The Cemetery Detective™

The Cemetery Detective - Researching our nation's most interesting cemeteries.

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Old Jonesborough Cemetery – Jonesborough, Tennessee


August 2022 – An Odd Looking “Gravestone”

What is this Grave Marker made of?
Is it granite? Marble? Sandstone?

Have you ever visited a cemetery and noticed 1 gravestone that appears different from all the others?

If you are in a cemetery, you will see all different types of stone used in the creation of gravestones and monuments and headstones.

Some grave markers will be made from marble. Marble is an interesting rock type that has been used for centuries in cemeteries as memorials and gravestones. Marble is a metamorphic rock which lends itself to beautiful carvings as gravestones.

Limestone is also used quite regularly in cemeteries. There are different varieties of limestone. Much of this particular type of rock is used in cemeteries due to its economic cost and ease of transport. Some limestones are different than others.

Some cemeteries have sandstone grave markers. Sandstone is beautiful. Color and texture of sandstone depends on the specific geographic location and depth of the original stone.

Granite gravestones are certainly in wide use in cemeteries today. Granite grave markers are easy to come by. Our advances in quarrying methods, inscription tools, and transportation make granite an affordable grave marker.

As easily recognizable as these gravestone materials are, keep your eyes out for headstones that look different from all these other stones. I recently visited Old Grey Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee. Within this cemetery I found a most unusual looking marker.

It is an obelisk with panels and a hollow ring when I rapped it with my knuckles. This is a Zinc Grave Marker, also known as White Bronze. White Bronze is not a stone at all. In fact, White Bronze is made entirely of zinc. Zinc grave markers are also known as White Bronze.

Many of these grave markers were produced by the Monumental Bronze Company. This particular “zinky” was manufactured by the Detroit Bronze Company in Detroit Michigan. Detroit Bronze Company was a manufacturer (subsidiary) of the Monumental Bronze Company out of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Detroit Bronze Co. operated from 1881 – 1886.

Zinc Grave Markers are VERY COMMON and I find them in so many of the cemeteries I visit. I even found a zinc grave marker in a cemetery in Bermuda. Have you ever found a zinc grave marker?

July 2022 – Gravestone Personification

A great find in my local cemetery.
When you look closely at this gravestone, do you feel like you know this man?
A rocking chair, cigarette, steaming cuppa coffee, untied shoes, with a whittlin’ stick and a sharp knife. What more do you need to know? 🙂 I love it.

Gravestone depicting a man sitting in a rocking chair, with a steaming cup of coffee, untied shoes, a lit cigarette, all the while he is whittling a piece of wood.

January 2022 – Snowy Scene in a Cemetery

This gravestone in a cemetery in Polk County, TN depicts the surrounding hilltops covered by a frosty coating. Yesterday’s snowfall made the depiction a reality. 
Read the full story here: 
https://www.thecemeterydetective.com/gravestone-with-snow/ 

Grave Marker depicting a snowy scene in a cemetery.
Snow Cemetery Grave Marker

The snowy hills surrounding a Polk County, Tennessee Cemetery
Snowy Hills Polk County Cemetery

April 2019 – Hands on Grave Markers

I’ve long been fascinated with the use of hand symbolism on grave markers.  Recently, while surveying a small southern cemetery, I readily found 9 discrete uses of hands.   The video, below, describes these symbolic hand features.  

What are your favorite grave symbols? 

 

February 2019 – Cemeteries and Geology

Yes, it’s true that geology affects the types of gravestones we see in cemeteries.  But, geology also affects other attributes, too.
I am becoming increasingly interested in how local geology affect what we see in cemeteries. 

January 2019 – A Brand New Year

Happy New Year.
Thank you for a wonderful 2018. I really appreciate all your messages.
Looking forward to sharing all my cemetery research with you in 2019.

All my latest videos, including my Italian Cemetery Explorations are featured on my pages.

