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Archiver > TMG > 2003-10 > 1065133239


From:
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT Court Order Books
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 18:20:39 EDT


Teresa,

I don't have a copy of the cemetery book. They sold out like hotcakes and I
don't know whether they have reprinted the first one yet. Why don't you go to
the web site and email the historical society this question. I doubt very
seriously, however, whether many, if any, inscriptions would be legible or extant
that early. Most inscribed tombstones that early have crumbled, or the
inscriptions have worn off the stones. Sometimes families have erected newer
tombstones over older graves, but the inscriptions are not primary source. Most graves
of that time period were field stones, some with just scratchings (as I'm sure
you know!). Then, Chesterfield County, as we are in Henrico County, fighting
developers. Chesterfield County is not quite as urban yet as Henrico County,
but the powers that appear to be just interested in tax money and allow
developers to move/destroy old family graveyards at random. We work hard in Henrico
County to find the graves, read them, and photograph them before the
contractors move in. Sometimes they do not even get all of the graves/bodies out of the
graveyards when they move the bodies, normally to the Catholic cemetery (Mount
Calvary) in the City of Richmond. Virginia law desperately needs to be
changed. The code says that if a graveyard is abandoned, the graves can be moved. In
some cases, though, the graveyards have not been "abandoned" by families,
contractors have moved the graves, and people have shown up to bury a family
member and are stricken when they can no longer find their family graveyard!

Frankie


> Thanks Frankie. I will have to check that out. Do you know how old the
> cemeteries would be. The family seems to have left the county around
> 1797, so I would need really old cemeteries. Can't tell that any of the
> children died there, but dad might have.
>
> Teresa Ghee Elliott
>


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