles away. Check around on prices. I had one tell me there was a non-existent $50 fee at the cemetery. Just didn't ring true to me and the cemetery office workers, very cooperative, had not said any such. Without mentioning that to other monument makers I kept getting prices and got a company to do it for less and no mystery fee.
Have the monument company send you a photo of the marker. Not just in their shop, but placed on the grave, too. I had a pic from their shop only, but did a follow up at findagrave.com where volunteers will go take a picture of a grave monument. A kind lady did so. Then I knew it had been carried out. Should have had the shop do so, though. Why not? You're paying them hundreds of dollars. They can take a graveside picture.
I posted earlier that I had purchased four markers for my maternal grandmother's family. I am now making plans for three members of another family line and all three are in the same cemetery. Two, my gggrandpa, and his mother, have carved native stones but they are fading so I'm adding new ones to their graves. On the four I first wrote about, I did not disturb the original rock markers, I will place the new markers on the grave side of the original rocks. On these two I will do the same thing; not disturb the original tombstones but place the new markers on the grave side of the original.
The third one is unique and I'm still trying to figure out what to do. He was the son of the above gggrandpa and had a nice "commercial" tombstone ca. 1907. Some time, probably in the 1970s, he was exhumed and moved, along with his tombstone, to an unknown location. I have been unable to find who, why, or where, but I suspect his descendants found the cemetery had been abandoned and chose to move him to their part of the country, where ever that may be. My thoughts at this time is to have all the proper data on the marker with the added comment of "ORIGINAL BURIAL LOCATION".
I chose the monument maker because they advertise they do all their work "in house". To make sure I knew what I was getting into I made the three hour drive to talk "eyeball-to-eyeball" and showed/told the lady what I had in mind for the markers. She sat me down by her side, got on her computer, and laid them out as we talked and discussed what I was seeing. I was amazed at what was developing before my eyes. She then took me back to the plant and showed me how the work was done after her computer work is done. It was well worth the drive.
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