On Facebook: Search for “The Cemetery Detective

On Youtube: Search for “The Cemetery Detective

On Twitter: The Cemetery Detective

On Reddit: The Cemetery Detective

Thank you for keeping in touch.

– Keith


November 2018 – Researching the Cemeteries of Italy

Grave Niche in Turin Cemetery
She peels the curtains granting me permission to witness this intimate moment.

I find this burial niche in a cemetery in Turin, Italy tucked away in a far back section obscured by myriad heraldic angels and crosses each more ornate than the last.
She peels the modesty curtain as if to give me a private viewing but I lower my camera embarrassed by my desire to snap the photograph. Is it morbid for me to wish to view this scene?
Understanding my need for an invitation to observe such a private, delicate moment, her outstretched hand says “come, look, I give you permission to be here.”

The scarcely noticeable texturing of the curtains.

The firm grip of her clutched hand facilitating this private reveal.

Bare toes peeking from beneath her heavy gown draped to the floor.

One of my favorites, for sure.

Cemetery Travel

Sometimes, only in retrospect, do you realize what an incredible journey you’ve had.

As often as I can, I try to travel to a distant location to study cemeteries. I feel this helps me to understand that the respect we pay our ancestors is far reaching…world wide.

When cheap airline tickets popped up online earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to pay a quick visit to Italy. Combining airline tickets with plentiful Italian public transportation and local AirBnBs, I visited quite a few villages and cities in Italy. It’s always a challenge attempting to share my research with the readers of the website. I started sharing my cemetery research online over 15 years ago in late 2002. Back then, “BLOGGING” was just starting to become popular. Neither YouTube nor Facebook existed…gosh MySpace wasn’t even invented, yet.

Though many free platforms are available, I still feel having this website is an important tool in sharing information about the cemeteries I visit.

Increasingly, I am using Facebook and YouTube to disseminate my visits to cemeteries all over the world. If you are a follower of this website, I would like to invite you to join me on Facebook and Youtube to learn about our most interesting cemeteries.

Links are immediately below. Please “LIKE” and “SUBSCRIBE” and “SHARE” but most importantly, please leave comments for me. I would love to hear about your favorite cemeteries and gravestone inscriptions that you find fascinating.

Cemetery Research on Social Media

All my latest videos, including my Italian Cemetery Explorations are featured on my pages.

On Facebook: Search for “The Cemetery Detective

On Youtube: Search for “The Cemetery Detective

On Twitter: The Cemetery Detective

On Reddit: The Cemetery Detective

Thank you for keeping in touch.

– Keith



October 2018 – Presentations and Italian Cemeteries

Startled Angel Milan Cemetery
Startled Angel – The Cemetery Detective

Thus far, I’ve had an incredibly busy autumn. So much to share with you.

In additions to my normal cemetery research activities, my free time September was spent giving cemetery presentations to several fine groups. One group that asked me to give my cemetery research was Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century’s Prudhomme Fort Chapter. These fine women are dedicated to historic preservation.

In October, I took advantage of cheap airline tickets by spending time in Italy studying 12 cemeteries. I last visited Italy in 2007 when I flew to Rome for a quick 1 week vacation. Though I saw a few cemeteries during that trip, I regretted not spending more time researching the cemeteries of Italy’s capital.

During this year’s trip, I made a concerted effort to focus on cemeteries in each of the regions I visited. From dramatic angels of Milan to wooden crosses high above mountain trails of the Cinque Terre to multi-story giant mausoleums of Genova, I studied a healthy gamut of Italian cemetery styling.

I have so much to share with you. For now, I want to share a few of my favorite pictures from my trip to study the cemeteries of Milan, Turin, Aosta, Genova, Cinque Terre, and Florence.

The first photograph is of an angel I found in the Milano Cemitero Monumentale. The Monumental Cemetery of Milano is huge with hundreds of multistory mausoleums. This angel guards a sarcophagus behind an archway. As I visited the cemetery close to sunset, sunlight blasted through the archway. So many emotions can be interpreted from the angel’s facial features and body language. She seems almost startled as if a search light has suddenly been shone in her direction. I feel extremely lucky to have visited this particular section of the cemetery at this exact time of day and year. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more beautiful angel.

