May is National Historic Preservation Month -- And That Includes Cemeteries!

Sharing these photographs to remind us that May is National Historic Preservation Month!

Please encourage your county genealogical and historical societies in Ohio to include cemeteries as a focus for their meetings and activities!  

Whether it be touring cemeteries, holding ghost walks, or offering hands-on cemetery / gravestone preservation workshops, cemeteries are places for the living.  Places for honoring those who came before us and keeping their gravesites in respectable condition without damaging them -- ensuring that any cleaning, repairing and re-setting of gravestones is done using DO NO HARM best practices.  That means opting for the least abrasive / aggressive methods and tools as possible (think NO POWER TOOLS!); assessing first if any work is deemed to be needed at all.  

Also, remember that a historic cemetery should stay a historic cemetery -- keeping the gravestones in place on their original gravesites. Unfortunately, good intentions can go overboard and turn a cemetery into something it isn't. A cemetery should not have to lose its character and identity to be in good condition.

 

Some of Greenfield's McClain High School Students Spent Today Working at the Old Burying Ground

Some students from Greenfield's McClain High School spent part of the day helping out at the town's historic Old Burying Ground cemetery where ongoing preservation efforts have been conducted for the past year.  They joined some of the volunteers of the Greenfield Historical Society -- and clicking on the title here links to the photographs posted by them.

Below are a couple of photographs taken today shared by Scott Andersen:

(Above)
Partially sunken gravestone for Martha A. Crothers who was interred at the Old Burying Ground

(Below)
A photo taken after the same gravestone for Martha A. Crothers (2nd wife of Rev. Samuel W. Crothers) was raised up.  It is now ready for repair and proper re-installation at the gravesite. 

& Perhaps two future gravestone conservators?

Sharing a Link to "Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot" Blog Post about the Shannon Cemetery in Bluffton, Allen County, Ohio

Click HERE to read the extensive current post on the blog "Jenealogy" about the events unfolding at the Shannon Cemetery in Bluffton, Allen County, Ohio entitled: 

“Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot”