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Well if burials are known to exist on the property, even if they are not marked, they must be discolsed by the seller--this is of usually stated in the MLS. But every now and then a grave is discovered by accident, like when digging for a swimming pool, etc. In that case whatever appropriate authority will investigate it, first to see if its a legitimate burial or if it was a crime scene. Oftentimes when a grave is discovered that was not marked, it is impossible to know who the identity of the remains found, though a study of old land records can provide clues.
If you want, look up this case, which is very fascinating as it deals with colonial era family burials found on old farmland during construction back in 1990:
(while the topic is focused on folklore, the manner in which they were discovered is on topic here, well as the ensuing archaeological dig which can disrupt a site):
I actually heard about vampires in New England many years ago but I didn't discover the whole story till I saw the video (s) - very interesting! The two boys discovered the skull and that started an amazing historical discovery - it was folklore that people in those days thought that the dead were vampires, but it was due to superstition and also the similarities between being a vampire and TB victims - quite graphic descriptions, but being simple farm folk you don't blame them for thinking about vampires especially in those days. I am glad that the researchers treated their subject with respect and they even did a reburial with a lot of the descendants attending - it just brought everything full circle and you saw the fascinating continuity. The descendants of people that lived long ago alive and even living in the same area. I thought it was really thorough how the artist/researcher learned everything about the area and time that JB lived in and that people tend to have brown eyes and hair - that is really amazing that she can draw that conclusion from historical research.
I think that buyers feel better sleeping in their New England farm houses knowing that even though there maybe dead people buried on their property, those buried there are not vampires More people would be willing to buy a New England farmhouse if it was just people that got sick and died, not one of the living dead
I think that buyers feel better sleeping in their New England farm houses knowing that even though there maybe dead people buried on their property, those buried there are not vampires More people would be willing to buy a New England farmhouse if it was just people that got sick and died, not one of the living dead
Yep, that's probably better than having live people buried on their property.
I actually heard about vampires in New England many years ago but I didn't discover the whole story till I saw the video (s) - very interesting! The two boys discovered the skull and that started an amazing historical discovery - it was folklore that people in those days thought that the dead were vampires, but it was due to superstition and also the similarities between being a vampire and TB victims - quite graphic descriptions, but being simple farm folk you don't blame them for thinking about vampires especially in those days. I am glad that the researchers treated their subject with respect and they even did a reburial with a lot of the descendants attending - it just brought everything full circle and you saw the fascinating continuity. The descendants of people that lived long ago alive and even living in the same area. I thought it was really thorough how the artist/researcher learned everything about the area and time that JB lived in and that people tend to have brown eyes and hair - that is really amazing that she can draw that conclusion from historical research.
I think that buyers feel better sleeping in their New England farm houses knowing that even though there maybe dead people buried on their property, those buried there are not vampires More people would be willing to buy a New England farmhouse if it was just people that got sick and died, not one of the living dead
I saw a listing for an old farmhouse in southern Vermont last fall which contained at least one grave. It had once been a farm, though now the property was just the house and about 5 acres, the rest had been sold off over the years--however, a grave of a woman who died in 1812 was present on a side yard, by a grove of trees and a garden.
It was unknown if more existed aside from hers within the property. The strange thing was the woman's name (her surname) was not to be found among any of the owners of the property going back over 200 years, not even neighbors or known inlaws, so she was quite a mystery. Not much info could be found on her at all, except that she married a man who was also equally mysterious, though showed in some town records in the late 1700s. It was unknown when he died and his burial place was unknown, but he did not appear to own any property within the county.
The man selling this house had owned the house for over 30 years and he regularly tended the woman's grave; he had researched her extensively, but little info was found (I undertook my own search out of sheer curiosity and found not much more--except that she or her husband definitely didn't own the place though they had been born in the area in the mid 1700s).
While burials must be disclosed to buyers of real estate, it generally does not have any significant effect on the sale price or ability to sell, especially if its in a rural area and is an older property... here in New England where we have a very large stock of older and historic (pre-CiviWar era) properties so I think we tend to be more used to the "quirks" which come with such places.
The New England Vampire folklore goes back to England and Ireland, which was brought by the early Pilgrim settlers in the 17th century. A "vampire" grave was recently discovered by archaeologists in Poland, which is the area of Europe the vampire legend is believed to had started...if it does not go back to Pagan Roman times, which it might...but certainly Medieval Europe.
I have a friend whose parents found a couple grave markers when they were digging up their garden quite a few years ago. Kind of unexpected, as their property isn't really rural (they're basically in the middle of town). Not sure of the year of the markers, but I would assume they were from the 1800's or early 1900's.