These next two photographs are from the base of a mountain cemetery high above the town of Vernazza on the Cinqua Terra Trail.

The Cemetery Detective
Italian Monorail

In this region of Italy, farmers used terraced land to grow their grapes. The terraces are so high and steep the farmers use a system of monorails and carts to haul supplies to their growing fields. This particular monorail ends at the base of the cemetery and has been used to bring caskets and visitors to the cemetery. I wish I could have been able to ride (as a passenger) in one of these monorails.

The Cemetery Detective

The final photograph I’ll share in today’s post is of an anatomically correct skeleton I found in the English Cemetery of Florence. This skeleton is shrouded behind cloth and a cloak. The delicate features of its hands and feet speak of the detailed work by the sculptor.

Cemetery Skeleton
The Cemetery Detective – Cemetery Skeleton

I have many more photos and video to share. To keep up-to-date, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel. (Linked Below)

This site is becoming popular and I receive emails everyday asking about my cemetery research.

Thank you for keeping up with me:

Keith


August 2018 – Cemeteries and the Precursors to Autumn

Argiope Writing Spider
Argiope Writing Spider as a Precursor to Autumn

It seems like only yesterday I was writing out my Cemetery Blog for my Cemetery Research Trip I made to Danbury, Connecticut in June. Now, here it is already August.

I was awoken to the fact that August is upon us because of a sight I saw this morning. Writing Spiders (Argiope) are one of my favorite precursors to autumn. This morning, I saw my first
Writing Spider of the season.

When I was a kid, I used to love watching for Writing Spiders. My Mom used to plant Marigolds right outside our patio sliding glass door. Along about the time school started in August, I would begin seeing the familiar webs with the squiggly lines. It was a bit of mythology amongst my friends that if you ever saw a Writing Spider spell your name, you would die before nightfall.

5 Lined Skink
5 Lined Skink Fattening up for Autumn

I always secretly wanted a Writing Spider to spell my name just so I could prove it wrong.

All these years later, I still love seeing Writing Spiders emerge in late summer. I also love looking for 5 Lined Skinks fattening up for winter, and Dragon Flies darting around lakes and ponds.

As far as cemeteries go, I have quite a few offerings for you in August. Look for my videos concerning cemeteries near a giant treehouse and cemeteries near a courthouse where a famous trial took place.

I will post them here and on my Cemetery Detective YouTube Channel.

The Minister’s Tree House can be seen here:

If you are interested in helping me with my cemetery research, your support is greatly appreciated. To see how you can help, visit The Cemetery Detective Fan Club. All monies raised go toward helping me research and work toward saving old and neglected cemeteries.

Have a great August:

Keith


July 2018 – Cemeteries of Connecticut and New York

New Haven Crypt
New Haven Crypt

The Association for Gravestone Studies held their annual conference this year in Danbury, Connecticut.

Our conferences are normally held in June but by the time I travel back home, catch up with work, and begin sorting through my photographs, I find July has come and gone. I’m in that same predicament this year. I, soon, will have write-ups and details of the cemeteries I visited.
Until then, I want to share pictures of a few interesting cemeteries I studied during my trip to Danbury.

The most interesting cemetery is the New Haven Crypt in New Haven, CT. This burying ground dates to the 1600s and includes burial sites of notable citizens from the time of New Haven’s founding. Originally, the burying ground was outside. The church was built in 1812 – 1814 and it covered part of the town’s burying

Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Cemetery Bronx, NY

ground thus forming the crypt.

I also visited Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY.  At over 400 acres of land, Woodlawn is enormous and contains over 1300 mausoleums. One of my favorites is the Woolworth mausoleum with its pillars and scantly clad sphinxes.

On my way homeward, I dropped by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to stroll its steep hillsides.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

To make this trip, I outfitted my van with a loft bed in the back.  

