I’ve taken over 10,000 photos in cemeteries for Findagrave and yet I have never dug a single hole. I’m living vicariously through your videos and your dedication to preservation. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for all your time photographing all the memorials. I’ve been researching my ancestors for some time now & much appreciate being able to find their final resting place ❤
Hey thanks for what You have done. If it wasn't for a person like Yourself I wouldn't be able to fill the holes in My Grandfathers family. 11 brothers and sisters with only My Grandfathers Youngest Brother left (just all be it barely). Boxes of photos and records gone from many floods and other family throwing things away with complete disregard of any other family members. Again Thank You so SOO much.
Nice! I went looking for two of them today and entirely failed. Someone put a request on there and I was boggled… it was my first attempt. I’ve explored cemeteries, but finding graves? Yeah, turns out that’s hard. What’s depressing is seeing obvious graves with no markers, or a stone with no inscription. Should have brought paper and crayon for some of them…
I am a first time watcher and I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. The people in the grave may be gone bit they are NOT forgotten. They were somebody's grandma,granddad,mom,Dad,or somebody's baby. I hope after I am gone someone will take care of my mom,and dads grave.
Also a first-time viewer, and just want to let you know how I appreciate the work you put into honoring the memorialization of our lost ones. The child's resting place you're caring for today represents the broken hearts of those past.
It is so kind of you to take the time to honor and restore these seemingly forgotten grave markers. I’m a first time viewer who looks forward to watching what comes next.
As an archeologist, I have worked on a number of cemeteries. I have done everything from minor restoration, documenting & mapping, to exhumation. The smallest cemetery I documented had 5 burials all of which were marked with simple field stones. Keep up the good work of restoring our past.
I love how you approach your work with respect and honor for not just the headstones but the person who is buried there and the person’s story. Thank you.
What a wonderful and dedicated cemetery to watch for potential plots that need repair. This to me shows me that the owners of the cemetery care about the people that have been laid to rests dignity.
You are AWESOME doing this. I raised my son and my family stones and put 1-5/8 in. x 8 in. x 16 in Patio Heavyweight Concrete Blocks underneath, they were sinking and that was not going to happen. I put D2 on them to clean them and they look great.
I had an older brother that died as an infant in 1968. My grandmother made him a marker out of edging stones. It had been decades since my parents visited his gravesite in the late 2000s. My dad passed away in 2009. Right before he died he wanted us to try to find his marker but never did. I’m not sure if it was taken or sunk underground. My dad’s grave is a few plots from his. I’ll have to try to find it one day.
Correct. The cemetery should have records. I posted a note a few years ago about my maternal grandfather, who had a very common name and died when I was an infant…the whole parent generation were gone.. Within days I had a message from a Find a Grave volunteer who had found the record of his burial. Tremendous work going on to resurrect stones, update and find records, correct the neglect and vandalism of many generations. If you cannot do the actual work, a contribution to a verifiable volunteer group can go a long way.
I did archaeological field school. We used the square shovels and sharpened them with a grinder. You could skim millimeters of soil with those. You might think about that.
I watch Time Team UK alot. Wouldn't it be great if you had the $$ for a Geophiz. machine. You'd would know right away what you were dealing with. Not all that guess work. What fun. Thank you for all your hard work. 😊
I happen to love graveyards and use to sit by the graves to contemplate life, it’s a great place for it. The moment I knew what you were doing I pressed the like button and then subscribed. Nothing should be forgotten, thank you
My wife used to love to play in graveyards as a child & used to talk to people she could see through the hedge. Everyone said that she had imaginary friends. She remembers the people she talked to very clearly; Though she remembered distinctly that most of them didn't remember their names. (Sidetrack thought; Perhaps the graveyard was once wider & the stones were moved from the graves?) As for your comment that "Nothing should be forgotten," that is a beautiful ideal, but far from realistic & probably the world is even better for it. I got into genealogy when I was back in my 20s, tracking down the roots of the maternal side of my family, trying to learn why my family had the distinction of having a matriarchal in place of a patriarchal head. It was difficult to find because the name was fairly common. However small details that had been passed down allowed me to narrow down who our ancestors were for that side of my family & at last I found the truth about our origins. It turned out that the last of our noble male ancestors had been exiled to the Azores for commanding his troops to flee the field of battle with their weapons. (That's a careful distinction. To discard the weapons & flee was to indicate an inability to fight any longer. To take the weapons from the field of battle was the sign of a coward who refused to fight any longer - but to maintain the ability to make a surprise (cowardly) attack later.) When exiled they were allowed to maintain their rank, so long as the monarchy remained intact, but the coat of arms for the family was permanently altered to bear the "bar sinister" at the crest & to have six white bones protruding into a red field on the coat of arms. All indications of severe disgrace. When I shared what I had found with my mother she forbade me from telling my grandmother the truth behind how our family came to reside on the Azores. That coat of arms is still cataloged but of course nobody uses it. The matriarchy ended after MANY generations with my grandmother. My mother, whom was slated to be her successor in organizing the family, had suffered brain damage as the result of a bad case of pneumonia which robbed her of much of the keen intellect she had fostered all her life for that role. The only other potential successor was a social misanthrope with borderline personality disorder - thus it was impossible for her to take on that role. My point though is that my mother, grandmother, great grandmother & great great grandmother all held pride in their noble blood as well as the succession of family matriarchs. However somewhere along the way someone omitted a big part of the story to beautify it. That can be considered "something being forgotten" as the truth died with whomever was the culprit. True, I came to understand why the women held the reins in the family, because of the male ancestor that failed the family & brought the family disgrace. Incidentally though the family was becoming more & more radical in terms of the matriarch's powers went as well as how men within the family were treated. Today there are extreme elements of feminism that no longer seek equality but rather superiority. On that side of my family it was ahead of the curve by more than 30 years & the women both born into the family or married into it held such a position. More abstractly though much is lost to history due to stories being forgotten, changed, adapted or something that cuts off the younger generation from gaining the wisdom of their elders. This includes the existence of individuals. This is why aboriginal Americans simply refer to their ancestors. Apart from perhaps EXTREMELY noteworthy individuals or within the most recent handful of generations - the names are no longer remembered. Sometimes this is a good thing though. If your great-great-great uncle were a serial ... uh ... euthenasiast(?) ... would you feel that you absolutely had to know that? What about if your great-great-great grandfather was executed for having relations with his livestock or pet? More applicable perhaps is the memory of blood feuds between nations, regions, ethnicities & peoples. Once the reason for the ongoing feud fades enough people on both side begin to question why they were hostile to begin with. Gradually, over time, those old wounds are healed. It is the same with suffering a broken heart. I was torn up terribly over the loss of my first love in the most bizarre, twisted & can't-make-this-crap-up way. They say that time heals all. That's hardly true. The truth is that the memories fade, the actual memory of the emotions fade so as to be replaced with memories of memories which are in no way near as strong as the original, until the day that you can look back & just say; Wow, that was messed up. As where when it happened initially? You were ready to throw in the towel on this thing called life but only stayed six feet above ground level because you didn't want to impart that sort of pain on your former beloved.
You are so gentle when doing this I think it is just wonderful to watch a person like you doing the work for the deceased. Thank you and God bless you.
Your channel just popped up, so I am seeing it for the first time. Most of my family is buried in a church cemetery that still has an active, growing congregation. I donate money to their cemetery fund, as I am unable to do any upkeep myself. Thank you for all you do!
That is some GREAT black soil. Here in North Carolina you’d run away screaming - because it’s all red clay…. And when it’s dry, it’s like digging concrete.
i am sexton at the lower white hills cemetery, in white hills connecticut, have been for 48 years. thank you for your care in repairing headstones. 53 thousand people are better educated on this topic and the number is growing. i have the same problem with the marble turning into limestone and dissolving. for us granite is better. it does not weather.
Another great day at the cemetery with you; thanks again. As my old partner and mentor used to say "you never know what you've got until you start digging." I found one of those huge bases about a month ago and it was for a footstone. I've seen a lot of cases where pieces that really didn't fit were used so I think that where I live anyway the carvers would often just use/sell whatever they had available rather than necessarily carve everything new. I had another one at that same cemetery where the T slot was bigger than the tab so they just cut two small pieces of marble and filled the empty space with them. Only time I've found that (I removed the pieces and filled in with Lithomex as the pieces were badly weathered, discolored, and looked really bad).
@@millennialstonecleaner I guess it's all relative. But it's obvious it was common to cut corners. The ones that really get me are the ones where the inscriptions are very wrong (e.g. deid for died). Why did they accept those and, I can only guess, pay for them ? I can only hope they got a discount.
I'm new to the channel and would like to suggest beginning your videos with the name and location of the cemetery in case someone (like me) would like to visit the site. One last shot of the completed work would be a fitting ending to that project's saga also. Your expertise and dedication to this work is so much appreciated!
It's a bit stunning how many headstones have become absorbed beneath the earth. I guess maintenance persons over the years just didn't bother to keep on top of it. They cut and watered the grass and that was it. Thank you for caring to do the work. Quite the undertaking and glad that you enjoy it. Gratitude to you. Many blessings to you for it. 🙏❤💫💥
For you complaining about where he's putting the soil at . If you had listened ,he said in the ist video ,that the entire cemetery is going to be redone .and he's allowed to put the soil near the grave sites . If you want to nitpick on him so bad ,then go help him out in the restoration work .
I have tried using white flour to bring out fine details in these stones. It works extremely well. Even in the white marble. Really makes fine detail and faint inscriptions pop. It's non invasive, non destructive, and washes off in the next rain. I did one that has been laying on the ground run over with a lawn mower for years. It had a lengthy fine inscription on it that I could not read very much of, even with flour. I could mostly read one line all across but had no idea what it meant. I typed the one line into google and found out it was one line from one part of a lengthy religious poem called, "Servant of God" "The pains of death are past, Labour and sorrow cease; And, life’s long warfare closed at last, His soul is found in peace" Google was real helpful in that case and I was able to read the whole inscription and could see that is what it said when I had some guide as to what the words were.
I’m so glad I found your videos! 2 months ago I found an old family cemetery of my ancestors. It’s in a neighborhood in someone’s backyard. My kids and I are going later this week to start the clean up! Thank you for what you do!
