Finding Your Ancestor's Gravesite in Buchanan County

by Ed Talbott

I've been searching old cemeteries here in Buchanan County for many years now. Based on areas that I have covered I would guess that there are about 1,500 different cemeteries in the county. Most are simple family plots consisting of 2 to 20 graves. These are normally located on the closest point overlooking the original family "homeplace." The majority of these family cemeteries are completely overgrown and many are only marked by a couple of fieldstones standing upright in the middle of the woods. Many have brush and poison ivy standing six feet high in them.

So you still want to find your ancestor? Strap on your hiking boots and let's start the search.

Step 1: Do your homework first.

• • Check out the Internet for family pages, local GenWeb sites, FindAGrave, etc. Leave a query on the Buchanan County GenWeb page or the Buchanan County Historical Society Facebook page requesting information about cemeteries your ancestor may be buried in.

Step 2: 250+ cemeteries have already been completed.

• • Pat Hatfield, former library director at the Buchanan County Public Library, and Maxine Mitchell, local genealogist, spent many years tracking down cemeteries here in the county. These cemetery lists appeared as columns in the Virginia Mountaineer newspaper here in Buchanan County. These columns have been transferred to notebooks that are kept in the genealogy section of the Buchanan County library. As many have not been indexed, do not expect to call or e-mail the library to have them do "look-ups" (it would take hours per request). So the first stop you need to make once you get to Buchanan County is the Buchanan County Public Library to search the cemetery notebooks. Also ask the staff for help in locating family gravesites.

  • In addition to this comprehensive resource, the public library has several years of funeral home records available in the genealogy section including Grundy Funeral Home (1935-present), Farmer's Funeral Home (1939-1943), Buchanan Funeral Home (1968-1992), Virginia Funeral Home (1987 to present) and Haysi Funeral Home (1964-1990).

Step 3: Locate an approximate location in the county for your ancestor.

• • Many family names here are associated with a particular hollow or section of the county. For example if someone was looking for the Justus family I would suggest they start looking in Guesses Fork……the Dotson family I would suggest they might start at Paw Paw. Many times you can contact someone locally that is working on the same families as you - many times they have already searched the family cemeteries and know the locations. When you are at the library, ask a staff member for help in finding someone to contact to help you locate your ancestor.

  • A great place to start is the Land Office Patent and Grants site at the Library of Virginia. Scan the grants for the family name you are searching. Look for grants in Buchanan, Tazewell, and Russell counties. The scanned land grants can actually be downloaded from this site. Many times the location of the old "homeplace" is actually listed in the property description. These old grants are invaluable when trying to locate old overgrown cemeteries. In many cases, once you find out where your ancestor lived, you are usually only a couple hundred yards away from where they were buried.

Step 4: Talk to the local folks.

• • Travel to the site where you suspect your ancestor may be buried. Google Maps is a great place to begin your search if you need maps - also Delorme has state maps which are also very detailed. Library staff can assist you in locating places in the county. Normally the first thing I do when searching a new area is to locate some of the long-term residents of the area. Many times they have grown up in a particular hollow and have hunted every square inch of the surrounding mountains. I once had someone tell me about a cemetery in which every "fieldstone" had been turned over. I located several stones, many of which were readable, by using a leaf rake on the side of a hill so steep I could not imagine anyone being buried there. Another time I located a cemetery under several fallen trees by crawling on my hands and knees through the limbs and brush. If an elderly gentleman had not told me about its existence I would have missed it completely.

Step 5: Strap on your hiking boots.

• • Survey the area where you suspect your ancestor is buried. Almost every mountain point above the mouth of a hollow here in Buchanan County has a cemetery on it. These points can be anywhere from just above the road to close to the top of the mountain. The rule of thumb is that they are the first relatively level piece of ground above the road or creek. Also, don't expect a road or path to be cut to the cemetery. In my experience, about 25% have no road, path, or any other resemblance of a trail leading to them. Normally, I will stand at the site of my ancestor's old homeplace and try to decide where I would like to be buried. Usually it is on a point somewhere behind the house. I have located several cemeteries by simply hiking up the ridgelines that start at the mouth of a hollow where an ancestor lived. Ivy or periwinkle growing on the ridgeline is a good indicator that a cemetery is close by as they were planted in cemeteries to keep grass down and for their blue flowers. If you find one of these plants start looking closely for a stone standing upright or for sunken places in the ground.

