Thanks for this info, Carin. It's amazing to me that the people of Ventura had so little respect not only for their earliest pioneer residents, but for the history their presence in the cemetery continued to offer. Many cities now offer tours of their beautiful historic cemeteries. In Amador County, the Chamber of Commerce did a survey a few years ago and found that 11% of tourists said they visited the old cemeteries. How shortsighted the stampede for progress and modern amentieies has been. Sue ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darren Fine" <cdfine@earthlink.net> To: <CAVENTUR-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 4:58 PM Subject: [CAVentura] Ventura Cemetery aka Cemetery Park > Hi there, > I just had to get involved in this conversation. My husband's ggg & > gg-granmothers are buried there. His gg-grandmother was one of the last to > be buried there, if not *the* last, in 1943. I first found out about this > cemetery from a transcription I found on the web back in 1999. I wanted to > find out where this cemetery was. I called everywhere and finally ended up > talking to a very nice man at the Ventura Historical Society Research > Library who told me the story of this cemetery. He said that in the 60's, > they (can't remember if it was the city or county of Ventura) decided to > dismantle the cemetery and make a park. They very quietly sent letters to > all last known next of kin. If they got a response, they moved the bodies, > if not, then they did nothing. The stones were removed and tossed in a > canyon somewhere (he didn't know specifically where.) He even told me where > their burial site was...Block 8 Lot 3, "it's near the bridge". I guess they > have a map. The sad thing is that if they gave just a little more effort, > the family would have been able to move Frances & Minnie. > > As for the transcription, there is a link on the Ventura Co website, but I > can't get it to work. I did print it out back in 99, though. And I don't > know who originally posted it, there wasn't a name. There are about 60 > names on it. I actually don't know if it is a complete list of burials or > if they are the ones that were not moved. I never thought of that until > this moment. Looking at the list, the first burial is 1866 and the last is > 1943. > > I think that's about all the light I can shed from my notes from the > conversation. It also seemed that although it wasn't widely publicized, > everyone basically knew, but nothing was done to oppose it. It's very sad. > If I had the money, I would see about having them moved, if it's not too > late. Maybe someday. > > Thanks for listening! :) > Carin Fine > > > > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >