Who is responsible for cemeteries

Thus a cemetery would be considered historic if it is A associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; B associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; C embodies distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or D have the potential to yield information important in prehistory or history.

While cemeteries are not generally eligible for the National Register, as archaeological sites, burials may meet Criterion D by yielding information important to our understanding of history or prehistory. What questions should I be prepared to answer to receive the most helpful and accurate guidance from DHR staff?

Where is the property located? If possible, cite the county or city and approximate location using highway route numbers, so that staff can use a topo map to find out whether the cemetery is previously recorded or simply to determine where it is located. What type of development is going on subdivision, road, office park, etc. Frequently this information will be found on a usually big sign promoting the project. The information is useful when DHR staff searches our database of projects that have undergone review.

What evidence is there of a cemetery or burial markers, depressions, fences, exposed bone, etc. This is very important because there are different courses of action depending upon your response. The more information provided, the better. Is the cemetery associated with any church, religious group, farm, town, or ethnic group? Leave everything where you found it and report your discovery to the local or state police immediately. This may be a crime scene.

If you find an unmarked grave, you may want to contact your local law enforcement agency officials and report the find. Law enforcement officials will determine whether or not the burial is the result of a crime. Unmarked burials, marked graves, and cemeteries may simply be left in place. DHR will be happy to record the presence of the graves or cemetery in our database as well. Click on the following link to download the Citizen Cemetery Recordation Form. Contact the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

You may also download this Permit Application for Archaeological Removal of Human Burials to start the application process. Information regarding the Code of Virginia , as well as local regulations, can be obtained by contacting your local government or visiting your local library.

Preservation of historic cemeteries and burial sites in their original place and form is the preferred treatment option. Good cemetery maintenance strategies should incorporate the gentlest, most low-impact measures possible, and should address issues of long-term care including the financial commitment necessary. Temporary or hasty solutions will only postpone a recurring problem and may inadvertently cause additional problems.

Williams , 26 App. Where the family has ceased to visit the cemetery and they have so long neglected to care for it that the ground is no longer recognizable as a cemetery, the family burial ground has been abandoned. Merely because further interments in a cemetery become impossible, it does not lose its character.

However, a private cemetery may be considered abandoned, where through changed conditions or the passage and ravages of time, its identity is destroyed. Tracy v. Bittle , Mo. This issue can become critical for developers who wish to use the land for new purposes and confront the question as to whether they have the right to alter its use despite its past status.

There is a presumption in favor of leaving the cemetery undisturbed on an application for cemetery relocation. See Hughes v. Cobb County , Ga. To preserve the cultural heritage of the county and the cemetery, evidence of a lack of maintenance and inappropriate surroundings will support the relocation of a cemetery site. The right to occupy land with a cemetery and maintained as such is subject to the reasonable exercise of the police power.

However, where land becomes no longer suitable for the cemetery use to which it was dedicated because of the surrounding circumstances or changed conditions, the discontinuance of such use may be required by the legislature or a municipality. As a good example, in large cities it becomes necessary to prohibit further interments in certain cemeteries on account of their menace to the public health and also to require the removal of the bodies interred therein.

In the abolishment of cemeteries, the legislature has the same power as it has in their establishment. Whenever it becomes necessary, the legislature may by statute direct the discontinuance of a cemetery and the removal of the bodies.

It may delegate its power to a municipality, which may enact an ordinance to effect the same result. Gamage , 38 F. In this regard, the police power must not be exercised arbitrarily or unreasonably. Where there is a public necessity for the discontinuance, the power to require the discontinuance of the use of a cemetery, necessarily includes the power to determine whether such public necessity exists.

The determination of the legislature is conclusive upon the courts. When the use is terminated and the cemetery abandoned, there is a reverter to the original donors or their legal representatives, free of such use. This rule applies to both statutory and common-law dedications.

Reinterments in land that have once been definitely abandoned as a cemetery do not have the effect of preventing a reverter. However, a different situation exists where there is an actual conveyance of lands. In such situations, whether the land reverts to the grantor on the abandonment of the cemetery depends on whether the conveyance was absolute.

If so, there is no right of reverter or it constituted a conveyance on condition that the use of the premises for a cemetery be continued. All this necessarily means that the average family confronting the issue of the permanence of their loved one remaining in the plot face the question of what rights they really have. Ebenezer Baptist Church, Inc. White , So. Put simply, this means you do not own the land or have ownership rights of any type to any particular land.

