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You Can Adopt a Cemetery!
After years and years of searching for the long-lost family cemetery of your pioneer settlers, you've found it in rural Kudzu County, Alabama. How do you go about restoring and preserving the cemetery so that family members and descendants can visit and honor these hollowed grounds?

Or - you live on the edge of a metropolitan area and you know of an old, abandoned cemetery on "the back forty." You know developers are starting to clear the land to build a new subdivision and will pay no heed to this small plot of graves. What steps can you take to prevent the developers from just plowing over the cemetery, thus loosing another piece of history to urban sprawl?

Or - you've seen a cemetery listed elsewhere on this website that needs adopting, it's only a few miles away from home and you want to help preserve this cemetery. How can you find out more about it and what steps do you take to insure that this cemetery is protected?

Or - you stumble across an old cemetery while deer hunting in the deep woods, it's overgrown and has obviously been neglected and/or abandoned. Although you don't want to take responsibility for the restoration of this cemetery, you would like to notify someone about what you have found, in hopes that they can identify the cemetery and find who the descendants of those buried there are. You just know in your heart that something has to be done about saving this cemetery. Who do you contact?

Or - your county historical/genealogical society wants to undertake a project to identify all cemeteries within the county, make burial listings for each cemetery, and take steps to preserve and protect these cemeteries. Where do they start and what are some good procedures to follow?

These are but a few of the possible "thousands" of different reasons you might have to want to do something about reporting, identifying and protecting a cemetery. The Steps To Take section below provides guidelines on what to do and how to go about doing it. Every situation is unique and not all of the steps provided in this limited space will apply to your particular set of circumstances, nor will this necessarily provide all the steps you need to take. However, we feel that these steps and procedures will help you get started on this very precious mission of helping to preserve Alabama's cemetery heritage.
Please join hands with the ACPA in becoming part of the solution. Before anyone else can assist you or even take notice, you have to make sure that they are aware of the problem and are open to the concept that cemeteries are valuable and should not be destroyed. Losing a cemetery so that a farmer can plant a few more crops, that the local retail or grocery store can open up a new location, or that a developer can build a few more houses, is a personal and historic loss to all of us and our future generations. Some people will have no difficulty understanding this at all, but there are others that you will have to explain and hopefully educate as to why this is not right. You must be able to clearly inform and convince them why cemeteries are valuable. The ACPA, with the help of you and others, intends to change the you above to we in accomplishing this educational process for the benefit of all and future generations.

Jeanne Robinson of the Oregon Historic Cemeteries Association summed it up this way in her presentation on Cemetery Advocacy at Our Sacred Heritage Conference held in Boise, Idaho September 10-11, 1998:
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They are repositories of unique genealogical, historical, religious, cultural, societal and medical information that may not be recorded in any other format.
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They are free public museums filled with history and irreplaceable artwork.
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They are places in which the average citizen has an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors.
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They are sources of humor, pathos, and folklore.
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They are laboratories filled with antique biological specimens.
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They are habitat for birds and wildlife green spaces.

For decades, the remains of our forefathers have been:
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Removed from their resting-places, in the form of threats posed by urban development, agricultural activity, lumbering operations, vandalism, and neglect.
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Worst yet, plowed up or paved over and lost forever.
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Lost in long-ago abandoned family burying grounds that we do not know the location of.
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Not to mention, the particular loss of so many graves in the South during the War of the Great Rebellion.
A simple search of the Internet or a local newspaper will quickly show that while cemetery preservation laws do exist in Alabama, they are ignored on a regular basis by both developers and local officials. This is not a problem of the past. It is one that we face today, and it gets worse every day.

Preserving an endangered cemetery is not an easy task. Although much of it will be fun (much will not), it is not something to be taken lightly. But it is an act of reverence, pride and one of historical preservation. You very well may have to step on some toes, which will not win friends, but hopefully you'll make more friends as a result of your efforts. It will require a great deal of time, energy and effort on your part. These issues can become emotionally charged and can drag on for a considerable amount of time. You will ask yourself why you ever started this venture. But, if you are successful, the results are "oh, so rewarding." You have taken steps to save an irreplaceable part of your personal, state and local history. You are becoming an advocate for the cemetery and those who are buried there.
A cemetery may be adopted by anyone! YOU, me, a high school, a college, citizens and civic groups, church groups, businesses, families, and again "YOU and me." You CAN adopt a cemetery! We CAN adopt a cemetery! Preserving and maintaining a cemetery is tax deductible. This is one impetus to establish cemetery associations for those endangered cemeteries that are being lost forever to future generations. All cemeteries must have perpetual care. Many trusts are established for specific graves but trusts or perpetual care need to be established for all graves in a cemetery. An impetus for the landowner is that Alabama law exempts land legally designated as cemetery property from property taxation.

Once located, historical cemeteries can become an integral part of any community. Periodic cemetery clean-ups can be advertised on the local radio and TV stations. Notices can be placed in local newspapers and magazines as well as church bulletins and local newsletters. A column about the lives and individuals buried there will generate interest and in some instances donations for the upkeep of a specific cemetery.

Encourage students at all levels to explore and write essays about cemeteries. These wonderful old cemeteries are living history lessons. Many facets of a community's history from local epidemics to tragic events are recorded on its tombstones.

Note: The ACPA is working to have a state Adopt a Cemetery Program introduced in the next Legislature along with establishing cemetery days for April and October patterned after the Texas laws.


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