Hello everyone. What is the suggested practice of reading deteriorated stones? Is it chalk rubbings or is there another method that's even better? Is there a certain 'code of ethics' to follow? Personally, I haven't done any rubbings in fear of aiding in the deterioration and/or offending someone who visits the stone(s). How do you do it? Best wishes, Jan jjones@bam.on.ca "Every little obit helps" http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~janjones/ObitsHome.htm

I hope that you get a lot of good answers for this question, as anyone who tries to read old stones runs into this problem. What we DON'T want to do is to further damage the stone! Therefore, old standbys like using shaving cream and other such materials that leave a residue just aren't acceptable. There are small blacklights on the market that, when plugged into a car's cigarette lighter (or other power source) can illuminate a stone well enough for you to read and photograph it. This works better at different times of the day and in different lights. Experimenting with one at your local cemetery can give you a good idea of what time of day/what daylight level works best before you travel to a farther location. Sometimes we fill in the remnants of letters with plain old black dirt, taking care to wash it down with plenty of water when we are done. Often this will reveal enough to show what the stone says. When our parents were choosing their headstone, they wanted a duplication of the pattern on Dad's parents' stone. The owner of the shop went to the cemetery with a special paper that had been treated so that when she simply ran a tennis ball (!) over the paper, it picked up every part that the ball ran over. When I expressed amazement over such a simple, noninvasive tool, she happily gave me a generous amount, plus the name and address of the company that had produced it. I would expect that nearly anyone who sells memorials would have access to this. Possibly it could be found by Googling. Another method that works is plain paper (pieces of paper table covers or newsprint work well) and a broad crayon. There are blocks of wax manufactured for this purpose - and the blocks used for brass rubbings work quite well, too. Nothing is left on the stone, and you can control just how much of the image you want to pick up by rubbing more or rubbing less. I also have discovered that most lichens/mosses will come off a stone if you get it quite wet (you might need to carry a container for the water and, in some older cemeteries, a jug of two of the water itself). Sometimes they will come off with a gentle rubbing motion of your fingers; sometimes it will require a soft brush; sometimes a stiffer brush is in order, but used with gentleness. In extreme cases - on granite but NOT on the fragile old stones - some bleach poured on, scrubbed gently with a brush, and THOROUGHLY rinsed off will do the job. (Wear old clothes, and be careful of what is growing by the stone - rinse, rinse, rinse!) I learned this from a friend whose job is cemetery restoration - in Ontario. Hope this helps. Nancy next door in Michigan Janet Jones wrote: >Hello everyone. > >What is the suggested practice of reading deteriorated stones? Is it chalk >rubbings or is there another method that's even better? Is there a certain >'code of ethics' to follow? Personally, I haven't done any rubbings in fear >of aiding in the deterioration and/or offending someone who visits the >stone(s). How do you do it? > >Best wishes, >Jan jjones@bam.on.ca > >"Every little obit helps" >http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~janjones/ObitsHome.htm >

I have not done any cemetery rubbings for about 25 years but here is the method we used which was quite successful: 1. Old Sandstone headstones that are barely legible to the naked eye. We carred a suitcase with some caprenter's chalk (which is very soft). We gently applied the chalk to the letters on the stone. We then ran a soft piece of styrofoam covered by a soft clolth over it to remove the excess. We then took an old oil light pump (had been lying around the house for years) and blew away all the chalk in the crevices. This left the lettering very clear. We photographed the stone and then took a very small sprayer filled with water and sprayed the stone until all the chalk had disappeared. We didn't need to use any detergent or chemical just plain old H2o that we normally got right from the spigot in the cemetery. A couple of the stones that we did, are now gone, but I have good pictures of what they said. I have also checked some of the stones and if they have not disappeared completely (broken off and been carried away) they are still in approximately the same condition they were when we photographed them, so I don't believe the process did any noticeable damage to them. I am positive since they were great grandparents and further back there aren't a lot of people interested in those particular stones so that was probably the only time they were rubbed. 2. This process does not work well on granite stones. I found that using special lighting (know how your camera works) worked best on these newer stones. Now do you want to know about searching for unmarked graves? Karen

