Here's the situation, and i'm not sure if it's paranormal yet (i'll know when i get the pics back), but... you guys seem to know a lot about cemeteries. About 20 minutes south of where I grew up, there is a VERY old family cemetery. My mom and I are always keeping up to date on our history and geneology, so we're constantly looking up old books, photos, etc. Once, about 2 or 3 years ago in my gramma's attic we found a book that held lots of info about a certain "branch" in th family tree that gave really vauge directions to this cemetery. It read something like, "Down an old gravel road that used to be Strasburg 121 up on a hill behind some trees" was this old cemetery. We took a weekend, combed the town and LO AND BEHOLD we found it! It was indeed very old. Some of the tombstones date back to the mid-to-late 1700's. Most of them are worn away or falling apart, but some were readable and actually gave us some info that we weren't aware of.
Over the years, we went back to "look something up" or to get current pics or clean up the place. (kids used to party there all the time, apparantly) On a visit about a year and a half ago, we noticed that there were several new houses being constructed around it and I began to worry that they would try to use the land or just demolish it, but we found out that the township owns it, so we let it go. On my most recent visit to take photos, I was appalled at what was happening there. Trees had been cut down, allowed to fall and break stones and never cleaned up... all very upsetting.
My question is: Is there anything we can do about this? I'm not even sure what I want to do if I can, but it was saddenning to see my ancestors' graves being disrespected in that way.
Also: On the right side of the cemetary, we have found what appears to be the remains of an old church (VERY small) that was mentioned in the book as well. This part, however remains a mystery to us: In front of the remains, a large cement slab (very definetly NOT a tombstone) was placed there that seems to be inlaid with older slabs of stone that are etched in german writing. The dates on the end of the stone say 1822 - 1972. The time is WAAAAAY off! Any ideas what it could be? (i'll post pics when I get them)
Anyone speak German???????
Whew! lots of info....i'd love some outside opinions!
Stella
