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Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 2005-06 > 1120129899


From: "Betty" <>
Subject: Re: [GM-L] Back Yard Burials?
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:15:37 -0400
References: <002a01c57cd2$eddd8020$e096fbd1@youro0kwkw9jwc>


Hi Charles,

Just a reminder that, just as with ..today.. many people cannot afford to
buy a "stone" for a gravesite, and, in some cases, not even a marker. I
am familiar with family-situations where people living today had all they
could do to purchase a "plot" for their loved one, and barely put together
the very simplest of a "wake" and "funeral."

And, on the Brooklyn, NY, List, the subject has come up with the major
cemeteries in Brooklyn having "situations" where the person who originally
bought a "plot" - even 150-200 years ago, did not finish paying for it.
So, if some descendant, knows about the plot, and wants to bury a loved one
there, they can be forced to finish paying for the whole plot - before they
can be allowed to use it.

And, as someone else just said, how many of our early "pioneers" had the
money to create an official cemetery? And, if they did, how many of them
had the wherewithal to have gravestones created? (1620's to 1820's)

In Billerica Center, there is a small, historic cemetery very nearby, but
you don't see any stones mentioning years before the mid-1700's. My
"guess" is that all the church cemeteries and "backyard cemeteries"
originally created in the 1600's and early 1700's .. would have
"disappeared" when 1800 began .. and our "modern day houses" started to be
built.

In Billerica, much "development" is taking place - where many "contractors"
are buying up the "old summer camps" on the shores of rivers, lakes, and
ponds here, and putting up large, expensive houses on the sites. How
many of them are checking the ground for "old bones" before they bring in
the bulldozer?

(I know of an older house in Billerica where there is said to be a "basement
burial." Look how many of the very early homes had "dirt floors.")

Betty (near Lowell, MA)




----- Original Message -----
From: "charles brack" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: [GM-L] Back Yard Burials?


> Someone posted a url for Mt Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge--a week or so ago.
>
> It stated that they were trying to keep as much of the natural beauty as
> possible at the cemetery.--My interpretation and my words.
>
> My grandmother's family is buried in the family plot there. Mt. Auburn
drew
> a little map showing the location of the 15 or 18 people who are buried
> there.
>
> When I went to Mt. Auburn I was told how to get to the burial site. I
> couldn't find the location. I had to go back to the office as I couldn't
> find any markers. Bottom line, there weren't any markers.
>
> My gg-grandmother purchased the plot in 1871 for my gg-grandfather and
> evidently decided not to place a marker. I don't know if it was her
> religious belief or some other reason.
>
> I'm sure some of my other ancestors in Mass. and Maine were buried like
> this.
>
> Charles
>
> ______________________________

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