You can use chalk or charcoal applied directly to the stone surface as well, then take a photo. It might not have quite the same detail but is a lot less trouble and convenient to maintain. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Ferguson" <ferg@ntelos.net> To: <jberry@indy.rr.com> Cc: <OHBELMON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 6:41 AM Subject: [OHBELMON] My trip to Belmont County...using crayons? >I sure hope you didn't use crayons on the actual face of the > tombstone....that would be a REAL no no! What I do, when a stone is hard > to > read is the following....take a soft brush and remove surface dirt. Using > masking tape, I fasten a piece of banner paper (bought at any office > supply > store) across the face of the stone. Then, using a crayon (using the long > side, not the point) or rubbing wax, I rub across the face of the stone. > This covers the area of the writing with crayon and allows the areas of > the > letter indentations to show up as just white paper, often making the > unreadable, readable. I always carry with me a mailing tube with the > paper, a paint brush and some rubbing wax stuck down in it, some masking > tape and scissors to cut the paper. After the rubbing is made, I roll it > around the unused paper and stick it back in the tube. (don't ask me what > I > plan to do with them, but I have a bunch of these rubbings, all rolled in > a > large mailing tube......every once in a while I get them out and look at > them...pretty neat.) > > Sandra > > " We found our stones just as we were giving up the search. Though the > graveyard is small, the oldest stones, and ours were among them, are > severely etched and worn. After a long search in Barnesville, we > couldn't > locate chalk to highlight the inscriptions and we settled for crayons. " > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.13.20/508 - Release Date: > 10/31/2006 > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OHBELMON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.0.408 / Virus Database: 268.13.17/505 - Release Date: > 10/27/2006 > >

I hate to be a voice of dissent, but after seeing first hand the fragile state of some of the old gravestones in Belmont Co., I sure hope folks are using good hard common sense when deciding how to "read" them. I visited an ancestor's grave this past summer in the St. Clairsville Methodist Church Cemetery, and I was very sorry to see how that old red sandstone (if that's what it is) that some of the old monuments were made from, has crumbled. It just seems to flake off. My particular stone had a nice big, starkly white, bird dropping on it too, but I didn't try to wipe it off because I was afraid of causing more erosion. The cemetery book had mentioned a repair on the stone that obliterated part of the date, but it was actually just a spot where the facing had crumbled away. ANY sort of touching would cause more erosion on many of those old stones. So please, please folks, be very cautious and err on the side of NOT touching when in doubt. Even tape can be destructive, as can rubbing over paper with a pencil. My husband took the best pictures he could and has worked on making them clear back at home with his Adobe Photoshop - not a perfect solution, but one that does no further harm to the stone. Joanne Gaudio

I have never tried this ,but a friend of mine tried shaving cream sprayed on the stone and than wiped off leaving the white in the recessed areas. It worked very well and apparently it wipes off with the spray bottle of water which they bring along. I dont know about that technique either. I think the best hing to do is to get the photo and contact the church or cemetery sexton to get the records and give you the info from that. I have had great succes doing it that way. Randi Joanne Gaudio <jgaudio@charter.net> wrote: I hate to be a voice of dissent, but after seeing first hand the fragile state of some of the old gravestones in Belmont Co., I sure hope folks are using good hard common sense when deciding how to "read" them. I visited an ancestor's grave this past summer in the St. Clairsville Methodist Church Cemetery, and I was very sorry to see how that old red sandstone (if that's what it is) that some of the old monuments were made from, has crumbled. It just seems to flake off. My particular stone had a nice big, starkly white, bird dropping on it too, but I didn't try to wipe it off because I was afraid of causing more erosion. The cemetery book had mentioned a repair on the stone that obliterated part of the date, but it was actually just a spot where the facing had crumbled away. ANY sort of touching would cause more erosion on many of those old stones. So please, please folks, be very cautious and err on the side of NOT touching when in doubt. Even tape can be destructive, as can rubbing over paper with a pencil. My husband took the best pictures he could and has worked on making them clear back at home with his Adobe Photoshop - not a perfect solution, but one that does no further harm to the stone. Joanne Gaudio ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHBELMON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Randi Bowles-Meentzen

I've done the shaving cream too, and it works well....but, some folks even feel that this method shouldn't be used. (However, I once asked an acquaintance, a geologist, if this could be harmful to a headstone. After giving me the "are you crazy?" look, he said that he didn't see how anything that didn't harm the skin could harm stone...I explained that I flooded it off with water, after 'reading' it. ) Good luck with church sextants and extant records....believe me, they are often as scarce as hen's teeth. If these records were always and readably available we wouldn't have to struggle to decipher headstones! Many of our ancestors are buried in abandoned and/or private plot cemeteries, with no hope of a record anywhere. Sandra "I have never tried this ,but a friend of mine tried shaving cream sprayed on the stone and than wiped off leaving the white in the recessed areas. It worked very well and apparently it wipes off with the spray bottle of water which they bring along." I think the best hing to do is to get the photo and contact the church or cemetery sexton to get the records and give you the info from that. I have had great succes doing it that way." -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.13.20/508 - Release Date: 10/31/2006