This is a topic that should be important to all of us, since we are left with the results of bad practices in this area. My rules, in order of importance: 1. Like the Doctor's oath - "Do no harm". 2. Use controlled LIGHT, don't TOUCH the stone 3. Use water, BUT do not soak, do not use water if there is a chance of freezing / frost before THOROUGH dry out. 4. Use a little dirt Personally I stop there. I can get most of mine with the first 2. That includes shallow inscription on a black stone, facing north, under a huge, low, overhanging evergreen tree (leading to no direct ambient light, ever!). It took a visit to the graveyard after dark with a flash to create an angled, direct light to do it, but I didn't contaminate the stone. I consulted the following book: "Landscapes of Memories: A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries - Repairing Tombstones", compiled and editted by Tamara Anson-Cartwright, Architectural Conservation Advisor, Heritate Properties & Museums Programs Unit. ISBN: 0-7778-7260-9, Queen's Printer for Ontario Chapter 2: Cleaning Stone - wash with small quantities of clean water, if NO FROST / FREEZING - use of a SOFT nylon brush lightly "For more serious situations of soiling and deterioration, it is best to hire only skilled stone masons and conservators with extensive professional experience and expertise in this specific area." With all the acid rain around, the various types of stone used over the ages, and the crumbling nature of some of them, I prefer to not even take rubbings - light works so much better! Happy Hunting Ron On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 10:19:04 -0400, Nancy Keith wrote: >I hope that you get a lot of good answers for this question, as anyone >who tries to read old stones runs into this problem. What we DON'T want >to do is to further damage the stone! Therefore, old standbys like >using shaving cream and other such materials that leave a residue just >aren't acceptable. >There are small blacklights on the market that, when plugged into a >car's cigarette lighter (or other power source) can illuminate a stone >well enough for you to read and photograph it. This works better at >different times of the day and in different lights. Experimenting with >one at your local cemetery can give you a good idea of what time of >day/what daylight level works best before you travel to a farther location. >Sometimes we fill in the remnants of letters with plain old black dirt, >taking care to wash it down with plenty of water when we are done. > Often this will reveal enough to show what the stone says. >When our parents were choosing their headstone, they wanted a >duplication of the pattern on Dad's parents' stone. The owner of the >shop went to the cemetery with a special paper that had been treated so >that when she simply ran a tennis ball (!) over the paper, it picked up >every part that the ball ran over. When I expressed amazement over such >a simple, noninvasive tool, she happily gave me a generous amount, plus >the name and address of the company that had produced it. I would >expect that nearly anyone who sells memorials would have access to this. > Possibly it could be found by Googling. >Another method that works is plain paper (pieces of paper table covers >or newsprint work well) and a broad crayon. There are blocks of wax >manufactured for this purpose - and the blocks used for brass rubbings >work quite well, too. Nothing is left on the stone, and you can control >just how much of the image you want to pick up by rubbing more or >rubbing less. >I also have discovered that most lichens/mosses will come off a stone if >you get it quite wet (you might need to carry a container for the water >and, in some older cemeteries, a jug of two of the water itself). > Sometimes they will come off with a gentle rubbing motion of your >fingers; sometimes it will require a soft brush; sometimes a stiffer >brush is in order, but used with gentleness. In extreme cases - on >granite but NOT on the fragile old stones - some bleach poured on, >scrubbed gently with a brush, and THOROUGHLY rinsed off will do the job. > (Wear old clothes, and be careful of what is growing by the stone - >rinse, rinse, rinse!) I learned this from a friend whose job is >cemetery restoration - in Ontario. >Hope this helps. >Nancy >next door in Michigan Ron Cushman net-genealogy@rogers.com ON, Canada