Hello Everyone, Much to my dismay, my dad and I prowled around several family plots in St. Joe's Cemetary (Troy) to mark the exact locations with my GPS receiver. I also found several more stones that must've been buried by snow when I climbed around the swamp area, too. Many were overturned, though. Well in the main area I saw so many stones broken or turned over compared to my last visit in December, that I felt sick to my stomach. The cemetary looks terrible. I could not find anyone to inquire about what happened, so I am wondering if anyone on this list happened to hear anything. I wonder if anything can be done...it doesn't seem so as it looks as if some hydraulic equipment would need to be rented/purchased to attempt to fix the mess. Thanks, Brooke

Like Brooke, I was dismayed to see the number of toppled stones in St. Joseph's Cemetery. My understanding is that they had a wretched incident of vandalism on July 4th 2000 so it happened over a year ago. The headstone of one of my ancestors was knocked off its base and I will have to make arrangements to have it put upright. A few years back I had two family tombstones worked on and the caretaker at that time told me that the cemetery crew was not authorized to stand up any stones that had been knocked down unless contacted by a relative of the interred. I'm not sure this is still the policy. It would be a shame to blame the cemetery caretaker for the condition if "his hands are tied". Vandalism is a terribly senseless phenomenon and one I will never understand. Lynn