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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
What's New at Arcadia
Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock
Arcadia Publishing has releases a new title in the Images of America series, the historic account of the cemeteries along the New Hampshire Seacoast. This collection is a must for anyone interested in local history, genealogy, or colonial-era art. Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast and browse other cemetery books!
Green-Wood Cemetery By Alexandra Mosca
Arcadia Publishing announces the release of the 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.
Announcements
Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok
An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!
Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.
A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.
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!
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 with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman
Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture 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.
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Abandoned Tri-Cities Cemeteries Endagered |
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Written by DeadGirl
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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
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