Dear Listers and Members of the Marin County Genealogical Society: With our upcoming October special meeting at the Cemetery, I thought this article would be of particular interest. Happy Trails, Lauren MarinGenSoc List Admin ......... The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com. ......... - Gravestone Rubbing Methods Making a "rubbing" of an ancestor's tombstone can produce a family heirloom. However, older tombstones are so fragile that you should never create rubbings. Even newer stones can be easily damaged if the rubbings are not done properly. My preference is to take photographs instead. However, even the simple act of photography creates controversy! Some years ago it was a common practice to fill the depressions on a tombstone with shaving cream to increase contrast and readability in a photograph. Now the experts tell us that some shaving creams contain chemicals that can damage tombstones. Some other "experts" claim that this is nonsense. So who can you believe? I'd vote for the people at the Association for Gravestone Studies. These folks know tombstones! They study the history as well as the chemistry, the environment, and other factors that influence old tombstones. They are also experts in the photography techniques required to capture tombstones on film. You can read a lot of information about preserving old tombstones and more at the Gravestone Studies site at: http://www.gravestonestudies.org/faq.htm