Seeking general advice about mapping and photographing a local graveyard

[Luzzu]

Hi OR,

Thanks for your reply.  Appreciate your interest and value your ideas especially as you are doing something similar.

Cancan has a meeting with the man in charge of the cemetery soon so hopefully we will be able to get access to some more information.  Working alone is not an option in this case because as we have already found out a simple visit had to be curtailed due to the threatening behaviour of some yobs so we felt if we were a larger group this wouldn't be a problem, especially if we tell the local police what we are doing too.  We already know we will be unable to do the whole cemetery as some of the stones have already been removed and recycled as a flower bed border  and others have been toppled face down  .

We just feel if we don't at least try to do something, eventually the cemetery will be flattened and grassed over.

All the best with your project.

Luzzu

[old rowley]

Thanks luzzu, as I say it has been on going now for sometime and since I started I have already seen some inscriptions disappear and others become just about readable. Thankfully I have had an interest in the village that the church yard stands in for some time now and can check on census returns and the like to check that I have information on the families that are buried in the church. This in turn has enabled me to collate all the information onto a names data base for the area which I add to daily. In relation to information on the headstones I take everything down including undertakers details that can sometimes be found at the corner stones at the end of the grave. Also I would say check on the reverse of the headstone as sometimes you will find an inscription on there as well.

As for coming across people in the graveyard I am lucky as the churchyard that I am doing this in has only a few houses and a farm nearby so no one is really going to go there to par take in a drinking/drug season. I often see people up there laying flowers and paying their own respects to past family members and on speaking to them they have been very open and helpful when they know the project that I am involved in (this has helped me more so when some one has been in contact with me after seeing me at the church yard and have allowed me to copy family photographs or documents of the area that their family came from as I am heavily involved in researching the history of the village and its surrounding area).

OR.

[Luzzu]

Hi OR,

Thanks.  I just hope we can get somewhere with it.  Sometimes it feels like we are trying to do the impossible and then we get a positive response from an MP or a Councillor or  someone and then it seems like its going to be okay.

Luzzu

[Viktoria]

Hello luzzu, what a splendid gesture, I hope you can do something positive.This cemetery pre dates Philip`s Park cemetery by quite a bit and would have been the most likely burial place of the people of Collyhurst/Angel Meadow and as such is most interesting.
I have family buried there and got an enormous amount of help from a RootsChatter who located graves for me and was most kind and helpful. Sadly I have been prevented by health problems from visiting and was in any case bothered about unwelcome visitors there, but if a decent sized group go I would do my best to join it and give what help I can.
Try the M.E.N it has an "In Touch " page and a "Memories" page but also this is very newsworthy and perhaps with publicity more people would visit on the arranged day and some may  lend a hand whilst there especially if they did not feel threatened.It`s worth a try  and I do do hope you get some positive feed back from "the man in charge" Keep us posted. Thanks for that info. Viktoria.

[Dalum]

One source of advice I found very useful when starting the daunting task of tackling a large and overgrown cemetery was Ron Neep's webpages:

http://www.british-genealogy.com/churches-graves/monumental-inscriptions.html

(Several years since I looked at these so I am very happy to find they are still there).

Hugh

[Luzzu]

Thank you for your support Viktoria and thank you for posting the link Hugh.  Just had a quick look now and it looks to have some very useful and relevant advice.

As we have now posted on the Lancashire board for support and volunteers, I am going to do a link to that post and lock this one:-

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,481713.0.html

Luzzu