When calling your local historical society, please refrain from yelling for two and a half hours at the lowly educator. No amount of threatening, screaming or cussing will change the fact that the resident educator most likely loves the subject of history, believes in saving and preserving local memory and thinks that cemeteries – no matter their size or how inconveniently located they might be to your back fence – are amazing genealogical resources that should be protected and maintained.
It is unrealistic to think that you will change the educator’s mind and/or gain the educator’s support when it comes to topics like…I dunno, building on top of the cemetery and/or petitioning local government to prevent a bronze marker declaring the cemetery to one of historical relevance from being installed. Similarly, do not expect the educator to agree or “be okay with” the fact that someone broke and buried most (if not all) of the headstones and markers thirty some odd years ago. Just because someone tried to remove all evidence of the cemetery, does not mean the cemetery ceased to exist or that the local historical society forgot about it. It is, after all, the society’s job to remember such “inconvenient” details like tiny, nearly forgotten cemeteries in local neighborhoods. Guess what? Both the city and the county remember it, too. Why don’t you call them and let your local history educator off the hook?
Please do not be surprised if your local history educator supports efforts to dig up the buried tombstone and marker pieces and try and restore – or, at the very least, DOCUMENT – as many names, dates and relationships as possible to the appropriate burial sites. Those graves were there long before you were a twinkle in your great grandfather’s eye. In fact, like it or not, the cemetery was there for more than a century before you moved in next to it. No one made you live near it. You chose to. Don’t burden your local history educator with all the reasons why living next to a cemetery is bad. If you don’t like it – move. It will make everyone’s life a little bit easier. Especially, your local history educator’s.
And, no. Unearthing bits and pieces of buried tombstone is not the same as disturbing a grave. Your local history educator does not get paid enough to explain this to you again. The first ten times should have sufficed.
Thank you,
The Management
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