Some stones have broken or fallen over and been buried over time. Without documentation, we'll never know if some of our ancestors had markers on their graves. I have a few (Canadian) ancestors where I know which cemetery they were buried in (based on newspaper obits) but there are no cemetery or death records and no stones.
Maps of cemeteries are helpful, if they exist.
In my ideal world, cemeteries would be laid out logically, with little signs at the ends of each row.
Even with maps or directions, my husband and I spent a lot of time stumbling around a few cemeteries last summer. We found some of the graves we were looking for but not all of them.
The best and easiest one was when someone had published an index of the stones and included a map that showed the location of each stone with the names on the diagrams. I lack an "internal compass" but even I could have found my ancestors in that particular cemetery.
The cemetery where my father, his father, and his family are buried is the worst that we've encountered so far. The staff is trying to create lists and maps now but proper records have not been kept for the past 200 years. When we were there last year, the only charts they had listed some of the plots by the names of the original purchasers. The plot my father, grandfather and great-grandfather, etc., are in is listed under a name we don't even know. I think they added my family member's names after our visit.
Regards,
Josephine