I have a friend whose parents found a couple grave markers when they were digging up their garden quite a few years ago. Kind of unexpected, as their property isn't really rural (they're basically in the middle of town). Not sure of the year of the markers, but I would assume they were from the 1800's or early 1900's.
Do you know if they researched the history of the property?
Many times an old farmstead is subdivided and then built on over time, making it into a more suburban/urban environment where say 80 years ago it was a rural farm and they had a family burial ground...when no family is left in the area, they can become forgotten very quickly!
The house I live in, in Holyoke, Mass. was once on a farm in the late 1800s and by the 1920s the property had been cut up into house lots, sold off, built on and it became a semi-urban neighborhood.
I saw a listing for an old farmhouse in southern Vermont last fall which contained at least one grave. It had once been a farm, though now the property was just the house and about 5 acres, the rest had been sold off over the years--however, a grave of a woman who died in 1812 was present on a side yard, by a grove of trees and a garden.
It was unknown if more existed aside from hers within the property. The strange thing was the woman's name (her surname) was not to be found among any of the owners of the property going back over 200 years, not even neighbors or known inlaws, so she was quite a mystery. Not much info could be found on her at all, except that she married a man who was also equally mysterious, though showed in some town records in the late 1700s. It was unknown when he died and his burial place was unknown, but he did not appear to own any property within the county.
The man selling this house had owned the house for over 30 years and he regularly tended the woman's grave; he had researched her extensively, but little info was found (I undertook my own search out of sheer curiosity and found not much more--except that she or her husband definitely didn't own the place though they had been born in the area in the mid 1700s).
While burials must be disclosed to buyers of real estate, it generally does not have any significant effect on the sale price or ability to sell, especially if its in a rural area and is an older property... here in New England where we have a very large stock of older and historic (pre-CiviWar era) properties so I think we tend to be more used to the "quirks" which come with such places.
The New England Vampire folklore goes back to England and Ireland, which was brought by the early Pilgrim settlers in the 17th century. A "vampire" grave was recently discovered by archaeologists in Poland, which is the area of Europe the vampire legend is believed to had started...if it does not go back to Pagan Roman times, which it might...but certainly Medieval Europe.
Maybe, the mysterious woman buried to the side of the house was a domestic, maybe a much-beloved nanny to the children of the owner. I remember reading that sometimes longtime servants were buried on people's property, usually the servants had devoted their whole lives to the family and they never had a family of their own. New England is supposedly the most mysterious and oldest part of America with original homes dating back to even settlement days, not like other states, where everything seems so new and 100 years old is ancient. They're always having paranormal shows about places in New England - haunted farms, houses, schools, and any other places where people once lived and spent a lot of time in.
I have to check out the new vampire grave they found in Poland!
Do you know if they researched the history of the property?
Many times an old farmstead is subdivided and then built on over time, making it into a more suburban/urban environment where say 80 years ago it was a rural farm and they had a family burial ground...when no family is left in the area, they can become forgotten very quickly!
The house I live in, in Holyoke, Mass. was once on a farm in the late 1800s and by the 1920s the property had been cut up into house lots, sold off, built on and it became a semi-urban neighborhood.
It's entirely possible that something similar happened in this case.
Maybe, the mysterious woman buried to the side of the house was a domestic, maybe a much-beloved nanny to the children of the owner. I remember reading that sometimes longtime servants were buried on people's property, usually the servants had devoted their whole lives to the family and they never had a family of their own. New England is supposedly the most mysterious and oldest part of America with original homes dating back to even settlement days, not like other states, where everything seems so new and 100 years old is ancient. They're always having paranormal shows about places in New England - haunted farms, houses, schools, and any other places where people once lived and spent a lot of time in.
I have to check out the new vampire grave they found in Poland!
That theory, that the woman was some sort of domestic, is very plausible. In New England, even in colonial times, tombstones were not overly expensive, though to have one generally meant the person was (or had someone able and willing) of some means to be able to pay for it.
A lot of people who lived say 200 years ago in a small New England town are not even mentioned in extant records at all--or only once or twice at that. The book A Midwife's Tale, the Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary 1785-1812, by Laurel T. Ulrich, 1990 has a small section which goes into just that:
Mrs. Ballard's federal era diary of her daily events and work mentions dozens and dozens of people in and around her town of Hallowell, Maine in the late 1700s/early 1800s, some on a regular basis.
However, Ulrich noted when she was researching town history for the book based on Ballard's diary that quite a few names in the diary, some even mentioned numerous times, never appear in a single record in the town or county archives! Several do not appear in the US census either (which then only named head of household, which was nearly always a male), or on burial or church records, for that matter; that was especially true for women, who typically lived under the 'wing' of their husband or father until they were either widowed or came into a parent's estate.
