Angela,
Can you explain more about the field markers? I think others would like to know.
What is a field marker?.
How do you treat that in your map? Especially if there are no records..
L:A
----- Original Message -----
From: "atielking" <atielking(a)insightbb.com>
To: <inpcrp(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:32 AM
Subject: [INPCRP] Dowsing
Hello Ernie and Jack,
I know quite a few folks here on the list do not agree with dowsing and say it
doesn't work. I used to be one of those people. One day I just said heck with
it and gave it a try and I very happy and surprised with its results. It
doesn't hurt anything and is less invasive. And I don't mean to add fuel to the
fire about dowsing, but this is supposed to be a discussion list and hopefully
this will help someone down the road.
When we (the Hancock Co. Cemetery Commission) are searching for gravemarkers
that have sunk below the ground, we first use the traditional method of
probing. When we feel we have done all that we can to find the stones, we will
use metal dowsing rods to find them. I don't know how it works, why it works,
etc... but it works for us. Do I think we find all the stones that could be
there? Probably not. But we have found more because we have dowsed. We found a
two year old little girl's marker that way. If we hadn't of dowsed, more than
likely little Clara wouldn't have been found because we probed that area and
couldn't find it that way. Clara was our most recent find, we have found many
others, especially field markers that way.
Like I said, I don't know how or why it works, but maybe you just need to have
a little bit of faith. :-) I think some people are better at it than others.
Our Commission president has the best luck.
As far as an unmarked grave that is a different story. We are trying to find
markers, not bodies. If it is a cemetery with no plot records, I am sorry, but
I feel it should not allow burials, just for that reason of digging into
another - unless there is beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one is buried in
that AREA.
Take care,
Angela Tielking
Hello Jack,
I'm sorry about causing the ruckus over dowsing, but it is only
accurate about 10% - 20% of the time and I do not recommend ot for
locating graves. That's not much better than guessing, and only as
good as common sense and intuition at finding graves. In our
business an inaccurate guess could eventually come back to bite us and
cause a lot of headaches.
Consider the township trustees that are locating the empty lots in
their cemeteries for possible sale by using ground penetrating radar.
What would the legal ramifications be if the trustee sold lots that
were found to be already occupied upon excavation for a grave? This
could effect the trustee that sold the lot, the family that purchased
it, and possibly the family of the unknown deceased already buried
there.
And, in a case like yours, a contractor is told that dowsing has shown
that there are no graves in a piece of ground and when the excavatoin
begins bones and/or coffins are dug up. Then the BIG problems
begin. Or a contractor hires a company to move a grave that has
been dowsed only to find nothing there. The contractor will not be
happy at the added expense.
Rich Greem and others have proven that ground penetrating radar works.
In our business of restoring and/or protecting Pioneer cemeteries
I don't think that folk superstitions such as dowsing should be used
to locate graves.