The news that the Dorland Family Cemetery in Somerset County, Montgomery Twp. Sunset Road is actually located on three different lots, Crawford House and two neighboring properties, came as a great surprise to us all. We have always believed that the entire Cemetery was located on Crawford House land, the current owners. Mike Vandewoude who is on the Board of the New Netherlands Institute, lives near the Lambert Dorland house and recently brought this to my attention. Apparently there is a monument no one was aware of in someones back yard. I was flabbergasted as I had no idea nor did other descendants and many of us have been there mulitple times over the years. Crawford House has owned the land where the Dorland Family Cemetery is located since 1978 or so. For many years we have tried to fence in this cemetery, clean it up, but since we don't own the land we have often been unsuccessful in keeping it maintained. Crawford House is a half-way house for recovering women addicts and privacy is important to them. When I began visiting and exploring this cemetery about 1979, there was an old fence dividing it from the field on the other side, which I could never get to and I never even able to climb over because of the barbed wire wrapped around the wooden fence. It was a long walk through overgrown fields to get to it from the road; I had no reason at that date to go. It was so overgrown at the time, all you could see were stumps, wild grass etc. My friend Ursula Brecknell who was very active in many capacities in the township was not aware of the situation either. Houses were later built on the land on the other side of the fence. The houses on the other 2 lots, located over the fence abutting the cemetery, weren't built beginning in 1986. This means that there is an entire section of the cemetery we were never aware of in two neighbors yards. I am waiting for a photo, on one of those lots. I have no idea just how much of the cemetery extends over onto those lots. . Mike has taken a great interest in this historic Dorland Cemetery which he feels should be protected and has formed a committee to do that. He and his wife are also affiliated Crawford House, which is very helpful to us. The Dorland and related families marked their graves with field stones which probably had dates or initials carved into them when in use between 1739-1800. Unfortunately over the years, those stones have sunk and many just peek above the ground. This was a simple rural Low Dutch farm Cemetery, one of the few left in existence today. English Tombstones or the traditional tombstones were never erected on these graves as it was sold out of the family by the end of the 1700's. Once the farm on which the family cemetery exists is sold out of the family, you lose any control you normally might have. For generations descendants have tried to buy this particular cemetery only to be told "no sale." Many local residents did not realize that the cemetery existed. Descendants did however, as Nathaniel Mc Pherson Durling wrote about it in the John Cremer;s Dorland genealogy. The belief was if a cemetery had English style gravestones, it was a cemetery, if not it wasn't. If you have seen photo's of the cemetery at the Conewago Reformed Dutch Church in now Adams County, where descendants of the families of the Van Harlingen DRC and others are buried you will noticed that for the most part, rocks were used and in some cases replaced later by English style stones. Mike is going to work with the Boys Scouts to restore the cemetery and erect a wooden fence around it. The Historic Landmarks commission met last night and they have approved this project. We are very grateful to Mike that this new information has come to light and while i don't know at this time, what the plans are for the part of the cemetery located in the neighboring back yards, at least we are now aware of its existence. Judy Cassidy