[HistoricCemeterieslistserv] Question on Unmarked Graves

[Jane Evans]

Hi Steve,  Thank you so much for your quick response, and the description of what you did.We had Matt Turner from GeoModel do our GPR work.  He is based on the East Coast, but travels out to the west once a year.   I thought he was very reasonable for the amount of time he spent.   He did almost an acre of our cemetery,  taking several hours to pass over each row at least twice marking as he went.  He is very knowledgable about historic cemeteries, and I learned quite a bit from him, as well.  He knew about old markers,  why they tip,  suggestions for mapping (although we are in pretty good shape), etc.   He was able to locate burials from the early years of the cemetery in the 1880's with his experience in how the ground looks, what he was seeing on the screen, etc.   I know there are companies that do GPR work for utilities, and he does that, too, but it was very well worth the money to have someone understand cemeteries, have lots of experience in them  and what to look for.  Our bill was $3,900 which was covered by a generous donor.  If you send him a map of the area or measurements, he can do a quote, as well as let you know when he will be back out this way, again.     Here is his website:
https://geomodel.com
geomodel at geomodel.com
Thanks, again, for the resource of Jeff Hilts.   
Jane





-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Sprenger <sprengersd23 at peak.org>
To: 'Jane Evans' <janegirlz at aol.com>; 'Historic Cemeteries' <historiccemeteries at omls.oregon.gov>
Cc: Sprenger, Steve & Diane <sprengersd23 at peak.org>
Sent: Fri, Jul 31, 2020 6:20 pm
Subject: RE: [HistoricCemeterieslistserv] Question on Unmarked Graves

#yiv6725212654 #yiv6725212654 -- _filtered {} _filtered {} _filtered {}#yiv6725212654 #yiv6725212654 p.yiv6725212654MsoNormal, #yiv6725212654 li.yiv6725212654MsoNormal, #yiv6725212654 div.yiv6725212654MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:New;}#yiv6725212654 a:link, #yiv6725212654 span.yiv6725212654MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6725212654 a:visited, #yiv6725212654 span.yiv6725212654MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6725212654 span.yiv6725212654EmailStyle17 {color:#1F497D;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;}#yiv6725212654 .yiv6725212654MsoChpDefault {} _filtered {}#yiv6725212654 div.yiv6725212654WordSection1 {}#yiv6725212654 Hi  We have a few graves that never received proper headstones, so we had Jeff Hilts Marker Setting make a basic concrete tablet, about 9 x 12 with the basic information we had.  2 were with just names, as our records did not have any other information.  I have visited cemeteries where they know someone is buried in a position but have no information,  they had a simple maker “unknown”.  I would be interested in learning more about your GPR experience, as we would like to have that done at our cemetery.  Steve SprengerShedd Cemetery, Chairman541-491-3606  From: HistoricCemeteries [mailto:historiccemeteries-bounces at omls.oregon.gov] On Behalf Of Jane Evans via HistoricCemeteries
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2020 4:54 PM
To: historiccemeteries at omls.oregon.gov
Subject: [HistoricCemeterieslistserv] Question on Unmarked Graves  Hello!    I'm reaching out to the serve list folks for some help.      I am with the historic Miller Cemetery and Church outside of Silverton, Oregon.  We recently had a portion of  the older part of the cemetery undergo Ground Penetrating Radar.   Our goal was to find where unmarked burials were, as well as mark plots that have gone unused since the creation of the cemetery in the 1880's.   I would welcome your ideas and experiences with the following:  1)  If you have,  how did you mark unmarked burials?  We want to respect and honor that there is someone buried in the spot.  We have nearly 40 in the section we did that showed a burial is in the plot, but we don't have records showing who it was.   Did you put a small headstone or marker?   What material did you use? What wording did you use?  Unknown,  or a phrase?  2)  Do you allow new burials in your older section after the plot has been made usable through a  process assuring it is available?  If so, do you have requirements as to the type of markers that must be used to maintain a visual continuity?  Thank you for your help.  We have at least one more section to GPR next year.    Jane Miller EvansMiller CemeterySilverton, OR
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