Hi all - This was posted on another list and because I thought it quite interesting (and Vee suggested to do so) I'm posting on "our" list. It is a new one to me, simply because I hadn't thought of what was done to the dead many years ago. - Evelyn "My relatives in Michigan told me that in the rural up until the 1930s & 40s, areas where small family cemeteries are the norm, the ground during frost and snow could not be dug out by hand and there was little access to very expensive machinery to do it outside the large cities. The townships and villages solved their conundrum by erecting temporary outbuildings on a farm or some other readily accessible location. They would frame the plank siding and then fill the space between the studs with sawdust. Then they went to the lake and sawed 3'x5' blocks of ices and returned them to the ice house where the ice was covered with another layer of sawdust (I can't imagine what a lousy job it was to stand there all day sawing wood for dust!) and the center of the room was where the boxed bodies rested until spring. The ice house maintained a steady temperature just above freezing and the ice lasted all season. After spring thaw the local sheriff certified that all the bodies were accounted for and they were disbursed to the families. Everyone contributed to the ice house with sweat equity so it did not cost them anything except for the legal documents. Some winters when pneumonia and infections were rampant the area would be dotted with 20 or 30 ice houses holding hundreds of bodies. If there was no one to receive the bodies after spring thaw they became property of the county and were buried in mass potters' fields unmarked. Because they were considered cast-off and no one was available to be hurt and offended, most of the potters fields of that era currently lie under roads, parks, and mass residential housing tracts. Kinda creepy like the movie Poltergeist I guess. Anyway, I just thought I'd share the stories I have. Best wishes for success with your research! Kevin O'Brien Laguna Hills, CA" From: <KevinOBrien8527@aol.com> To: <NYJEFFER-L@rootsweb.com>