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Archiver > MO-CEMETERIES > 2005-02 > 1109275945


From: Orlena <>
Subject: RE: [MO-CEM] Re: Neglected Cemeteries
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 12:12:25 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <200502241327.j1ODRWpb010671@mail.rootsweb.com>


In the old days, family could be buried on their own land, it wasn't deeded as a cemetery.

When it was deeded as a cemetery, it obviously should have remained a cementery. Private cemeteries apparently had different rules. Unfortunately, the later owners often refused new burials or markers added to old burials and proceded to return it to pasture or farming ground.

I've never tried it, however I don't doubt that some people do have the gift. I've seen newspaper articles about people who do it. As I recall, one gentleman had been asked to find the empty grave sites in an old cemetery that the records had been destroyed and they wanted to be able to use the cemetery as long as possible. When tested he had only selected empty graves.

Ann Bush first brought the dowsing for graves site to our (my sis Peggy and my) attention. We sent emails back and forth between us for awhile.

One of us found almost a whole cemetery listing of graves as the dowser saw them. It was quite a listing.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txfrio/dowsingforgraves.html

http://www.tommymarkham.com/BedfordCounty/dowsingforgraves.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dowsing+for+graves&btnG=Google+Search

Orlena

Ginny <> wrote:
I have had two experiences regarding family cemeteries in MO. In both cases
the deeds for the land exempted the cemetery when the ownership transferred
to the new family.

In one case, the cemetery was documented by local genealogy/history society
members, once in the 1920's and again in the mid-1980's, and the cemetery
was visible from a main highway for many years, The earliest grave I know
about would have been in 1836. The current owners let cows graze and knock
over stones, they removed all vestiges of the stones, and they turned the
whole area into a plowed cornfield. Now the actual graves and stones are
completely gone except for one part of a stone that I was given by the land
owners (long story, the fragment is my ggggrandmother's stone). The local
historical society is planning on some kind of discussion with the farm
owners because they view this as something that should have been prevented
and they also suspect an early famous pioneer was buried there. My
ggggrandparents and my gggrandmother are definitely there. I found out
about the situation 3 years ago from the historical society and they advised
me about the stone fragment, etc. Now that I have finished with contacting
the owners, the historical society will start discussions.

In the other case I suspected my family members were buried on the original
land that another of my ggggrandparents settled on in 1835. No one in the
county has documented such a cemetery, but I found deeds from 1887
documenting the existence of a family cemetery on the land and exempting the
cemetery when the family sold the land. I believe that 15 - 20 people may
be buried there. I contacted the current land owners and they had no idea
there was a cemetery or ever even a house on the land since it had been used
for pasture for many years, left partially wooded, and rented by farmers
from the owners. These owners are very interested in looking for the
cemetery and I hope to try and find it this coming fall. There are probably
stones that have fallen over and are under several inches of dirt. Maybe we
will be lucky and find something sticking up.

Ginny
Durham, NC

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