NHSTRAFF-L Archives

From: "soares" <>
Subject: [NHSTRAFF-L] Re: about cemeteries in NH
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 10:02:21 -0700

Tia, I sure hope it is not illegal to do headstone rubbings in NH. as I was
there in Strafford County doing just that last year . Met some cemetery
maintenance people as I was working and no one said anything to me at all
about not doing it or about it's being illegal. If I were you I would write
or call the town clerk where you wish to do this and ask them.
I do know that cemetery preservation societies and genealogists, want
caution and care to be excercised (especially with the very old delicate
slate stones) If you want a permanent rubbing to take away with you this
must me done in the traditional way (laying paper against the stone and
rubbing with chalk, charchoal, lead, crayon , etc) this can be hard on a
delicate stone as quite a bit of pressure can be required to get a good
rubbing. If you want to do the rubbing in order to be able to read the
stone better, I recommend childrens "sidewalk chalk" it comes in very
bright colors and washes off easily, It is a large piece of chalk you can
lay against the stone and rub over it to bring out the engraving. After you
have copied the information , you can mist it off with a spray bottle of
water. If the stone is very delicate you can fill a sock with construction
chalk that is sold in hardware stores as loose powder. Then gently pounce
the sock against the stone (do not rub) and the same effect will occur.
Again you can mist off the chalk with a misting bottle of plain water.
These methods will not damage the stones in any way and will leave them as
you found them.

Good Luck!

Dianne Soares

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• [NHSTRAFF-L] Re: about cemeteries in NH by "soares" <>