Here is the web site to check out. www.dgs.state.pa.us/...pt/.../pennsylvania_laws...cemeteries/1956 This is from the Commonwealth of PA. Judy Oct 11, 2010 04:06:39 PM, [email protected] wrote: =========================================== Actually Judy, unless the laws have changed, in PA if there hasn't been a >burial in 20 years and the graveyard isn't listed as a historical site you > >CAN remove the stones and do what you want. I used to work recording older > >cemeteries. The nightmare stories I can tell you. I know of one >graveyard that they removed the stones in order for the land owners to resell > the >plots. I know of a graveyard called the Dale Cemetery in Clearfield County, > >PA where the church caretaker pokes a rod down through the ground of an >old grave. If there is no resistance they resell the grave. We recorded the > >Dale cemetery and went back a week later to recheck our data entry. One >stone we had listed was missing. The caretaker was there and he told us he > >had buried the stone (strange, but the ground wasn't dug up). > >When they built the new prison on Clearfield they had to remove a >graveyard. They dug up the coffins, had them lined up on the side of the road >for >weeks. When they finally loaded them on the trucks the guys doing the work > >were rifling through the caskets for rings and things. What happened to >the coffins after that no one knows. I have records of the graveyards in >that county and these coffins were never added. True story, my Uncle was a > >witness. The only reason that the old Perks cemetery was left where it was > >is because someone was buried there within the past 20 years and they >couldn't touch it. This is how I learned about the 20 year law. I have >the law >as it pertains to old graveyards in PA in my computer somewhere. If >anyone wants it I can try to find it for them. > >Renee Waring > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the >body of the message >