Freida, This problem is not just for California but also here in Texas. My wife and I have been recording old cemeteries and graves near where we live because they are slowly fading from memory. People steal the head stones to make into coffee tables, drunks and teenagers have wild parties in the grave yards at night and knock over tomb stones and break them. Land developers clear the head stones and build over the graves; new land owners purchase the land containing old cemeteries, fence the land, allow cattle to destroy the site and then deny access by family members. On top of this, we have laws here in Texas which prohibit vandalism, destruction and denial of access but our county law officers do not enforce them and the county judges seldom bother to do their job. On top of all of these problems some are allowed to overgrow and dissapear forever. I personally feel that every county should maintain the very old sites, those having no cemetery committees, by using county inmate labor. I hope that other states are doing better by the pioneers which produced what we enjoy today. Stan Jobe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Freida Wells" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 6:16 AM Subject: [JOB] Ventura City, CA. Cemetery > California has something of a reputation for not preserving what is old. > > Tear it down and put up something new is more the prevailing philosophy. > > Below is something sent to me by a LANE cousin. This is about the Ventura City Cemetery which was located in Ventura County just north of Los Angeles. > > I'd have to say this is beyond tragic -- it's criminal > > This cemetery is now Cemetery Memorial Park. > > The City of Ventura Recorders Office might have the only known map of where the plots are, a list of who was buried there and when they were buried. > > When the city closed the cemetery and sent notices to the families that they were closing it.....some people were notified too late. > > They closed the cemetery and those that were left buried there "stayed." > > All the headstones were removed to the land fill and destroyed. > > This from the Ventura Co. CA GENWEB site. > > Freida Wells > [email protected] > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger > > > ==== JOB Mailing List ==== > Not an Andrew Job Sr (1620-1699)descendant, then see: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajobebrown/jobe/notandrew.html > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >