Gravestone Restoration and Preservation

One of the things almost everyone learns to treat with reverence is a cemetery. But when it comes to little family cemeteries on old farms, though, we run into a problem. Land developers show up and the farms get sold and so..., what happens to the graves? That's where Dan Allen comes in. He's an archaeologist in Tennessee who locates old graveyards and carefully moves the remains to make room for progress. And if you happen to have a cemetery in your backyard, Dan can help you preserve that, too! Visit GravestoneStudies.org for general information about gravestones, history, and preservation.

Grave Relocation

When someone dies they're buried in what we call their "final resting place." But more and more often...older burial grounds are being disturbed to make way for new construction. Years ago, R. Ward Sutton, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, took an odd job cleaning hearses. That led to a very unique career he came to love. He calls himself a "reverse" funeral director...and instead of burying bodies, he digs them up. The job of relocating graves can be a bureaucratic nightmare requiring lots of red tape. That's because grave sites are protected under state law. As of last year, Ward has relocated over 5,000 graves.