I too tried to help with a Cemetary restoration of a fully grown over, completely abandoned late 1800's (Chinese)? Cemetary in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii. I noticed it first as theres wide, concrete stairs leading up to what looked like a Jungle on an elevated piece of land. Additionally, I had seen guys with Chain Saws working in there over a weeks time. The Workers had cut away a mass of Vines/ & Trees overgrowing the Markers. These Markers were in good shape. Sadly, the Workers had knocked almost every single Marker over (maybe 80-100)? during the vegetation removal process. The Markers were very unique. They were ALL the same; 4×4 inches, made of Concrete, and about 4+ feet long or so. They were all painted dark red, and had (Chinese) writing going down the sides. The cool thing was that the holes were fresh where the Markers were knocked from, & you could clearly see where each marker just needed to be stood back up and placed into the hole; (an inch or two away from the bottoms of the Markers). It looked easy enough until I began lifting them & getting them back into the fresh, square holes they were just knocked out of. I did a few, and felt pretty good that those markers were in their correct spot stood upright again...until; "WHAM!" one of the markers I had just righted came crashing down on the back of my BARE leg! Until that moment, I was unaware of my ability to leap six FEET straight up into the Air!☺ I got the creepiest feeling and thought; "did I put a marker back in the wrong spot?" Slamming the heavy Concrete Marker on my 🦵 was an excellent way of letting me know that; despite my good intentions, I might be creating chaos! I got the "H" out of there, and left the restoration for those who were clearly set out to tackle the project.👻 You"re doing great work!. Also preserves History for the future!😊👍
That was a great video! I got a lot more sense of what you are going through digging up these stones. The length was perfect and great content. I also thought the music was very relaxing and appropriate. Thanks! Really looking forward to the next installment.
Brother I love what you are doing. I just hope you have taken about 10,000 pictures and notes. I have worked construction all my life and I have seen where someone can get way of a project and get over whelmed trying to finish the punch out list... Peace be with you and Semper Fi.
I think it's wonderful that you do this, so I let ads play as much as I can stand it. Every penny helps! I also think it's wonderful that you teach your craft to others. There are too many headstones and cemeteries for you to be able to get to all of them even if you did it full time for the rest of your natural life. Training others is as good as cloning yourself 🌹🙏🏻 Also, I enjoy the music. Is it your original composition?
Curious if that old glass isn't the faceplate from an old Fisk coffin? That would mean, though, that there are no burial vaults, or at least not at that grave. One thing I've learned, is that I will leave in my final statement of wishes to not have a marble headstone. Sad that once those stones are completely gone, so can be, in too many cases, any record that the person existed. That's the true and final death.
I have to believe it’s geographical/environmental too. I have been to multiple cemeteries in the mountains of Colorado where there are still wooden markers that are well over 130 years old. Unfortunately most can no longer be read. Rural cemeteries that aren’t irrigated also appear to have memorials that hold up much better than cemeteries that are regularly watered.
I wish I was younger and had a good back. I would be right there helping you. There is so much history in these cemeteries, and they should be preserved. You are such a good man doing this on your own with you free time preserving history. All the best to you my friend :)
Few years ago i was searching through a local cemetery and found tombstones, grave decorations all pushed aside to the tree line by bulldozers. I kept a piece of headstone as a rememberance piece
I really respect what you are doing. When I can, I try to put headstones on graves of family members who never had one. I'm the family genealogist, and headstones can have very useful information.
Beautiful music on this video, Wade! It matched the mood and the work perfectly. That was a massive foundation you found! What were the odds you'd another similar to it nearby? I can see that it's such interesting and satisfying work. No two stones or situations are ever remotely the same! This is going to be beautiful when you've finished with it!
My wife took me along to find her old family graves scattered from Wisconsin, Iowa, South and North Dakota. What I was seeing in graveyards, was a total disrespect by the lawn mower maintenance people that would drive right over these fallen grave markers and chop them to pieces with the mower blades. This always bugged me, as the job should be to do this repair as they fall and not ignore them to destroy permanently. Sadly even granite will go back to it's atoms, but that takes a bit longer them sandstone, limestone and marble.
I always love the stories that graves tell. You will find everything from" he died at the age of 99 sorounded by his loved ones over an widows grave next to her 7 stillborns to an unnamed guy an horse dragged into town from half an county away...
You have the kind of videos I have been looking for a long time. Excavations of ancient funerary steles or others, disappeared under the earth over time. I have been doing genealogy for many years and I was wondering if there had been markers in the cemeteries because there is a lot of empty space between some existing locations. Thank you a lot for your curiosity that you share with us.
All my other projects I use a tarp but since I’m doing this entire cemetery and not immediately putting everything back it would just be one huge tarp so I’m going the messy route and will regrade and seed after
Sleep Hollow (Yes, THAT Sleep Hollow) Cemetery at the Old Dutch Church is not too far from me, and the headstones date back to the 1620's. They are cared for, because it's a tourist destination.
Just found you, admire your work. I hope in the distant future someone like you will be fixing up my familys sites. So far, all I've had to worry about is a bit of mold and moss.
I kept waiting to see What You Found. Never saw anything but broken headstones. It would have been nice to have seen the finished work. Thanks for at least paying attention to these abandon graves.
Probably a good reason not, but tossing your shovelsfull of dirt onto a small tarp may make it a little easier for you on the back end of your project.
Amazing work you do reviving all those stones may they all rest in peace. :). Only advice I could give is. Take a hanky for your sniffles 😊. Much love from UK :)
When you find a headstone that’s been covered by soil or grass do you document who it is and where it was ? Are you cataloging all the headstones & locations in this cemetery? Sadly my Dads side of my family is buried in a cemetery in Port Townsend ,Wa and the records and conditions are just as bad as the one you’re working on ( the Masons own this cemetery😔and don’t care )
This is my first time watching you.. I don't understand why you sound so disappointed or upset or pissed off from the minute you put your shovel in the ground you knew you were exploring and you knew that the end goal was to put it all back together for the sake of doing the right thing
Good on ya mate. I take artificial flowers to my soulmates grave yard. It'sa small town site but beautiful and so many graves without flowers so i begged and borrowed and now it's beautiful
I don't know the area you are in but I do know that grass mowers sometimes would grab the stones and walk to the edge of the woods and throw them down sometimes you might be able to find some of your pieces outside the grass in the weeds area
Fascinating ! What you're attempting to do is Good KARMA :) might want to use a plastic tarp to throw dirt onto... keeping everything neat. That's some rich soil too.