I’ve always had a romanticized fascination with travelling the country and stealth camping out of my van. For my trip to CT, I built a proper loft bed…totally comfortable and at a height where I can see out my tinted side windows.

One night, on my way homeward, I pulled into a side-road parking lot for a night of much needed sleep. With my head resting on a cool pillow and my body covered with a lite-fibered summer sheet, I slumbered off to dreamland with a view of the Blue Ridge Parkway out my window.

Sometime in the night, thunderstorms rolled through. I awoke with thunder and lightning cracking all around me. Rain pelted my rooftop and with each lightning strike I could see the outline of a blue ridge mountain peak silhouetted against a tumultuously blackened sky.

I was safe and cozy in my bed in my van while fury raged outside. Remembering back to my romanticized fascination, I actively thought to myself “wow, this is even better than expected.”

This was one of those times in life when the reality far outlived the fantasy.  Sleeping like this allowed me to spend a couple extra days on the road without the added expense and frustration of renting a hotel room.  I made lots of detours to visit plenty of cemeteries along the way.

Below is a Cemetery Research Documentary I made chronicling my trip to Danbury Connecticut for the 2018 Association for Gravestone Studies Annual Conference.

Be sure to keep an eye on this website as well as my YouTube channel dedicated to cemetery research.

Keith


June 2018 – Railroads and Road Trips

I begin June after having just released my recent Cemetery Detective Documentary of the cemeteries between Haletown, Tennessee and Bridgeport, Alabama.

In this video documentary, I visit ~20 cemeteries while racing a train across the countryside. As with most of my research, I learn much more about the area than just about its cemeteries. I discover the rich history here. From the fearless Cherokee Tribal Leader Dragging Canoe to the cunning Confederates who destroyed a railroad bridge to thwart Union Soldiers’ advancement, this area is steeped in history. Not to be dissuaded, Union forces rebuilt the bridge in order to secure their stronghold of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Onward I move to South Pittsburg to enjoy their Cornbread Festival. I make my way to Bridgeport where the train first crosses a lift bridge before it rumbles alongside a 1/4 walking bridge.

Of course, my main focus is the culturally significant cemeteries in the area.

I hope you enjoy this video. By-the-way, after the horn blows in the opening scene, my smile is genuine because I could have never planned the timing that well.

As with many of my videos, this documentary ends with extra footage of a surprise stop I make on my way home.

There is barely time to rest after completion of this video, however. Just this morning, I received an email from the organizer of this year’s Association for Gravestone Studies conference in Danbury, CT. I will be teaching a segment on Cemetery Mapping using Drone Technology. I am also discussing the current topic of Lava Covered Cemeteries of Hawaii.

hawaii_cemetery
Hawaii Lava Cemetery

If you are attending the conference, get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

Keith


May 2018 – A Study of Geology and Cemeteries

The Cemetery Detective

In addition to learning about local histories and understanding the lives of notable people who live in communities surrounding cemeteries, my work as “The Cemetery Detective” also allows me opportunities to study various sciences involved with cemeteries. Geology is one of the most fascinating sciences. Not only am I able to learn about the compositional makeup of gravestones, I am also able to study local topography and geological stratification in the areas surrounding cemeteries.

This integration of the study of geology and cemeteries became readily apparent in my most recent cemetery research project of the Cemeteries Bordering the TAG Railway. What began as an investigation into a single cemetery that served a turn-of-the-century mining town, evolved into a multi-state research project of cemeteries bordering and serving towns also served by a now-abandoned railway line.

The most interesting section of this railway is the tunnel excavated through the base of the Pigeon Mountain in Walker County, Georgia. The tunnel is over 1700′ long. Though the facings of either end of the tunnel are finished with brickwork, the interior of the tunnel is exposed rock. While investigating this tunnel and having discussions with a Geology Professor friend, I learned the tunnel runs through a contact between Fort Payne Chert (above) and Chattanooga Shale (below). In pictures I’ve taken of the tunnel’s interior, this contact is evident.

