This from your California friends...
The USGS survey maps used to show all the cemeteries the government
surveyors found. It seems sometime after 1949, they started dropping the
cemeteries off the quadrangle maps (as well as some other features). We
have tried to track down old USGS maps to locate cemeteries we are no
longer able to find (our county, El Dorado, where gold was discovered,
has "lost" about 40 cemeteries known to have existed).
Some of our early tax assessment maps also showed the cemeteries. The
more we look for maps that show them, the more we've been able to find.
Especially the Townsite Maps when the townsites were surveyed for
patenting.
Hope this helps. In the meantime, we have asked our county to "flag"
parcel numbers if that parcel contains a cemetery. We are constantly
updating that list, but the county gives us no help. It's up to us to
determine which parcel the graveyard is on. Still, the building
department can issue no permit until someone physically visits the parcel
to see the location of the cemetery to where someone wants to build.
Good luck!
Sue Silver
On Fri, 18 Feb 2000 07:22:33 EST KidClerk(a)aol.com writes:
Sorry gang, should have included this in my previous post...
I'm not sure how the best way to handle this would be, but I guess
I'm
just concerned as to why many of these cemeteries aren't already being
shown
on surveys. My lending institution has required a survey of every
piece of
property I've ever purchased. Many times this is an un-staked survey,
meaning the private surveyor only draws a map and shows the property
boundries and any encroachments. I would think that if someone had a
cemetery in a housing area, it would be shown on a survey if it's
known it is
there. I'm not sure how larger tracts are handled, such as
farmground.
Global Positioning is an option to locate, but I don't believe is a
legal
form of property description.
I would think that a beginning point would be to go to the old
maps and
deed records in all counties to try and determine many of these
cemeteries,
since many times the land was set aside as an official cemetery. Even
though
the hopes that it would be continued as such may have faded a few
years
later, many times they were optimistic enough to have a deed recorded.
Old
county maps were also excellent sources for locating these old
cemeteries.
Now my quesion....who should be the agency/organization to glean this
information from the county records? (in those counties that it hasn't
been
done yet) Granted, a volunteer effort by county historical societies
and
organizations will have mixed results, but it may be better than
nothing at
all. I guess I just don't see the DNR having the resources to
identify these
cemeteries statewide...not in this decade, anyway. Please don't get
me
wrong...I think this legislation is wonderful and long overdue. Our
first
priority should be the protection of existing cemeteries from further
destruction. Next, we can work on the identification, and then let's
work on
preservation and restoration...hopefully with state assistance in
funding. I
see no reason why some of our state's lottery/river boat money can't
be put
to good use here.
My thanks to Cheryl, Lois, and everyone else who works so hard on
this
and who make up for those of us who can't seem to make it to Indy to
help.
If you run into any concerns from the Co. Recorders on this issue and
would
like to have someone talk to them, please contact me. I sit on the
Board of
Directors of the Association of Indiana Counties with their
association
president and will be happy to see what I can do.
Kyle D. Conrad
Clerk of the Newton Circuit Court
==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
THIS IS A CEMETERY -----
"Lives are commemorated - deaths are recorded - families
are reunited - memories are made tangible - and love is
undisguised. This is a cemetery.
"Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence,
historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.
"Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are carved
in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life -
not the death - of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for family
memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living.
"A cemetery is a history of people - a perpetual record of
yesterday and sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery
exists because every life is worth loving and remembering - always."
--Author unknown -- Seen at a monument dealer in West Union,
IA
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