  • Sometimes you can find a cemetery marked on one of the USGS topo maps for the area. Only about 10% of local cemeteries are marked on these maps. The maps are invaluable in helping you locate possible cemetery locations and to help you get oriented once you have arrived at a search area. These maps are also the only source to determine the names of many of the smaller hollows in the county. I also carry a GPS with me during my search to mark the exact latitude and longitude of the cemeteries I locate. Most cell phones have this feature built into them now and you can download apps to track your hike, mark waypoints or other sites of interest, use your phone as a compass, etc.

Victory - you found a cemetery - Now what?

• • Now the hard part begins. Most old cemeteries in Buchanan County consist of a couple of "store bought" stones surrounded by several fieldstones. Normally the funeral home stones are the newest ones. Sometimes the fieldstones have the names and dates scratched into the stone. They are almost always sandstone and are relatively soft. Also, don't be surprised to find a couple of the temporary funeral home metal tags with no stone - many times the family planned to go back later and place a stone but never got around to it.

  • Everyone has advice on how to clean and read old cemetery markers. Personally I believe that most of these methods are fine for granite, slate, or marble markers but do not apply to our soft sandstone "fieldstones" here in Buchanan County. Most of these stones are covered with lichens and possibly moss. Never use a wire brush to clean this off as this takes part of the stone with it. Simply take your hand and rub over the stones - in many cases you can read the inscription at this point because the lichens left in the grooves are darker than the part you just rubbed. Sometimes you still cannot make out the markings. I normally take a dull #2 lead pencil and mark the lines that I can make out. The pencil will follow the lines etched into the stone and make them visible. After I have marked as many of the lines as possible, I step back and try to mentally connect the lines to form the names. Many times here in the mountains, names are misspelled or letters and numbers are printed backwards. Sometimes you may only find the outline of a hand scratched into the stone with initials. Rubbings are generally not effective on these rough sandstone surfaces and have been banned in several states due to damage to the stones. If the stones are already lying on the ground it is often beneficial to turn the face edge of the stone parallel to the rays of the sun - the shadows cast in the faint grooves carved into the stone can reveal names and dates. I can attest that this works - I had visited a family cemetery many times in the past and one large fieldstone (which was still in the ground and therefore could not be turned) lined up perfectly with the evening sun one day. Suddenly I could read the initials and the dates - it was my GGG-grandfather's grave site. The marking were so faint as to be invisible in bright sun or in shade and were only readable a couple minutes per day.

  • Many people have destroyed the very stones they are trying to protect by using cleaning solvents, soaps, shaving cream etc. in an effort to clean them. Never use anything other than water on a stone and never use a pressure washer. A readable stone is a far better legacy to leave for future generations than a nice clean unreadable stone. Sadly, the habit of painting the fieldstones white to preserve them is a common practice here in Buchanan County. This only destroys any markings that may have been left on the stone. In addition, as the paint flakes off it traps water and ice against the stone and speeds up the destruction of any markings. Also the use of sealers and waterproofing has destroyed many stones. A sealed stone cannot evaporate the water that the sandstone naturally wicks up from the ground causing the chemical bonds to break down and the stone to deteriorate from the inside out. Also a paint or sealant can trap the water in the stone - a sharp drop in temperature, the water freezes, and the stone splits. So what can you do? My advice would be record the location and shapes of the stones very carefully in your notes. A temporary marker placed in front of the fieldstone is also effective. These can be purchases online or at your local funeral home - I have used several of these in the past. Just be sure to purchase the ones with the metal letters and not the ones with paper behind glass. If your ancestor served in the military, new marble headstones can be ordered through the Veterans Administration. Document and photograph every stone that you can and note its exact location. This will take some time but it will be worth it to future generations. You can also mark the exact location of the cemetery using Google Maps. This is the program that Rodney Shortt, myself and others are using to document the final resting spots of the Civil War Veterans in Buchanan County Project.

  • If you cannot read a stone, many times its location can give you clues as to whom it may be. Normally the oldest graves are on the centerline and highest part of the ridge. As newer gravesites are added to a cemetery they are usually lower and further and further from the center of the ridgeline. I was able to use this method to locate the gravesite of Gordon Rife, Civil War veteran. Sometime in the past his stone had broken and slid over the mountain. We located the broken stone but could not find the base of the stone. By knowing his death date - I found a gap in the date sequence of burials along the ridge near a small tree that was close to his death date. Digging out the base of the tree we found the base stone about a foot underground and covered by the roots of the tree - the two pieces matched up perfectly. The length of a grave can also give you clues about whether you are looking at a child's or an adult's gravesite.

So in conclusion, do your homework, stop at the library, ask questions, and bring your hiking boots.

P.S. - Flat land does not exist here in Buchanan County.