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Walking Through Old Cemeteries and Photographing the Stones

By Angela Johnson

I love walking through old cemeteries and taking photographs. I don't know what I'll ever do with the photos, but they illustrate the past.

I don't visit modern cemeteries and I don't want to look at a relative's or friend's grave marker. I want to remember people as they were when they were alive. I've already decided I'm not going to be buried in a cemetery. I have an organ donor card and then will be cremated.

Now back to the subject of old cemeteries. Sometimes you're at a cemetery and some of the stones are too worn to be read. Since I just take photos for my own interest, that's not a problem as long as I like the scene. However, there are genealogists and historians who do want to document who is buried in a grave and need to be able to read the names and dates on the marker.

Besides liking old cemeteries, I also enjoy going to local historical museums. I was visiting the historical museum in W. Frankfort, Illinois, and wandered into the genealogy room. One of the volunteers, Mr. Lund, told me they were documenting all the unmarked graves and cemeteries in Franklin County.

My aunt and uncle live in a nearby town and when my uncle was still alive, he told me there were some graves out in the woods in front of their house. I found them (three of them) and photographed them (over 15 years ago).

After talking with Mr. Lund, I called my aunt and asked her if anyone else knew of these graves. She said someone did come out once, but he died years ago. I drove to her house and walked into the woods to see if the stones were still there, but only found one grave instead of three. I assume the other two stones fell over and maybe sunk down into the earth.

I went back to the historical museum and asked if they were aware of graves in that area. Mr. Lund said they were aware of them, but thought the property might be in the next county and they were only working on Franklin County at this time. But said if I took photographs, he'd like a copy.

He told me there's many different ways to try to bring out the carvings on an old stone, but the one he recommends is to buy some sidewalk chalk, which is very soft, and rub it over the letters. The chalk is not harmful to the stone. So I bought some chalk and it did a good job (see photos below).

After I photographed this grave stone and sent a copy to Mr. Lund, I decided to do a little research in case I might want to photograph a hard-to-read stone in a cemetery. I'm sure the cemetery caretakers wouldn't want me using brightly colored chalk on their stones, even if I brought along water to wash it away.

I found out that some people use shaving cream to make old letters show up. But others claim shaving cream has chemicals that harm the stone, even for the short time you put it on, photograph the stone, and then wash it off. However, another person said he didn't see how shaving cream could be any worse than bird droppings and acid rain.

Another option is to bring along a large mirror to direct sunlight into the stone if it's heavily shaded. You'd need an assistant to help you with this.

One method everyone agreed on was NOT TO WASH old stones. I read where one family wanted to clean up their family cemetery and rented a power washer. Well, they washed off the inscriptions from every stone! You could bring along a bucket of water, though, and wet a stone. The water will temporarily darken the stone on a bright, sunny day.

And last, some suggest using black and white film rather than color. That is a good idea for film, but with digital cameras, I'd take the photo in color and then use a software program to change it to black and white if the color photo doesn't show enough detail. Shooting in color brings in much more detail than shooting in black and white.

From my personal experience shooting photos, I'd bring a large piece of foam core or cardboard to use to block the sun if it was shining directly on a stone. And instead of a mirror (which may break), I'd use a photographer's light reflector; the kind that opens up into a big circle with gold on one side and silver or white on the other. If you don't want to invest in one of those, a silver windshield reflector would be a good substitute. A camera flash might help, too, but usually a flash puts the light straight onto a subject and you want light to create some shadow on the inscription.

Do any of you like to visit old cemeteries or do you have special subjects you like to photograph?

I took the photographs below and I also created the two web pages listed.

I like your story telling. Isn't it possible on some of the better digital cameras to select colour, B&W or Sepia?

I'm glad you like what I write. Yes, even some better quality "point and shoot" digital cameras have the capability to shoot in B&W and Sepia.

However, if you shoot in B&W or Sepia and then later wish you have a color version, you're stuck unless you are skilled at using photoshop or similar photo editing program. And it'll never be as good as an original photo shot from your camera.

If you shoot your photo in color, then you can easily change it to B&W or Sepia with a software program and still keep your original color image. I use Photoshop Elements, which costs between $50 to $100, depending on which version you buy. There's no need to get the newest version.

But the easiest way to take photos is right in the camera. Take a color photo, a black and white photo, then a sepia tone photo. It's neat to see all three versions at once when you upload them to your computer. Then you can use each version for whatever project you want. Camera film cards are so inexpensive now and hold so much data, you can take as many photos as you want without worrying about filling up a card.

Lovely photos. Maybe you might consider scrapbooking. I can see amazing albums created with these photos.

I have a friend who does wonderful digital scrapbook pages. She documents her travels with a few paragraphs and then illustrates the page with her photos. I'd love to do that, too, but I need to block off some time to learn how to do it. I have so many projects and not enough time. But I'll get to it someday - maybe in the New Year.....

Cemetaries are fascinating places and can tell you a lot about an area.
In England you can visit graves that date back many centuries and learn of local disease outbreaks - sometimes whole families on one marker - or even accidents:-
Here interred George Anderson doth lie
By falling on an anchor he did die - a tombstone in Kent.

I also look at family names and dates of death on old stones. I often see where one family had several children die, often with just the name "baby" on the stone. Many parents didn't name their children until they reached a certain age since infants often died. They didn't want to use a favorite name unless they thought the child would live.

And when I see death dates in 1918-1919, I assume they're from the Spanish flu pandemic.

One gravestone I found intriguing in an Illinois cemetery simply said, "Wade Smith at Rest". Nothing else.

I loved reading your story, found it very interesting. I like to walk round old cemeteries, looking at the headstones of people who have gone before; there is a story in every headstone and I find it fascinating.
June's comment below is something for you to think about - scrapbooking your photos - it would be quite an historical chronicle of the people who lived and died in that particular area. Great intel, thanks for sharing.

As I mentioned to June, I'd love to scrapbook, but need to learn how to do it online and also need time to do it. If could get a page done, it would be great to submit it to the local newspaper to historical society. Maybe in the New Year.....

Excellent and interesting article. I also enjoyed the articles at the links you provided. I too enjoy strolling through old cemeteries and try to envision the life and times of the people buried there.

Thanks. I'm glad you like my articles and share my interest in old cemeteries.

I Screened this 5* intel earlier this week and agree with others here, you do have writing talent. This could possibly be an excellent start to a book.

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