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Archiver > TX-CEMETERIES > 2007-11 > 1195237499


From: "Etta" <>
Subject: Re: [TX-CEMETERIES] TX-CEMETERIES Digest, Vol 2,Issue 118 *** digging up unused graves ***
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:24:59 -0600
References: <111620071511.27088.473DB31A000A8978000069D022216128369B0A02D29B9B0EBFCECA090A@att.net>


Sounds like you have some greedy, calloused trustees and definitely need to get some new ones!! If there are no family members...how do the local citizens feel about the bull dozing being done? According to our funeral home, to disinter a body in Texas, an order for disinterment has to be given by a Judge to even begin the legal process which is lengthy. Someone needs to call several local funeral homes and find out what they have to say. Sounds like someone from a higher jurisdiction may need to be contacted and get involved.

I manage a small cemetery in East Texas and thank goodness, we're not that busy. But we don't allow any burials in the original old sections of our cemetery, except, in the few vacant spaces left in the family plots that family members know are unused.

According to various old records I have researched, we have over 100 unmarked graves in the 'original cemetery'. The DOD's show the deaths occurred during 1930's and this tells us what area these 100+ were buried in. I have put some of these names online and have found family members who didn't know where their loved ones were buried and were so thankful to know. One lady came from Illinois kind of remembered the cemetery location where her little day old brother was buried in 1934 and she came to Texas to show me where her little one-day old brother was buried in 1934 and now his little grave is marked! I helped another lady find her little sister's death certificate which showed her DOB and DOD. Now she has a nice grave marker on her grave.

We have a few unmarked graves in the newer sections, but thanks to good recordkeeping, we know who is buried there. Sometimes we have had families from out of town bury someone who lived locally and then don't ever come back and put a grave marker on their grave. So our Cemetery Association just passed a ruling that we now charge $100 per burial and that goes into a "Grave marker fund" to be used to buy grave markers for our unmarked graves and the ones that have the temporary funeral home markers (that don't last long anyway). Our local funeral home has agreed to work with us and also pass the information to out-of-town funeral homes when they call requesting a grave to be dug for a funeral.

It takes a lot of effort, time and determination, but it is so rewarding!! Start making a lot of phone calls and asking a lot of questions. The more people you can get involved in the matter and make the problem public, the better off you'll be. Hang in there!!

Etta Withers
Gregg County, Texas


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----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: [TX-CEMETERIES] TX-CEMETERIES Digest, Vol 2,Issue 118 *** digging up unused graves ***


But who's going to stop them?

My dad is 83. He says when he was young there were a lot of white wooden crosses in this cemetery. I don't remember any of those, but I remember lots of field stones marking burials. Later a caretaker "cleaned up" the place, not realizing the rocks marked graves. Everyone in the community knows there are unmarked graves there.
A few years ago, one of these trustees wanted to reserve a large group of graves for his family in the oldest part of the cemetery. So he brought in a bulldozer and dug across a couple of dozen gravesites, didn't see anything, and promptly put his name on them! I was shocked when I found out, but it was way after the fact.

These trustees hired a lawyer a few years ago, but got mad when she told them they were not legal. They told her to do everything that needed to be done and not bother them. The last thing to be done was make a plot map, so I went and did that last year. I made a copy of the map and handed it over to them. All they had to do was hand it over to the county clerk and they would be legal. They refused; said they didn't want the government in their back pocket. The lawyer warned them rather strongly in a public meeting that they could get sued, so they passed a rule stating that trustees could never consult a lawyer ever again! By the way the lawyer was working pro bono, free.

So now they say if there is no marker, then there was never a grave there. So who's going to stop them? We need new trustees, but finding a few people who care is really tough.
--
Elayne Pair Gibbons
www.PairPlace.net


-- Original from "treviawbeverly" <>: --


> Oh, my! and NO! by Texas law they cannot do this except if they try to
> locate the descendants through newspaper ads and then they have to go > before
> a judge. Even the trustees cannot disinter without the proper procedure > and paperwork. Someone should warn the trustees before they find
> themselves in really hot water.
>
> Trevia Wooster Beverly
> Houston, Texas
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 6:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [TX-CEMETERIES] TX-CEMETERIES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 118
>
> > In message dated 11/16/2007 3:15:49 A.M. E S Time,
> > writes:
> >
> > In that cemetery the trustees are threatening to dig up and reuse all
> graves
> > that don't have markers. Their attitude is "if their family doesn't
> care,
> > why should I." Problem is, we have over 400 unmarked graves.
> > A few years ago an uncle of mine made a bunch of cement squares,
> > marked them
> > "Unknown" and placed them in the cemetery he takes care of.
> >
> > By Texas Law can they do this? You can't with Pennsylvania Law.
> >
> > Kate

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