Preserving+Cemeteries

difference between preservation and restoration

restoration means making stone like new; restoration sometimes uses inappropriate means and damage long-term memorials; make stone look like day it was brought in cemetary; cemetary restoration companies take on any job but the expense of the customer is always carefully considered

preservation- stabalizing current stones for future use; conservators don't say they will work on every stone; critical considerations before preservation: needs careful planning, easy solution compound problem, actions should not intrude on stone, treatments should not affect the original stone type, actions should be reversable, and all work must be carefully recorded for future work;

biggest difference is conservator will be part of American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and subscribe their code of ethics and standard practices; conservator sends you an explanation of what will be done and how; later you recieve a report with greater detail of what was done and how

inappropriate adhesives are used often and are not the proper way to preserve a tombstone; these adhesives are used without careful alignment of the crumbled parts and cleaning up excess; some tombstones are easy to fix by conservators but they use pastes to fix it themselves, and when this fails, it will cause more damage to the stone before they fixed it

ways to preserve a family gravestones without a conservator: make sure lawn is mowed; remove debris from site; trim trees to prevent damage to stones; protection from vandals?; meet with cemetary owner and discuss times for descendants to visit with the ascendants; cemetary fenced and clearly marked?; recorded at county court clerk?; record and photograph each marker in cemetary

Citation: Foundation, Chicora. "What's the Difference Between "restoration" and "preservation"?." __Preservation or Restoration?__. June 29, 2006. Chicora Foundation, Inc.. 16 Jan 2007 http://www.chicora.org/conservation.htm.

saving graves-

laws exist for reburial but these are ignored everyday; graves are moved to different locations for new buildings, vandalism, neglect, etc.

to start preserving a graveyard, you need to make the problem known to the community; some reasons to stop reburial are: the personal information of the person who is being reburied may only be recorded in the gravestone itself, they are free to the public who wish to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, they are sources of humor and folklore, they are full of unique specimens, and they are homes for wildlife; carefully chose what ou are going to tell the people about the cemetary and what you are not going to tell them, make sure you know all the answers to the questions they may ask when they visit the cemetary; make sure you understand all the problems in the way: costs, locations, neighbors, etc.; make sure you have other people that feel the way you do about preserving an endangered cemetary; make sure you have the neccessary records of whose buried in the cemetary before you begin preservation; research on the deeds is needed, past and present deeds; also search up wills of the people buried there; look at the laws on relocation in your state (the deeds or laws may say there are certain things like hospitals or institutions that can be a cause for relocation; get photographs or maps of the cemetary; maybe have an attorney; search the State laws to find something on cemetaries; contact an archeological office and provide them with maps or give them a legal description and they will bring up the list of burials in that area; if you contact the archeological office before you begin the preservation they might consider the preservation of the particular site as a development project; contact the archaeological office if you think a certain site is a likely place for a cemetary they can send here professional dig team to look for obvious burial signs, like mounds; stir up the media so that people will begin to share in your interest in preserving the site

Citation: "Saving A Cemetary: Getting Started." __Saving Graves__. 2005. Saving Graves. 23 Jan 2007 http://www.savinggraves.org/education/bookshelf/steps.html.