In a message dated 9/7/2005 6:00:27 P.M. US Eastern Standard Time, LindaKen2048@aol.com writes: In a message dated 9/7/2005 5:55:16 PM US Eastern Standard Time, Usa10sfgaa@aol.com writes: A cemetery we had only about 37 names for. The GPR guy marked the places where graves were most likely present with colored chalk. "Please explain more in detail the above statement". We had very limited information to go on. The old Madison county court house had a fire in it decades ago. Many of the county's oldest records were lost forever. The Cottrell cemetery had been "read" very little back through the years and in fact I can't even recall seeing a photograph of the cemetery dating earlier than the 1990's. When we took on this project, we of the cemetery commission negotiated with the land owner for a quit claim dead. The boundaries of the cemetery land deeded to the Twp. trustee were based upon the land records we had describing the cemetery and a new survey to establish what the borders were of that portion of the cemetery that still survived within the boundaries original description. Once the fence was up the Cottrell family was concerned that the quit claim deed had not placed the boundary of the cemetery far enough west. And they also wanted to more definitely define the specific locations of some of their ancestors graves to the greatest extent possible. So that family paid for a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) survey of the cemetery grounds and the ground just outside the west fence of the cemetery. GPR surveys are very expensive. Though I don't know what the final bill was, I was told that it cost the Cottrell family $300.00 per hour and I suspect that it took all day to accomplish. The GPR crew scraped the very top surface of the cemetery to remove vegetation and in order to make their equipment work most effectively. So there is more to it than just taking equipment and dragging it across the existing surface. Anyway the GPR apparently does not actually "see" remains so much as depicts disturbed soil and indicated that almost 90 holes of about the size and depth expected for a grave had been dug in that cemetery over the years. It even appears that in this cemetery there was section for infants, like some others we have seen here, including the Fausset Cemetery which is only about 2 miles further west on the same county road. The GPR crew marked the outline of each possible grave with lines of colored chalk as used on football fields, etc. I was informed late in the afternoon that the study was done. I picked up a bunch of end cuttings of steel concrete reinforcement bar from my place of business, drove out and with the assistance of one of the Cottrell family drove those short pieces of Rebar part way into the ground where the headstone would normally be placed in order to permanently mark the locations. Later the Twp. trustee came out and drove the rods the rest of the way into the ground and marked the locations of the known graves we had damaged or fractured markers for and those where the Cottrell family had designated as the most likely locations of their ancestors with little survey flags. These are what we used for reference when we replaced the headstones that had not been damaged or needed reset. Headstones, and even bases, that were still in good condition were left in place and worked around during the whole process. Hope I answered your question. Regards, Rob Hains