German Custom?

[collin]

Hi
   we had a relative who served in the American Civil War 1862-65.
He married a lady of German descent in 1883 had two children and died of consumption in 1887
His widow never remarried and in the late 1920s moved from a small village to Madison Wisconsin.
In 1931 she had her husbands remains dug up and reburied in the  Madison Cemetery and applied for a headstone. Why would she do that? is it a German custom? Its strange that he would be disturbed after 44 years
Thanks Glyn

[black.betty]

Hi Glyn,

it is not a German custom. I know that we can do this here in Germany, but I don't know anyone you did it or hear about it. Are you sure she had dug up her husband and reburied? On German cementries you often find gravestones with names of their family members who died as a soldier in WW2 somewhere else. The families do this in memory. But there are only the names (with birth and dead) on the gravestone.

These days we reburry people from WW2 which were found in the forrest or somewhere else. But this soldiers hadn't have a regular grave, they were not buried on a cemetery. In Germany still 1 million soldiers from the WW2 are missing today. For more information about this please look here www.volksbund.de   On the right side above are flags, there you can change the language.

I hope you understand this, it is not so easy for me to explain it in English.

Betty

[aghadowey]

Do you know where the husband was originally buried? If he was buried in a veteran's plot in the cemetery she might not have been allowed to be buried with him so decided to move his remains to a plot they could share.

Some 40 years after my grandfather died my grandmother decided to make her funeral arrangements and considered moving her husband's remains (buried in veteran's section of local cemetery) but eventually decided to buy a plot for herself near her parents.

[collin]

Hi
    Thank you for your responses,  our relative was buried in Lodi Wisconsin, his gravestone said J R Collin  A Soldier
Then the new grave in Madison has him as the first interment in 1931 and there is also an application for a veteran's headstone in 1931 his wife was put in in 1945 and then his son, daughter and daughter in law, but they have no stone only the military one, so I guess it was his wife's personal decision to have her husband's remains moved.
The only time I ever came across this was when an old lady was buried with her daughter and when the son in law found out he had her taken out and put with her husband
Thanks Glyn

[collin]

Hi forgot to say, the cemetery records have registered 5 interments and he is the first and there is a question reburied from elsewhere?
Glyn