Lost Cemeteries and Discovered Unknown Graves

Yesterday's Evansville Courier & Press ran another interesting story on lost & discovered grave sites that seem to be found by accident by contractors doing some sort of construction/excavating work.  Read the online article at this link:

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jan/26/there-are-unknown-grave-sites-among-us/

"According to state law, anyone who finds human remains or artifacts must notify the Department of Natural Resources within two days. So when a historic cemetery is unearthed, Jeannie Regan-Dinius hears about it. She is the cemetery registry coordinator at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' division of historic preservation and archaeology."

The article mentions the SHAARD cemetery database - this "database is part of the Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Database, also known as SHAARD. The database is available online at http://bit.ly/WrOp8D. From that page, click the 'Enter SHAARD as a guest' link to access the database."  You will be required to accept their terms and conditions and then on the next page you will select the survey type... select "cemetery registry"  I just entered Vanderburgh County & Perry Township in the search box and got all the cemeteries registered in that township.  One is listed as "Forgotten Cemetery" dubbed by Glenda Trapp when we (TSGS) copied the cemetery in 1983 (that was nearly 30 years ago) by Glenda, Bonnie Fehd and her son Andrew with John G. West.  This was published in the Vanderburgh two-volume set of cemetery inscription books that many TSGS members helped transcribe grave markers in the smaller cemeteries of the county.  These books are for sale and still available.  The page of who is buried there was photocopied from our publication.  There is a military marker possibly from the Civil War in this "forgotten cemetery."

This SHAARD cemetery database is a great registry for Indiana's cemeteries and hopefully will help prevent some from being lost, forgotten or destroyed.

- Compiled by JGWest

Old Unknown Cemetery Found

An old cemetery has been discovered on the grounds of the State Hospital... this is not the first discovery of unmarked, forgotten graves on these grounds.  The Evansville Courier is reporting the discovery: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jan/14/no-headline---pedestrian_bridge/

Read the article and let us know what you think about the story and what you remember of past stories similar to this one.