LIDAR would be a great way to map a old Cemetery, but I don't know how practical it would be. It would be great if someone with a unit would volunteer to map some of them for you.
I just found my great-grandmother's marble headstone had collapsed and broken into several pieces. I and other family members are working to replace it and the other marble stones with granite.
The crumbling top that you say is sugard may have been a lamb like most childrens graves in the 1800-1930's , the remaining marble just resembles a lamb.
I’m in the U.K., and fascinated how you rush around doing this. Buy isn’t there a lot of red tape to cut through? Permission from the cemetery people, family of the grave if known etc etc..and proof the cleaners your using are NOT going to further dsmage or erode the stones? It’d awful the way marble goes to dust as you showed us…you would have thought stone masons would have got wise to that and advised people NOT to choose marvel, but granite which is harder. So sad names and dates get eroded away and the person buried loses their last way of showing their identity. Really hard work, but so necessary and much appreciated by families and us all around thr world who are watching,learning, admiring and very appreciative. Thankyou for sharing! Donation to help coming up! Warm regards from U.K.! 👩🦳👏👏👏👏👏🙏💐🕊️💕🫶👍🌹😇🤗😘😘😘
Love watching your videos and how much you take care of these stones. Have you ever accidentally dug into an older grave itself? As I know long ago they could have not had the depth rules they have for graves now. Just curious.
It will be beautiful when they finish, you have to take things apart before putting it back together, otherwise you might overlook some of the pieces belonging to what is actually the whole structure, they didn't have cameras to record what it looked like back then
We have a cemetery near by from logging days not much there but it's abandoned wonderbif there I'd enough to restore. It's Walton junction in michigan I believe Wexford county
Where are you throwing the dirt that you are digging? Won't you just have to go get it when you need to fill the stone back in? How many do you pull before you reinstall them?
The cemetery where my great grandparents and grandparents has so many magnificent monuments, real works of art and sadly many headstones are broken and falling into disrepair.....
The top corner you found next to the 2nd of the broken grave stones/markers looks like its the missing piece of the first of the broken ones that was missing the top corner.
I find this fascinating, just one question. this goes far beyond fixing and resetting headstones. How have you gained promotion to dig up large portions of Cemetery property without arousing the police?
I’ve taken over 10,000 photos in cemeteries for Findagrave and yet I have never dug a single hole. I’m living vicariously through your videos and your dedication to preservation. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for all your time photographing all the memorials. I’ve been researching my ancestors for some time now & much appreciate being able to find their final resting place ❤
Thank you for taking those photos! Ive seen relatives graves i will never be able to travel to because of people like you!❤
Hey thanks for what You have done. If it wasn't for a person like Yourself I wouldn't be able to fill the holes in My Grandfathers family. 11 brothers and sisters with only My Grandfathers Youngest Brother left (just all be it barely). Boxes of photos and records gone from many floods and other family throwing things away with complete disregard of any other family members. Again Thank You so SOO much.
Nice! I went looking for two of them today and entirely failed. Someone put a request on there and I was boggled… it was my first attempt. I’ve explored cemeteries, but finding graves? Yeah, turns out that’s hard. What’s depressing is seeing obvious graves with no markers, or a stone with no inscription. Should have brought paper and crayon for some of them…
He throws dirt everywhere?😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😢😢
I am a first time watcher and I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. The people in the grave may be gone bit they are NOT forgotten. They were somebody's grandma,granddad,mom,Dad,or somebody's baby. I hope after I am gone someone will take care of my mom,and dads grave.
Thats a cool job!
Also a first-time viewer, and just want to let you know how I appreciate the work you put into honoring the memorialization of our lost ones. The child's resting place you're caring for today represents the broken hearts of those past.
It is so kind of you to take the time to honor and restore these seemingly forgotten grave markers. I’m a first time viewer who looks forward to watching what comes next.
You should change your name to "Caligalcindy" that would be cute 😊
As an archeologist, I have worked on a number of cemeteries. I have done everything from minor restoration, documenting & mapping, to exhumation. The smallest cemetery I documented had 5 burials all of which were marked with simple field stones. Keep up the good work of restoring our past.
I love how you approach your work with respect and honor for not just the headstones but the person who is buried there and the person’s story. Thank you.
What a wonderful and dedicated cemetery to watch for potential plots that need repair. This to me shows me that the owners of the cemetery care about the people that have been laid to rests dignity.
You’re looking like an archeologist today. When in doubt, dig it out! 😊 You’re a good teacher and narrator as well. Massive admiration. 💙💙💙💙
I think it's wonderful that you do this. It shows respect for the forgotten.
You are AWESOME doing this. I raised my son and my family stones and put 1-5/8 in. x 8 in. x 16 in Patio Heavyweight Concrete Blocks underneath, they were sinking and that was not going to happen. I put D2 on them to clean them and they look great.
