Free Printable
After our Initial Cemetery Clean-Up was complete we were ready to move onto Phase 2 of restoring and preserving our Blackwell Pioneer Cemetery. You can read my 7 Initial Steps to Cemetery Clean-Up post here! Now that the cemetery floor was reclaimed from the forest we had a good view of the cemetery floor. We took the time to take photos, videos, and notes on each visible stone (intact or broken).
How did I keep it all straight? I created a Cemetery Stone Information Sheet.
The use of an easy spreadsheet was nothing short of necessary. Every single stone had some kind of need and I had to compile information about each one. It not only kept me organized but it forced me to focus on each stone individually and for that I am thankful.
This form is free for you to use as a printable.
Now that we had a general idea of stone locations within the cemetery we could assess each need. Most were broken, leaning, or missing. Also, we needed to categorize what type of stone each one was. We had granite, wood, and sandstone in our pioneer cemetery. I made a simple grid of our layout to help locate and adequately create sections for the stones in question. An example of it is below.
Each stone material required a different type of care.
Reclaiming a Pioneer Cemetery from the forest required so much personal education to learn about. From Missouri cemetery laws to stone preservation and care. How are we suppose to restore each stone? A short answer: To the best of our abilities in honor of the people (our family) that are buried here. The Cemetery Stone Information Sheet helped us get there.
Click below if you would like to use the Cemetery Stone Information Sheet:
What lead us to this cemetery anyway? Check out this post!
I am in need of this sheet as we have an old cemetery on our property. This will come in handy – thanks!
I’m so glad it will be of use for you! Much luck with your cemetery!