A Preservation Handbook

Develop a Master Plan

To be successful, cemetery restoration projects you must begin with a master plan. Naturally you want to start work at once, removing vegetation and cleaning the grave markers. Resist the urge to start clearing and cleaning without developing a plan! Begin only when you know as much as possible about your cemetery as you can. 

Create a master plan. It will include: 

• information about your cemetery

• a record of the important features

• a description of what you want to accomplish—your goals

• a priority list of clean-up activities

• an annual maintenance plan

• estimated costs for clean-up and maintenance 

Step 1 

Gathering Basic Information About Your Cemetery

Learning about the history and character of your cemetery will help you identify and understand its important features and plan for their preservation. The written record of your research will teach future generations about your cemetery and encourage them to continue to care for it. Document the history of the cemetery and include information about who was buried there, and where the important features are located.

Search the library and county deed books for information. Deeds will give you a legal description of the property and the names of the seller and buyer of the cemetery. The library may be able to supply local histories that discuss the cemetery as well as historic maps of the community that include the cemetery’s boundaries. 

An association, church, or group may once have cared for the cemetery. Their records will yield a wealth of information. And don’t neglect oral histories. People familiar with the cemetery may be able to describe how it looked at a much earlier time, tell you if gravestones have been moved, and locate features that have become overgrown.

It might also be useful to consult professionals of related disciplines. An archaeologist may be able to identify grave sites without markers. A historic architect might help you understand more fully the cemetery’s stone or masonry features. Soil engineers, landscape architects, and cultural geographers can all contribute information about cemeteries.

Step 2

Identifying and Recording Features

Before you begin, you will need to record all important features with photographs, with written descriptions, and on a site map. Begin by walking around the cemetery to find out what’s there. Look for fencing, markers, walkways, unmarked graves, landscaped areas, special vegetation, and the cemetery boundaries. Your cemetery may hold some or all these important features. Identify and measure them, photograph them, describe them, and then record them on your site map.

Work slowly and with great care if the cemetery is overgrown. Remove only enough vegetation to allow the identification of features; leave any vegetation that may have been planted as part of a planned landscape or as a memorial. You may be able to identify some features more easily in the winter when plants have died back, leaves have fallen, and freezing temperatures have reduced the chance of being aggravated by biting insects and snakes. Both professionals and carefully trained volunteers can do this work.

Preparing a Site Map 

Volunteers can prepare an adequate map on graph paper, using a tape measure to determine the size of features and distances between them. Each feature should be given an inventory number—you will use it later to identify each feature on maps, in photographs, and on survey forms—then measured and drawn to scale on the graph paper; accurate distances between features should be recorded.

To ensure the map can be read easily, use a uniform method to draw the various features. Use symbols or a series of marks—like xxxxxx—to identify a cast-iron fence, for example, and other marks to identify brick walls, and still others for stone walls. Add an interpretive key to describe the symbols and their meaning to a corner of the map. 

Making a Photographic Record

Using modern digital cameras eliminates the need to index your photographs since you are created a digital photographic.  If you do use a black and white film camera, you will need to follow the following guidelines to track and record your photographs. Black and white prints will have more contrast and will be less likely to fade. Photograph all sides of each feature, including the details of carved stones and cast-iron fences. You may need to brush away loose dirt or wash it off with water, and you may need to trim vegetation or get your helpers to hold it back while you take the photos.

To photograph carvings on shaded stones, wait for a sunny day, then use a lightweight, door-size, framed mirror to cast sunlight on the stones. Your helper can position the mirror at the side of the stone and angle it so the sun’s rays reflect from the carvings.

You can still create a numbered index for your digital camera files similar to how you would do each roll of film as you shoot it. The number of each item in your index will correspond to the number of each exposure on your film—a roll with twenty-four exposures, for example, will have an index beginning with one and ending with twenty-four. Beside each number enter information about the photographed feature—its inventory number, a brief description of the feature itself, the direction of the view being shot, the photographer’s name, and the date. After the film is developed, you will use the index to tie each photographed feature to its counterpart on the map.

Writing Descriptions of the Features

Besides taking photographs, you should record descriptions of each feature in writing. The most useful written descriptions are those that have been uniformly recorded on a survey form. In recording each feature, you should give the name of the cemetery, the date of your survey, and the feature’s inventory number. You should also specify the type of feature (headstone, crypt, cast-iron fence, vegetation, etc.), its size and material, and its condition. In addition, note any repairs that are visible and carefully record the inscriptions. Copy exactly the beginning and end of each line, punctuation, upper and lower case letters, and misspellings. If the inscription is hard to read, use a mirror to reflect sunlight. Never use chalk or talc to highlight the carvings. Use a mirror to reflect sunlight onto difficult-to-read stones.

Create survey forms for vegetation and landscape features— walkways, walls, terraces, water, and so on—in the same way. Ground covers, roses, bulbs, and some trees loved ones planted as memorials or grave markers may be rare or hard-to-find varieties. Though winter may be the best season for creating measured drawings and locating features in a cemetery, vegetation should be recorded and identified in all seasons since flower varieties appear throughout the year in South Carolina.

You should also document the exact location of the headstone in your description.  Today, you can use your "smart phone" or a GPS device to obtain the exact location using Latitude and Longitude.  This will allow future visitors and researcher to walk directly to the burial site.

In a variety of cultures, the bereaved place personal items or small objects on graves or memorials. Some of these gestures are tied to spiritual beliefs, some are demonstrations of honor or sentiment, and some are a combination of the two.

Toys, children’s clothing, photos, or seasonal decorations are often left at the grave of a child. Some bereaved, following Jewish tradition, leave small stones at the grave site. Others, following African American tradition, place household articles or personal items on the grave. Most people in the United States place flowers at grave sites and small American flags at veterans’ graves. All these objects should be treated with respect and recorded in the inventory.

Vandals, thieves, storms, even wild animals can damage or completely destroy historic gravestones. Natural weathering, lichen, fungus, and air pollution take their toll as well. Nancy Crockett, who has helped care for the stones at Waxhaw Cemetery since the 1940s, says, “The stones were legible in 1946. . . . They were still legible in 1965 when we copied the inscriptions, but today they are almost illegible.” Photographs of features and survey forms carrying descriptions and transcribed inscriptions preserve the beauty and value of damaged stones and the information they once carried. In addition, they can guide conservators in their repair of damaged stones, and they can help recover stolen features like carved angels or cast-iron fences. There are many good reasons to document a cemetery. 

Step 3

Setting Your Goals

Once you have recorded the information, you should define your goals. Do you want to fully restore the cemetery, or do you simply want to clean it up by removing only the most intrusive vegetation and resetting or repairing some stones? Your decision will be based on the number of volunteers available, the amount of time you can all give to the project, the cost, the information you have gathered from the historical research and survey, and your ability to maintain the cemetery once the project ends. Avoid setting goals you cannot sustain. 

Step 4

Creating a Scope of Work

Once you define your goals, you will be ready to draw up a scope of work. It will describe the work that needs to be done, the stages in which you will do it, the number of volunteers needed for each stage, what stage will require a professional, and an estimate of how much each stage will cost.

It will also describe the trees and other vegetation that need to be removed and how that will be done. It will set out a pruning and maintenance plan for the remaining vegetation. It will include recommendations for work on landscape features like walkways and terraces. And it will list the work needed for the grave markers, fences, and other features.

Step 5

Developing a Maintenance Plan

An annual maintenance plan will arm your cemetery caretakers with a guide that lists their frequent duties and provides a schedule for special projects. It should reflect the fact that upkeep of the cemetery should be carried out continuously and should follow a regular schedule to prevent backlogs and preserve cemetery features.

Include in your plan a regular inspection of the walls, fences, grave markers and monuments. Caretakers should know how to inspect the features and who to contact when problems are found. You should also include guidelines for the care of vegetation— guidelines for mowing, trimming around stones, and pruning—you should identify plants used as memorials or grave markers, and you should maintain those plants and memorials accordingly.

Consider as well, within the context of tradition, a plan for toys, flowers, flags, and other marks of remembrance. Cemetery workers should not, for example, disturb household and personal items left by mourners at African American graves, even though they will deteriorate from exposure to rain, sunlight, and changing temperatures and may eventually become covered by vegetation. On the other hand, workers following a different tradition might remove faded flowers and flags.

In short, become familiar with and respect the beliefs and traditions that are reflected in the historic cemetery. 

The Completed Master Plan

Once completed, the master plan will include the cemetery inventory—the map, photographs, and written descriptions or survey forms—the written history, your goals, a list of prioritized activities, an annual maintenance plan, and estimated costs. These are valuable records. They tell you a great deal about your cemetery and what you want to accomplish. They also provide benchmarks to measure your progress. Though much work, planning, reading, and consultation goes into the creation of a master plan, the results will be worth the time and effort because your project will be a success. To give others access to the valuable information you have compiled, you might consider giving copies of your master plan to your local library and historical society.

Recording History

If your goal is only to visit a burial site, you don't have to make a master plan.  You can still document your visit by taking a few photographs, make a few notes about the site, and directions to the graveyard and burial site. You can contact you local historical society, SAR, or DAR organizations to pass on you notes and photographs to help document the site for preservation and allow others to visit.

Source: South Carolina’s Historic Cemeteries: A Preservation Handbook, Susan H. McGahee and Mary W. Edmonds, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1997, pages 13-22