I don't find it all surprising except that they don't reuse the graves presently., This is common practice here in the United States. I was told by the people at St Mary's cemetery in Port Chester, NY that there are three spots available currently. I had called to verify which relatives were interred and was stunned to learn that a great-aunt who died in 1988 was buried with her parents who died beginning 1920! I asked if she made a mistake with Margaret's burial date (there were two, my ggrandmother and her daughter). That is when she told me that after so many years you can place another body in the grave due to settling. I don't know if they dig up the old remains or not though. Denise

They do not dig up old remains in any area cemeteries that I know of. My olderst son is buried with his grandparents here in Dutchess County. There was enough room in their double plot for his urn between their caskets. They adored him and he them and would have been thrilled to share eternity together. Note that I said ETERNITY.....not just until some idiot comes up with a harebrained scheme to dig them up and separate them. My above example of grave sharing is not in any way the same as burying STRANGERS with family members whose plots we have paid for and hold deeds too. Bottom line....... it is land that we own and should have a right to "hold forever" as all deeds state here in NYS. Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Denise Jones" <gtr96@comcast.net> To: "Nywestch@Rootsweb.Com" <nywestch@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 7:22 AM Subject: [NYWESTCH] Reuse d Graves >I don't find it all surprising except that they don't reuse the graves >presently., This is common practice here in the United States. I was told >by the people at St Mary's cemetery in Port Chester, NY that there are >three spots available currently. I had called to verify which relatives >were interred and was stunned to learn that a great-aunt who died in 1988 >was buried with her parents who died beginning 1920! I asked if she made a >mistake with Margaret's burial date (there were two, my ggrandmother and >her daughter). That is when she told me that after so many years you can >place another body in the grave due to settling. I don't know if they dig >up the old remains or not though. > Denise > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message