Hello Betty, your chances of finding any grave/tombstone prior to 1900 are practically zero, unless they were nobility. Your chances of finding any grave prior to 1960 [yes, 1960!] are slim unless the village had less than 100 inhabitants. Of course there are always exceptions; since Herda was once part of the GDR, there may be some markers left. My father died in 1964 in a village with a pop. 2,000 and his grave marker was removed 20 years ago. My mother, on the other hand, who died in 1985 in a village with a pop. of less than 100, her marker is still there, so are the markers of her parents who died in the 1940s. You must remember that they don't use concrete vaults in Germany, the deceased are not embalmed and are buried in wooden coffins so after 20-30 years there is virtually no remains left - other than bones -. Nowadays people are almost exclusively cremated and only their names and dates are etched into tall columns, along with other persons names who died at the same time period. Ursula ____________________________________________________ There'll come a time, when you'll have no more time. ----- Original Message ----- From: "BF" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 8:21:51 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [G-P-L] Burial practices What were the 19th century burial practices in Germany?  I suppose they were buried in the church cemetery.  Did they have long-lasting markers such as we have? My family lived in a small town, Herda, Thuringen and were poor.  Any chance of finding a marker from 1850-1900 if such things existed?  I read that some country had plots leased for 100 yrs, then they were reused but don't remember if that was Germany. Betty FL For all the latest News, please visit our Homepage: http://www.germanyroots.com Please visit and participate in our new forum http://www.germanyroots.com/phpBB3/ ------------------------------- 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