I had an older brother that died as an infant in 1968. My grandmother made him a marker out of edging stones. It had been decades since my parents visited his gravesite in the late 2000s. My dad passed away in 2009. Right before he died he wanted us to try to find his marker but never did. I’m not sure if it was taken or sunk underground. My dad’s grave is a few plots from his. I’ll have to try to find it one day.
I hope you're able to find it. Check with the cemetery for a map and go from there.
Correct. The cemetery should have records. I posted a note a few years ago about my maternal grandfather, who had a very common name and died when I was an infant…the whole parent generation were gone.. Within days I had a message from a Find a Grave volunteer who had found the record of his burial. Tremendous work going on to resurrect stones, update and find records, correct the neglect and vandalism of many generations. If you cannot do the actual work, a contribution to a verifiable volunteer group can go a long way.
I did archaeological field school. We used the square shovels and sharpened them with a grinder. You could skim millimeters of soil with those. You might think about that.
Very interesting
I watch Time Team UK alot. Wouldn't it be great if you had the $$ for a Geophiz. machine. You'd would know right away what you were dealing with. Not all that guess work. What fun. Thank you for all your hard work. 😊
I happen to love graveyards and use to sit by the graves to contemplate life, it’s a great place for it. The moment I knew what you were doing I pressed the like button and then subscribed. Nothing should be forgotten, thank you
My wife used to love to play in graveyards as a child & used to talk to people she could see through the hedge. Everyone said that she had imaginary friends. She remembers the people she talked to very clearly; Though she remembered distinctly that most of them didn't remember their names. (Sidetrack thought; Perhaps the graveyard was once wider & the stones were moved from the graves?)
As for your comment that "Nothing should be forgotten," that is a beautiful ideal, but far from realistic & probably the world is even better for it. I got into genealogy when I was back in my 20s, tracking down the roots of the maternal side of my family, trying to learn why my family had the distinction of having a matriarchal in place of a patriarchal head. It was difficult to find because the name was fairly common. However small details that had been passed down allowed me to narrow down who our ancestors were for that side of my family & at last I found the truth about our origins.
It turned out that the last of our noble male ancestors had been exiled to the Azores for commanding his troops to flee the field of battle with their weapons. (That's a careful distinction. To discard the weapons & flee was to indicate an inability to fight any longer. To take the weapons from the field of battle was the sign of a coward who refused to fight any longer - but to maintain the ability to make a surprise (cowardly) attack later.) When exiled they were allowed to maintain their rank, so long as the monarchy remained intact, but the coat of arms for the family was permanently altered to bear the "bar sinister" at the crest & to have six white bones protruding into a red field on the coat of arms. All indications of severe disgrace. When I shared what I had found with my mother she forbade me from telling my grandmother the truth behind how our family came to reside on the Azores. That coat of arms is still cataloged but of course nobody uses it.
The matriarchy ended after MANY generations with my grandmother. My mother, whom was slated to be her successor in organizing the family, had suffered brain damage as the result of a bad case of pneumonia which robbed her of much of the keen intellect she had fostered all her life for that role. The only other potential successor was a social misanthrope with borderline personality disorder - thus it was impossible for her to take on that role.
My point though is that my mother, grandmother, great grandmother & great great grandmother all held pride in their noble blood as well as the succession of family matriarchs. However somewhere along the way someone omitted a big part of the story to beautify it. That can be considered "something being forgotten" as the truth died with whomever was the culprit. True, I came to understand why the women held the reins in the family, because of the male ancestor that failed the family & brought the family disgrace.
Incidentally though the family was becoming more & more radical in terms of the matriarch's powers went as well as how men within the family were treated. Today there are extreme elements of feminism that no longer seek equality but rather superiority. On that side of my family it was ahead of the curve by more than 30 years & the women both born into the family or married into it held such a position.
More abstractly though much is lost to history due to stories being forgotten, changed, adapted or something that cuts off the younger generation from gaining the wisdom of their elders. This includes the existence of individuals. This is why aboriginal Americans simply refer to their ancestors. Apart from perhaps EXTREMELY noteworthy individuals or within the most recent handful of generations - the names are no longer remembered. Sometimes this is a good thing though. If your great-great-great uncle were a serial ... uh ... euthenasiast(?) ... would you feel that you absolutely had to know that? What about if your great-great-great grandfather was executed for having relations with his livestock or pet? More applicable perhaps is the memory of blood feuds between nations, regions, ethnicities & peoples. Once the reason for the ongoing feud fades enough people on both side begin to question why they were hostile to begin with. Gradually, over time, those old wounds are healed.
It is the same with suffering a broken heart. I was torn up terribly over the loss of my first love in the most bizarre, twisted & can't-make-this-crap-up way. They say that time heals all. That's hardly true. The truth is that the memories fade, the actual memory of the emotions fade so as to be replaced with memories of memories which are in no way near as strong as the original, until the day that you can look back & just say; Wow, that was messed up. As where when it happened initially? You were ready to throw in the towel on this thing called life but only stayed six feet above ground level because you didn't want to impart that sort of pain on your former beloved.
You are so gentle when doing this I think it is just wonderful to watch a person like you doing the work for the deceased. Thank you and God bless you.
Your channel just popped up, so I am seeing it for the first time. Most of my family is buried in a church cemetery that still has an active, growing congregation. I donate money to their cemetery fund, as I am unable to do any upkeep myself. Thank you for all you do!
That is some GREAT black soil. Here in North Carolina you’d run away screaming - because it’s all red clay…. And when it’s dry, it’s like digging concrete.
I can't grow anything here in NC, have to use planters.
Cemetery people would thank you for take care of their tombstone fixed and respect! 😊
He throws dirt all over! Not thinking!
@@jwfinley7808 Apparently he's allowed to, since the cemetery is being redone.
@@sabinekarlsson8803 thats no excuss
@@DMC8707 its family members who visit and appreciate it!
@@sabinekarlsson8803 that is no excuss
I love that you do this work. so many get forgotten graves and cemeteries in this world.
i am sexton at the lower white hills cemetery, in white hills connecticut, have been for 48 years. thank you for your care in repairing headstones. 53 thousand people are better educated on this topic and the number is growing. i have the same problem with the marble turning into limestone and dissolving. for us granite is better. it does not weather.
Another great day at the cemetery with you; thanks again. As my old partner and mentor used to say "you never know what you've got until you start digging." I found one of those huge bases about a month ago and it was for a footstone. I've seen a lot of cases where pieces that really didn't fit were used so I think that where I live anyway the carvers would often just use/sell whatever they had available rather than necessarily carve everything new. I had another one at that same cemetery where the T slot was bigger than the tab so they just cut two small pieces of marble and filled the empty space with them. Only time I've found that (I removed the pieces and filled in with Lithomex as the pieces were badly weathered, discolored, and looked really bad).
At least you found some marble is one of them. I found rusty square cut nails in one not long ago. 🙃
@@millennialstonecleaner I guess it's all relative. But it's obvious it was common to cut corners. The ones that really get me are the ones where the inscriptions are very wrong (e.g. deid for died). Why did they accept those and, I can only guess, pay for them ? I can only hope they got a discount.
I'm new to the channel and would like to suggest beginning your videos with the name and location of the cemetery in case someone (like me) would like to visit the site. One last shot of the completed work would be a fitting ending to that project's saga also. Your expertise and dedication to this work is so much appreciated!
It's a bit stunning how many headstones have become absorbed beneath the earth. I guess maintenance persons over the years just didn't bother to keep on top of it. They cut and watered the grass and that was it. Thank you for caring to do the work. Quite the undertaking and glad that you enjoy it. Gratitude to you. Many blessings to you for it. 🙏❤💫💥
For you complaining about where he's putting the soil at .
If you had listened ,he said in the ist video ,that the entire cemetery is going to be redone .and he's allowed to put the soil near the grave sites .
If you want to nitpick on him so bad ,then go help him out in the restoration work .
Like the dirt hurts what grass is there anyway! No one can say anything g good.
It's all about respect.....it's a bit lacking in these videos
@@Teepeeformybumholio Did you read what Cheryl said above?
@@sabinekarlsson8803 yes
I think it’s pretty cool to watch glad someone is restoring the stones
fIt’s a shame the way people are forgotten,. But then comes a nice guy like you. Keep up the good work.
I have tried using white flour to bring out fine details in these stones. It works extremely well. Even in the white marble. Really makes fine detail and faint inscriptions pop. It's non invasive, non destructive, and washes off in the next rain.
I did one that has been laying on the ground run over with a lawn mower for years. It had a lengthy fine inscription on it that I could not read very much of, even with flour. I could mostly read one line all across but had no idea what it meant. I typed the one line into google and found out it was one line from one part of a lengthy religious poem called, "Servant of God"
"The pains of death are past,
Labour and sorrow cease;
And, life’s long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace"
Google was real helpful in that case and I was able to read the whole inscription and could see that is what it said when I had some guide as to what the words were.
I’m so glad I found your videos! 2 months ago I found an old family cemetery of my ancestors. It’s in a neighborhood in someone’s backyard. My kids and I are going later this week to start the clean up! Thank you for what you do!
It will be a long job but will be very satisfying to do and will undoubtedly look spectacular once the project is completed.
I really love your choice of music. Fits perfectly with what you are doing.
I too tried to help with a Cemetary restoration of a fully grown over, completely abandoned late 1800's (Chinese)? Cemetary in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii.
I noticed it first as theres wide, concrete stairs leading up to what looked like a Jungle on an elevated piece of land. Additionally, I had seen guys with Chain Saws working in there over a weeks time. The Workers had cut away a mass of Vines/ & Trees overgrowing the Markers. These Markers were in good shape. Sadly, the Workers had knocked almost every single Marker over (maybe 80-100)? during the vegetation removal process. The Markers were very unique. They were ALL the same; 4×4 inches, made of Concrete, and about 4+ feet long or so. They were all painted dark red, and had (Chinese) writing going down the sides. The cool thing was that the holes were fresh where the Markers were knocked from, & you could clearly see where each marker just needed to be stood back up and placed into the hole; (an inch or two away from the bottoms of the Markers).
It looked easy enough until I began lifting them & getting them back into the fresh, square holes they were just knocked out of. I did a few, and felt pretty good that those markers were in their correct spot stood upright again...until; "WHAM!" one of the markers I had just righted came crashing down on the back of my BARE leg!
Until that moment, I was unaware of my ability to leap six FEET straight up into the Air!☺
I got the creepiest feeling and thought; "did I put a marker back in the wrong spot?" Slamming the heavy Concrete Marker on my 🦵 was an excellent way of letting me know that; despite my good intentions, I might be creating chaos! I got the "H" out of there, and left the restoration for those who were clearly set out to tackle the project.👻
You"re doing great work!. Also preserves History for the future!😊👍
Iv watched my husband dig many a fence post hole over the years..he always put his dirt in a pile 😂😂😂 first time watcher.
That was a great video! I got a lot more sense of what you are going through digging up these stones. The length was perfect and great content. I also thought the music was very relaxing and appropriate. Thanks! Really looking forward to the next installment.
Hey thanks! Lot more to come that’s for sure.
Brother I love what you are doing. I just hope you have taken about 10,000 pictures and notes. I have worked construction all my life and I have seen where someone can get way of a project and get over whelmed trying to finish the punch out list... Peace be with you and Semper Fi.
I think it's wonderful that you do this, so I let ads play as much as I can stand it. Every penny helps! I also think it's wonderful that you teach your craft to others. There are too many headstones and cemeteries for you to be able to get to all of them even if you did it full time for the rest of your natural life. Training others is as good as cloning yourself 🌹🙏🏻
Also, I enjoy the music. Is it your original composition?
It is incredible that you find the stones in the moist ground.. Glad there are records to assist you..
Curious if that old glass isn't the faceplate from an old Fisk coffin? That would mean, though, that there are no burial vaults, or at least not at that grave. One thing I've learned, is that I will leave in my final statement of wishes to not have a marble headstone. Sad that once those stones are completely gone, so can be, in too many cases, any record that the person existed. That's the true and final death.
I have to believe it’s geographical/environmental too. I have been to multiple cemeteries in the mountains of Colorado where there are still wooden markers that are well over 130 years old. Unfortunately most can no longer be read. Rural cemeteries that aren’t irrigated also appear to have memorials that hold up much better than cemeteries that are regularly watered.
I wish I was younger and had a good back. I would be right there helping you. There is so much history in these cemeteries, and they should be preserved. You are such a good man doing this on your own with you free time preserving history. All the best to you my friend :)
Few years ago i was searching through a local cemetery and found tombstones, grave decorations all pushed aside to the tree line by bulldozers. I kept a piece of headstone as a rememberance piece
I really respect what you are doing. When I can, I try to put headstones on graves of family members who never had one. I'm the family genealogist, and headstones can have very useful information.
Beautiful music on this video, Wade! It matched the mood and the work perfectly. That was a massive foundation you found! What were the odds you'd another similar to it nearby? I can see that it's such interesting and satisfying work. No two stones or situations are ever remotely the same!
This is going to be beautiful when you've finished with it!
Thank you for making's memories for these people who been forgotten
He might clean it up when he is done and loose dirt doesnt hurt grass, just no rocks
I love relaxing watching this. Thank you for sharing your experience
You could use a ground penetrating system like archeology uses to see what’s underground before you have to start digging.
Very expensive.
I worked at a cemetery once and I lifted head stones all day some were very fragile I enjoyed working there❤
Why not cut some time and effort by using a wheel barrow or tarp to hold the dug up dirt?
You are a fine man. Five little words that say so much. Bless you !
I once came across a video made by an amazing expert showing how to restore writing on a gravestone. I think I still have it if anyone is interested.
I would like to see the video.👍
Where are you?. Great thing you’re doing. Am you can tell I’m new here. I’ve been watching Virginia tombstone revival
We all hope there's someone like him long after we're gone
I enjoy watching your videos and your work. Appreciate your skills.
It takes tenacity and pure sack to complete that task !!
My wife took me along to find her old family graves scattered from Wisconsin, Iowa, South and North Dakota.
What I was seeing in graveyards, was a total disrespect by the lawn mower maintenance people that would drive right over these fallen grave markers and chop them to pieces with the mower blades. This always bugged me, as the job should be to do this repair as they fall and not ignore them to destroy permanently.
Sadly even granite will go back to it's atoms, but that takes a bit longer them sandstone, limestone and marble.
Can the marble be treated? I mean for a marker that hasn't turned to sugar yet. I guess it could be a process. IDK.
I wonder if for the tiny headstone, the larger keyway, (Key weight?) was added later by someone else restoring it. it looks better than the top parts.
I always love the stories that graves tell. You will find everything from" he died at the age of 99 sorounded by his loved ones over an widows grave next to her 7 stillborns to an unnamed guy an horse dragged into town from half an county away...
i mowed cemetarys for ten years, was always finding burried stones. weed whippd the dirt away, expose somebody to the light again
You really do amazing work on these headstones, thank you.
You are a saintly dude.
You have the kind of videos I have been looking for a long time. Excavations of ancient funerary steles or others, disappeared under the earth over time. I have been doing genealogy for many years and I was wondering if there had been markers in the cemeteries because there is a lot of empty space between some existing locations. Thank you a lot for your curiosity that you share with us.
I love what you are doing. I just stumbled across your channel and have subscribed.❤
A tarp for the soil to go on would be a big help 👍
All my other projects I use a tarp but since I’m doing this entire cemetery and not immediately putting everything back it would just be one huge tarp so I’m going the messy route and will regrade and seed after
Sleep Hollow (Yes, THAT Sleep Hollow) Cemetery at the Old Dutch Church is not too far from me, and the headstones date back to the 1620's. They are cared for, because it's a tourist destination.
Just found you, admire your work. I hope in the distant future someone like you will be fixing up my familys sites. So far, all I've had to worry about is a bit of mold and moss.
Much easier if you put dirt and sod on a tarp.🙂
I kept waiting to see What You Found. Never saw anything but broken headstones. It would have been nice to have
seen the finished work. Thanks for at least paying attention to these abandon graves.
