23 reclaimed headstones and counting...
On Memorial Day 2014, after stumbling upon several empty grave sites, I came across a t-bar tool that someone had misplaced. Not a believer in coincidence but rather serendipitous moments such as these, I took it upon myself to appease my curious nature by plunging the half-inch tube into the empty ground where a headstone should be. I think I surprised myself when I hit something hard less than an inch below the heavy sod.
I came back the next day armed with tools of the trade: a trowel, a bucket, gardening gloves, and a couple bottles of water. I then proceeded to reclaim the lost grave.
I've since recovered 23 headstones - all in the Grand Rapids area. Each has been properly identified and photographed with photos added to the popular recent Ancestry.com acquisition, Find-a-Grave.com, in addition to my own website at... lostgraves.org.
I am amazed at how many headstones are lost and buried due to the passing of time. Prior to the early 1900s most burials were not of the modern vault-style. Today, caskets are placed inside a concrete vault to protect both the ground above as well as the casket itself. Prior to our modern era caskets would be placed into the ground where the heavy weight of the soil added with retained water would crush the casket resulting in a recessed ground at the surface.
Headstones fell and sunk into the ground and years of sod, soil, and debris buried them completely.
My purpose at lostgraves.org is to reclaim these headstones from the earth. I've found some that were buried as deep as 4 inches below the surface. Each is fully documented with photos on my website.
On now to the cemetery for some further digging...
