sue, thanks for your e-mail and suggestions. i do have some research to do before we can proceed. as far as i'm able to ascertain, the church was southern and/or missionary baptist, which is independent, even though there is the southern baptist convention. but each individual church is self-governed, so the sbc would not be a successor to the deed. so while i'm learning all this stuff, i'm also sending a letter to the attorney general, asking what has been done in ky with cemeteries that have lost their churches and are ownerless. i will keep this list posted (no pun intended) on what i find out. scot -----Original Message----- From: Sue Silver <ssilver1951@jps.net> To: INPCRP-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thu, 1 Sep 2005 08:32:04 -0700 Subject: Re: [INPCRP] preservation On another note, maybe the recent tax assessor's haven't taken the time to locate any original deed from the wayback-past. I tend to find a lot of laziness in government. They somehow find it easier to say something doesn't exist than to go look for it. In California, nonprofit cemeteries are exempt from taxation. Kentucky may have something like this or not so that it may not seem important to the assessor. On the other hand, if a Church owned it and left town, so to speak, there yet could be a deed on it. If you found the deed and you have a way to locate a synod or main group that Church was organized under, perhaps they would step in as successor trustees for the cemetery and sign it over to the county so that it could receive some care over the years. Especially after all the descendants of your family are gone. Sue Silver ----- Original Message ----- From: KidClerk@aol.com To: INPCRP-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 7:52 AM Subject: Re: [INPCRP] preservation Scot: It sounds like you have many obstacles to overcome on this and please keep the list updated as to your progress. But keep in mind this... I would think if you really wanted to do work in that cemetery, it would be hard for anyone to keep you from doing it. I mean, who's gonna press trespassing charges against you? :) kyle, that's what i thought, too. then i found out that it was owned by a church that closed in 1868. the church was not sold, and eventually it collapsed and someone (maybe farmers?) cleared the rubble. the courthouse says that there is no deed to the land, no record of ownership, and no taxes paid on it. i would think the land would automatically revert to either the state or county, but every state is different. i'm still trying to find out if that's true for kentucky or not. ==== INPCRP Mailing List ==== Quote from William Gladstone (1809-1897), three-time Prime Minister of England and Victorian contemporary of Benjamin Disraeli: "Show me the manner in which a nation or community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals." ==== INPCRP Mailing List ==== Blessed are the Elderly, for they remember what we will never know.