Probably a good reason not, but tossing your shovelsfull of dirt onto a small tarp may make it a little easier for you on the back end of your project.
I applaud what you do. So much respect. 💙💚🙏
Amazing work you do reviving all those stones may they all rest in peace. :). Only advice I could give is. Take a hanky for your sniffles 😊. Much love from UK :)
Love the tiny little headstone. Great work
When you find a headstone that’s been covered by soil or grass do you document who it is and where it was ? Are you cataloging all the headstones & locations in this cemetery? Sadly my Dads side of my family is buried in a cemetery in Port Townsend ,Wa and the records and conditions are just as bad as the one you’re working on ( the Masons own this cemetery😔and don’t care )
Yes that was the last video I posted.
Have you ever had someone call the Police on you and tell them that you are digging up graves? Thank you for tending these markers.
You should cut pieces of painters plastic to put the dirt on.
That way you can put the dirt back in the holes that it came from.
This is my first time watching you.. I don't understand why you sound so disappointed or upset or pissed off from the minute you put your shovel in the ground you knew you were exploring and you knew that the end goal was to put it all back together for the sake of doing the right thing
Good on ya mate. I take artificial flowers to my soulmates grave yard. It'sa small town site but beautiful and so many graves without flowers so i begged and borrowed and now it's beautiful
I don't know the area you are in but I do know that grass mowers sometimes would grab the stones and walk to the edge of the woods and throw them down sometimes you might be able to find some of your pieces outside the grass in the weeds area
Fascinating ! What you're attempting to do is Good KARMA :) might want to use a plastic tarp to throw dirt onto... keeping everything neat. That's some rich soil too.
No such thing as Karma. God rewards as he sees fit. Not the universe😌
God created the universe and karma
Our church has a frame made around the stone or marker to hold the marker upright.
The thumbnail looks like you’re flipping off the camera and just blurred out your middle fingers. I love it.
LIDAR would be a great way to map a old Cemetery, but I don't know how practical it would be. It would be great if someone with a unit would volunteer to map some of them for you.
I just found my great-grandmother's marble headstone had collapsed and broken into several pieces. I and other family members are working to replace it and the other marble stones with granite.
The crumbling top that you say is sugard may have been a lamb like most childrens graves in the 1800-1930's , the remaining marble just resembles a lamb.
I’m in the U.K., and fascinated how you rush around doing this. Buy isn’t there a lot of red tape to cut through? Permission from the cemetery people, family of the grave if known etc etc..and proof the cleaners your using are NOT going to further dsmage or erode the stones? It’d awful the way marble goes to dust as you showed us…you would have thought stone masons would have got wise to that and advised people NOT to choose marvel, but granite which is harder. So sad names and dates get eroded away and the person buried loses their last way of showing their identity. Really hard work, but so necessary and much appreciated by families and us all around thr world who are watching,learning, admiring and very appreciative. Thankyou for sharing! Donation to help coming up!
Warm regards from U.K.! 👩🦳👏👏👏👏👏🙏💐🕊️💕🫶👍🌹😇🤗😘😘😘
Do you need authorization from some agency to do this or clean the stones? P.S. Great job.
He has said in previous videos that it is a project city to restore the abandoned cemetery…he works with city workers as well…
My back hurts for you! Lol. That was a ton of work!
I beliive if you put a bag or two of pebbles under the stone it would help with drainage slowing the process of the headstone failing.
why do you toss the dirt everywhere. it would be better in a pile.
If marble disintegrates so easily, why do stonemasons recommend it for headstones?
Did you use ground penetrating radar GPR to locate the buried stones?
awesome job -amazing Find💯👍🕊️🙏💐Rest In Peace
Love watching your videos and how much you take care of these stones. Have you ever accidentally dug into an older grave itself? As I know long ago they could have not had the depth rules they have for graves now. Just curious.
I believe in preservation ,but you basically dug up the burial site? And how will you know how to place back in proper site?
It will be beautiful when they finish, you have to take things apart before putting it back together, otherwise you might overlook some of the pieces belonging to what is actually the whole structure, they didn't have cameras to record what it looked like back then
He’s already used the cemetery map: that’s what the red flags are for, marking grave locations.
We have a cemetery near by from logging days not much there but it's abandoned wonderbif there I'd enough to restore. It's Walton junction in michigan I believe Wexford county
Where are you throwing the dirt that you are digging? Won't you just have to go get it when you need to fill the stone back in?
How many do you pull before you reinstall them?
The cemetery where my great grandparents and grandparents has so many magnificent monuments, real works of art and sadly many headstones are broken and falling into disrepair.....
Je zal hem toch maar even op je grasveldje vinden😊 grapje. Prachtig werk wat hij allemaal doet, ik kijk altijd met bewondering
God bless you ❤
lots of hard work but sooo worth it❤️💯❤️💯❤️
Hello what is a key way?
I was a caretaker for 11 years. If I did any digging my dirt would go in a wheel barrel so I didnt make a mess like you are!
1858 was the Oldest in the one I worked.
Exactly, he's made it worse.
@Teepeeformybumholio : 100% agree. Wonder what he does with all of the dirt and grass...
The entire cemetary is being redone so the dirt placement isn't critical.
The top corner you found next to the 2nd of the broken grave stones/markers looks like its the missing piece of the first of the broken ones that was missing the top corner.
I find this fascinating, just one question. this goes far beyond fixing and resetting headstones. How have you gained promotion to dig up large portions of Cemetery property without arousing the police?