It often can only be extinguished by abandonment. When a lot is purchased, the rights of the purchaser are expressed or deemed to be subject to the charter and the rules and regulations or bylaws of a cemetery association or corporation company. However, the rules and regulations adopted by the cemetery proprietor must be uniform and reasonable.

See Hollywood Cemetery Asso. Powell , Cal. To confer an exclusive right to use a cemetery lot, a formal deed is not necessary. Provided the prescriptive holders use the cemetery lot exclusively, continuously, and uninterruptedly, with the actual or presumptive knowledge of the owner, an easement can even be acquired by adverse possession.

A cemetery lot may be held by two or more persons in common. The Council recognises the needs of the bereaved by providing a dignified and sensitive cemeteries service which offers as much choice as possible for people to express their grief in the way they feel most appropriate. We achieve this through a comprehensive service designed to:. Subject to space, family members can also be buried in existing graves.

Areas have been set aside in each cemetery for the burial of cremated remains with the option to erect memorial tablets. Margam Cemetery has a Children's Garden of Remembrance. The Cemeteries Office is responsible for accepting booking details from Funeral Directors or families and instructing operations staff of the arrangements.

When possible, interments will be accommodated 3 clear working days after all relevant information is provided. Funeral Directors are responsible for ensuring that all information provided is correct and that the applicant has the right to re-open a grave.

If a memorial is to be removed, the Funeral Director will instruct a Monumental Mason accordingly and the removal must be carried out as soon as possible after the booking. The interment notice must be received by the Cemeteries Office at least 48 hours prior to the interment along with full remittance. It is essential to ensure that the correct family member is making the application, as thereafter, they will have legal control of and responsibility for burials in the grave and memorials laid upon it.

These statutory instruments set out the powers and duties of a burial authority. The Council also has its own Cemetery Rules and Regulations. For a copy of the Rules and Regulations, please contact the Cemeteries Office. Each of these leads to other problems. For example, many cemeteries have what those involved in maintenance might consider "design flaws," such as fences and coping, that prevent easy maintenance.

So maintenance is avoided. Or the cemeteries are located in areas where access is difficult, making maintenance efforts sporadic. There is also the issue of greed. Some cemeteries, once an appearance of abandonment has set in, are destroyed by those who want to make money off the property. Finally, a word of warning. There are some community groups that want to do the "right thing" and begin to "restore" a cemetery. People band together for a short period of cemetery cleaning, but fail to follow through -- the work is never completed, or is completed but nothing is put in place to maintain the cemetery after this one effort.

It does NO good to clean up a cemetery, only to walk away and allow it to return to its original condition. If you take on a cemetery cleaning project you MUST make provisions to keep the cemetery maintained not for a year, or a decade, or a generation -- but forever. So, lets go over a few frequently asked questions. Many of these are specific to the state you live in -- we are providing answers appropriate for South Carolina; you will need to do additional research to determine the answers specific to your locality.

Also, please remember, we are not attorneys and none of these are intended to offer legal advice. For many projects your first contact should be with an attorney who can advise you concerning your legal rights and obligations. Someone else now owns the land were my family is buried.

What are my rights? This is a legal question and you need an attorney to advise you. Graves, fences, plantings, and monuments are protected by South Carolina law , but we have found this law to be weak and rarely enforced.

There is no law in South Carolina that guarantees descendents access to family graves on another person's property. Our common sense recommendation is to contact the landowner and explain the situation.

Don't assume they are trying to prevent you from visiting the graves, don't even assume they know the graves exist. Explain how you know the cemetery is there and ask permission to visit the graves. If you know that the area has been abandoned, ask permission to clean the area up -- but be prepared to explain how this will affect the owner's property. Explain that you will be responsible for carrying away all waste cut vegetation and be prepared to also provide some waiver to the property owner protecting them from legal action if you hurt yourself on their property.

In other words, treat them as you want to be treated. Usually this will work -- just be sure to follow through on all your promises. If you aren't sure who owns the land where the cemetery is located, visit the county courthouse where the cemetery is located and go to the Clerk of Court's office. They will help you locate the parcel on the county tax maps and determine the owner and their address.

I think I have an abandoned cemetery on my property. Must I maintain it? Must I allow access to it? Again, this is a legal question and we encourage you to seek the opinion of legal counsel.

But in general there is no law that requires an land owner to maintain a long-forgotten cemetery or to allow unfettered access to it.