On Cleaning Tombstones

This blog post was inspired by the fact that I was unable to comment on To Clean or Not to Clean... because I don't have one of the required profiles. So I'm commenting here instead.

The comment I was going to submit was this:

Tending the tombstones of family was very important to my great-grandmother, and I have gone out and washed the tombstones of my grandparents and great grandparents to get the bird poop off (water and nylon brush). While I can understand that some people would rather keep the antiquated look of an old cemetery, I for one would be very appreciative if someone decided to tidy up and make the tombstones of my ancestors easier to find and read.

But since I'm already here, I'll elaborate a bit. My mom took her grandmother to the cemetery on a fairly regular basis to replace the flowers and straighten things up around our relatives graves. It was very important to her, and was perhaps a way of showing her respect and love.

So a couple of years ago, my cousins and I had the idea to go out to the cemetery and replace the flowers. I hadn't been out there in years, and had no idea what condition the tombstones would be in. So I brought a couple of jugs of water and a nylon brush with me to make sure I could get some nice photos for Find a Grave.

Obviously, these tombstones aren't very old, so all we were cleaning off was bird poop, lawn clippings and dirt. We had a great time giving Grandma, Granddaddy, Nanny, Papaw and Aunt Winnie their "baths", and I will bring along my brush and some water when we go back out there next month.

I honestly didn't realize that there was such a debate over whether or not to clean tombstones until today. I do understand that old tombstones have to be cleaned carefully and properly, to avoid damaging them, and I wouldn't suggest using anything but water unless you have consulted with an expert.

I've never gone around straightening up and cleaning the tombstones of others, but I truly appreciate those who care enough to do it, and do it right.

So if you haven't already, check out To Clean or Not to Clean.... Alisha provides some great tips on how restore old tombstones without causing further damage, and shows the dramatic difference that it makes.

Tombstone Tuesday: Find A Grave

For those that haven't stumbled upon this tremendous resource, Find A Grave contains (at present) 82 million grave records, many of which are accompanied by tombstone photos. This is an excellent site for beginner genealogist to find important data and leads, as well as wonderful photos for your family history archive.

Find A Grave can be searched by name, birth date, death date and cemetery location. You can also look up a specific cemetery and search it all of the surnames you have associated with that location; a great way to discover information about aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family.

Some entries contain very little information at Find A Grave, but there are some that contain a great deal of historical data, such as my ancestor Isaac Low's Find A Grave page.

The images and data are submitted by volunteers, and if you know the cemetery where your ancestor is buried, you can submit a photo request. If you live near a cemetery, you can find requests for photos and pitch in to help others.

FindAGrave.com is a free service, supported by ads and sponsored pages (to remove ads). To place or fulfill photo requests, a free member account is required.

If you have found something awesome and unexpected at Find A Grave, feel free share your find in the comments below. We love to hear about genealogy success stories.