|
Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Announcements
Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
|
|
Abandoned Tri-Cities Cemeteries Endagered |
|
|
|
|
Written by DeadGirl
|
|
Saturday, 22 November 2003 |
Abandoned Tri-Cities Cemeteries Endagered
By: Erica Estep
News Channel 11
Nov 20, 2003
When you bury your loved ones, you expect that plot to be their final resting place, but progress across the Tri-Cities is unearthing some of your ancestors.
However, there is a group trying to uncover hidden and abandoned cemeteries before the bulldozers do.
Dawn Peters spends her spare time in abandoned cemeteries. Peters says, "This is the jewel. This is what you look for. You look for the real old tombstones that have been hand hewn.
Peters is passionate about graveyards, but not just any burial grounds, just those in danger of destruction.
She helped form a group of grave hunters named The Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee.
Peters explains, "People like to come back and find their ancestors and we like for their ancestors to be here when they come back."
Sometimes they're too late.
Fellow grave hunter, Betty Jane Hylton, says, "Some just seem to disappear. When we go searching for them there's buildings there, new buildings."
Bustling development is pushing out some of the Tri-Cities oldest cemeteries.
It's fueling the group's mission to find and document the most endangered.
Hylton says what scares her most is, "seeing the bulldozers arrive."
Tombstones sit just feet from a Johnson City shopping center. Limestone markers can be seen dotting the Tri-Cities, but it's the lost and forgotten they want you to know about.
Carrying the tools that will clear the way for discovery, we went along to find a new grouping of graves.
They hope unearthing these relics may save them because the alternative is disturbing.
Team member, Donna Briggs says, "if they find a bone or a piece of metal from the coffin, they'll put that in a body bag and it's re-buried."
If a business wants to build on sacred ground the law says they can't just build over a known cemetery, but your ancestors can be moved if no one claims it.
Dawn Peters witnessed a move in progress. She remembers, "They take a bulldozer and they go in and move about 3 or 4 shovels of material, pitch it up on a sheet, roll it up and that's it."
Peters shows us picures of a small family cemetery that was dug up when a Johnson City business expanded. She recalls, "I'm sure they didn't get all the person that they were digging for and they didn't find all the graves in the cemetery."
Not all cemeteries are destroyed. A Johnson City call center is operating without disturbing the dead.
Advanced Call Center Technologies Manager, Mike Horton, says, "We built this retaining wall around here to keep the Bowers there in the cemetery and we have agreed to keep it up."
Moving the graves was an option they considered, but this employee is glad the family wasn't relocated.
Horton says, "We do like it here. It does take up a few parking spots, but that's ok. We've got room to grow down there."
It allows these grave hunters, and those they're fighting to save, to rest easy.
To begin a search for your roots or ancestors' graves begin by writing down everything you know, birth dates, death dates, marriages, and maiden names. Then ask your relatives for help.
Your local library and the internet also provide a wealth of information on geneology. Here are a few websites to get you started:
www.cemeterysurveyteamofnetn.org
www.tngennet.org/carter/
www.rootsweb.com/~tnwag/index.htm
http://www.wjhl.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=TRI%2FMGArticle%2FTRI_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031772223138&path=/news
|
|
Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.” Francis Bacon
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
|
