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Thursday, April 8, 2010

New "Digging for Answers" Column Posted

The latest "Digging for Answers" column in the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal was posted this morning. It is titled "Renting a burial plot?"

Jasia asked the question: "I know in that in Europe they have an entirely different approach to burying the dead in cemeteries. Essentially, they "rent" out burial plots rather than allowing families to actually buy and own one. So how long does a typical rental period last? What are typical rental fees for a grave? If the rental fee goes unpaid, what happens to the remains of the person buried in the grave? Is there another re-burying ceremony or some such thing? They have much more elaborate gravestones in Europe. So what happens to the gravestone if the grave rental fee goes unpaid and the persons remains are removed to somewhere else?"

I attempted to answer some of that, but need some help from people with more knowledge about specific countries.

Check out all of the articles in the current Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal:

* Digging For Answers 4/8/2010 - "Renting a Burial Plot" by Randy Seaver

* The Educated Rabbit 4/2/2010 - "Symbolism in Cemeteries, Website Recommendations" by Sheri Fenley

* Photo Monument 3/25/2010 - "Face to Face" by Gale Wall


* Tech T.I.P. - March 18, 2010 "Let's Redecorate the Warren" by Denise Olson

* The History Hare - March 11, 2010 - "Cabinet Maker, Undertaker" by footnoteMaven

* Graveyard Guru – March 4, 2010 - "The Southern Cemetery" by Stephanie Lincecum

Gale Wall has assumed the editorship of this online journal, and I'm sure that she will continue the high quality of articles that the previous editor, Julie Cahill Tarr, maintained. My thanks to Julie for her dedication and effort over the past 18 months.

1 comment:

  1. In Finland we used to have a possibility to buy an eternal cemetary polt from the parish. (80% of Finns belong to the nationa ev. luth church.) But as the parish is liable for the care of the plot, it was deemed an unreasonable contract and some time back these got converted to the 20-50 year contracts that are standard. If there is someone who wants to renew the contract then the plot will stay as it is , if not then stone and contents are removed. I don't know what happens to them exactly.

    I remember reading that in some parish in 1800's the graves were reused after just a couple of years, the bodies barely decomposed...

    And in my current research project I have discovered that my ancestors's remains from 1600's were moved from their original resting place because that got converted to church's wine cellar in 1700's.

    It is worth noting that grave stones are not a standard genealogical source in Finland as we have excellent church records back to 1700's. Most of the gravemarkers were wooden and have decomposed along with the bodies anyway.

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