Men who did not own land also left little traces behind in many cases, so next time you go to an old town graveyard from colonial times, be reminded what you see for graves is just s small portion of the town's residents--or even ones buried there as many graves were not permanently marked (wooden markers were common for the poor and middle class-- these rarely survive).
Now, in terms of European settlement, Jamestown, Virginia is the oldest permanent and extant settlement in the United States, dating to 1607. The Puritans settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts in November of 1620, so that is the second oldest. Both grew pretty fast and I would say much more of the colonial era buildings survive in southern NE than elsewhere in the country, though Virginia and Maryland have a fair amount dating to the later 17th century as well.
The oldest wood-framed dwelling house in North America is the Fairbanks House, which ism located in High Street, Dedham, Massachusetts. It was built in 1639-40 by Jonathan Fairbanke (1594-1668) who came to Boston in 1633 from Yorkshire, England.
While his grave is not marked, he is known to be interred in a town cemetery nearby. The house is still owned by descendants of Fairbanks to this very day, though its now a museum and has not been lived in since the 1920s.
Last edited by Austin023; 11-25-2014 at 01:15 AM..
Reason: correction
If you were interested in a home to buy, and found out that one of the previous owners passed away (from natural causes) in that home, would that change your interest?
No I would still consider purchasing the house. On the other hand, While looking at houses we found one that met our needs perfectly. The previous owner committed suicide in the bedroom, in front of his wife during a argument. (according to the RE agent) we passed on that house, solely because of that.
That theory, that the woman was some sort of domestic, is very plausible. In New England, even in colonial times, tombstones were not overly expensive, though to have one generally meant the person was (or had someone able and willing) of some means to be able to pay for it.
A lot of people who lived say 200 years ago in a small New England town are not even mentioned in extant records at all--or only once or twice at that. The book A Midwife's Tale, the Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary 1785-1812, by Laurel T. Ulrich, 1990 has a small section which goes into just that:
Mrs. Ballard's federal era diary of her daily events and work mentions dozens and dozens of people in and around her town of Hallowell, Maine in the late 1700s/early 1800s, some on a regular basis.
However, Ulrich noted when she was researching town history for the book based on Ballard's diary that quite a few names in the diary, some even mentioned numerous times, never appear in a single record in the town or county archives! Several do not appear in the US census either (which then only named head of household, which was nearly always a male), or on burial or church records, for that matter; that was especially true for women, who typically lived under the 'wing' of their husband or father until they were either widowed or came into a parent's estate.
Men who did not own land also left little traces behind in many cases, so next time you go to an old town graveyard from colonial times, be reminded what you see for graves is just s small portion of the town's residents--or even ones buried there as many graves were not permanently marked (wooden markers were common for the poor and middle class-- these rarely survive).
Now, in terms of European settlement, Jamestown, Virginia is the oldest permanent and extant settlement in the United States, dating to 1607. The Puritans settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts in November of 1620, so that is the second oldest. Both grew pretty fast and I would say much more of the colonial era buildings survive in southern NE than elsewhere in the country, though Virginia and Maryland have a fair amount dating to the later 17th century as well.
The oldest wood-framed dwelling house in North America is the Fairbanks House, which ism located in High Street, Dedham, Massachusetts. It was built in 1639-40 by Jonathan Fairbanke (1594-1668) who came to Boston in 1633 from Yorkshire, England.
While his grave is not marked, he is known to be interred in a town cemetery nearby. The house is still owned by descendants of Fairbanks to this very day, though its now a museum and has not been lived in since the 1920s.
It is kind of sad that a person can live their whole life and be forgotten in time, maybe not so commonplace today because as soon as you are born there are certificates/records and along the way health, school, employment, marriage, tax - and ultimately, death - all of the paperwork that a life creates. I just always assumed there would be a grave stone for anyone who passes even in colonial days. The book based on the Ballard diary sounds fascinating especially with the fact that the writer actually did research and a lot of the people that were mentioned did not leave a record behind them. If you didn't get married or owned property that means there is less documentation. The US Census has been around for more than 200 years, which is incredible that they've been keeping records and for genealogy that is a real tool to have but not thorough enough since they only start with head of household. They have a new form of the Census now called American Community Survey, which is a really in-depth study of all the members of a household, but not everyone gets that, only 3 million Americans a year and it's very controversial.
It's very likely that people are just buried in unmarked graves on older properties - how would buyers even know for sure because there are no records. A buyer would have to consider the real risk of unmarked graves on his property if it is over 200 years old. Fairbanks House was built in 1639!!!!!!!! And, it is still owned by the descendants - it just blows my mind how an unbroken line dating almost 400 years is still around and owning the same house as their ancestor! Their property taxes must be really low!
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More people would be willing to buy a New England farmhouse if it was just people that got sick and died, not one of the living dead
Mysterious Woman
