Tombstone Tuesday ~ What I learned @ a Cemetery Restoration Workshop

Recently, I have had the privilege of attending a Cemetery Restoration Workshop hosted by the Clay County Genealogical Society (Indiana). It was held at a local church, where we were able to immediately apply our new-found knowledge directly to their cemetery outside.

After signing in, receiving our goodie 

bag of restoration supplies and eating a delicious breakfast, we settled in to learn a few things.

1. First speaker of the day:

Jeannie Regan-Dinius 

I apologize for the low quality of this photo. It puts the speaker in the shadows to the left. But I still wanted to include it to give kudos to her. Her name is Jeannie Regan-Dinius and she is with the

Division of Historic Preservation & Archeology within the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

She was a great speaker, and filled us in on the laws regarding cemeteries in Indiana and the SHAARD database. SHAARD stands for State Historic Architecture and Archeology Research Database. It allows users to search for information regarding cemeteries and burial grounds, as well as historic buildings, sites and structures. Just go to SHAARD Database to learn more.

   2. Second speakers of the day (Unable to take photos)

Wayne Langman and Jeff Dickerson were our next speakers.  They provided us with instructions on cleaning and repairing cemetery stones. In their materials, they provided a Suggested Cemetery Restoration Plan.

Suggested Cemetery Restoration Plan

1. Documentation
2. Find the owner and research the number of burials.
3. Get permission to work in the cemetery.
4. Apply for a probing permit from the DNR.
5. Take photographs of conditions before work begins.
6. Start map of site showing landmarks, boundaries, GPS or map coordinates of corners, directions, alignments and locations of known burials. Repeat this after each step in the restoration process.
7. Clear brush and debris.
8. Search the site.
9. Restore the markers. First rule is to do no harm.
10. Try to identify the responsible party for future care of the site.

After another delicious meal, we took our cleaning materials to the historical section of the church cemetery to gain experience in cleaning and repairing the stones.

A few photos of participants putting our new-found knowledge to work.

And last, but not least, a list of Cemetery Cleaning Tools is provided to help you get started on a cemetery restoration kit of your own.

Cemetery Restoration items we were
given in our "goodie bag".

Cemetery Cleaning Tools

• A scrub brush with medium to stiff plastic bristles. No wire brushes.
• Pistol-style spray bottle or 1-gallon pump-style sprayer.
• Household ammonia diluted with water 1:4.
• Tarp/large trash bags on which to lay broken/displaced stones.
• A wooden scraper, paint stir stick, or plastic putty knife scraper for heavy moss and vine roots. No metal scrapers.
• Jugs of water.

Now, to take the knowledge and skills that I've gained, and put them to good use! I plan on hosting a workshop at my library workplace for local historians. And, hopefully, we will get started taking care of our local cemeteries soon!