Here’s one of the things I find so fascinating: in the cemeteries I’ve studied in the area, many of the gravestones appear to be composed of Fort Payne Chert (Cherty Limestone) or St. Louis Limestone which overlies Fort Payne Chert in several outcroppings. I am not a geologist nor do I profess to have any expertise in the geological sciences. However, my study of cemeteries is becoming evermore enhanced by my gradual understanding of local geology.

To see my study of the cemeteries bordering the TAG Railway (including a study of the Pigeon Mtn. Railway Tunnel), please click below:


April 2018 – Cemeteries Bordering An Abandoned Railway Tunnel

I’ve spent most of my free hours of the past three weeks researching and tracing an abandoned railway line.
The T-A-G (Tennessee Alabama Georgia) railway was originally built in 1891 as the Chattanooga Southern Railway. Through reorganizations it became known as the TA&G by 1922. This railway ran from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Gadsden, Alabama. It served mining communities in Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. As such, communities sprang up around the mines. As communities grew in population, cemeteries were established in the areas of greatest population. The railway was eventually purchased by a competing railroad company. By the early 1980’s much of this line had been abandoned. Many of the miles of tracks, crossings, and bridges still exist as does an abandoned railroad tunnel toward the northern end of its route.

I have spent extensive time researching the TAG Line Railway and visiting cemeteries that border its route from Chattanooga to Gadsden. It is my privileged to bring you my most recent Cemetery Detective mini-documentary of the Cemeteries Along the TAG Railway Line.


March 2018 – Flooded Towns and Skull Island Cemetery


Continuing with my fascination of cemeteries affected by the flooding of the Tennessee River, I visited several cemeteries in March. In addition to the cemeteries, I have learned more about the town and area surrounding Old Harrison, Tennessee. Chickamauga Lake water is lower in the wintertime so I hopped into the kayak and explored areas where communities used to thrive. Taking advantage of a few warm days, I explored the Chickamauga Dam, Old Harrison, Patten Island, Bell Cemetery, Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant, Skull Island Camp Ground, and The Cemetery on Skull Island.
Video and full write-up can be found here: Skull Island Cemetery.


February 2018 – Cemetery Presentations and A Description of Mourning

February is shaping up to be a busy month for the shortest month of the year.
This weekend, I gave my “Submerged Cemetery” presentation to a wonderful group of ladies from our local DAR Chapter. The description of this cemetery holds everyone’s fascination and I love sharing the history, present, and future of this cemetery. I have also had several requests to give speeches on my CEMETERY RESEARCH in the coming months. If you are interested in having me give my Cemetery Detective presentation to your group, please get in touch with me via my CONTACT PAGE.

I spent some of the colder days in early February reviewing my pictures and videos from my Cemetery Research Trip to Northern Spain. I will share this as a major presentation in the coming months. Until then, I plan to let photos trickle out in a series of blog posts and videos. Here is a video I produced of a grave site I found in Madrid. There is so much emotion in this carving of a woman draped over her husband’s tomb. I feel as if she has come to mourn and drape herself over his grave site to be close to him once more.

This might sound romantically juvenile but I think any man would cherish the idea of someone longing for him in such a manner.


January 2018 – Frozen Waterfalls and Comb Graves

On the coldest day thus far this year, I piled into my van (with heater on full blast) and headed north onto the Cumberland Plateau to explore my newly found fascination with Comb Graves. Along the journey, I hiked to the bottom of a waterfall, found myself in the middle of a huge pasture after the setting sun, and found more Comb Graves than I had ever imagined.

The video is available below, on YouTube, and via my Facebook Page (The Cemetery Detective).

My best:

Keith


2018 Extensive Research of Cemeteries:

2017 will be hard to beat but I have big plans for 2018.
If you know a cemetery you think I need to explore, send me a message via my contact page or
contact me via Facebook (The Cemetery Detective), YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Cheers:

Keith