At 18:32 11.06.05 -0500, you wrote: > This issue needs to be addressed. If you can't find who you are > looking for in the Alamo Masonic Cemetery, this may be why. I am sure > this has happened to other cemeteries and am not fussing at the Masons. >G. Winters >======================================================= >What do you do when you discover missing graves in a roadway? This >afternoon I was dowsing for graves in Strangers' Row, and the police >officer on duty was somewhat doubtful of my method. Most people are, but I >learned about it thru a mailing list, and it works, even worked several >years ago for Mamma who thought I had truly lost my mind, hid in the car. > >I figured the officer had the heart for it, so I handed him the dowsers >and they worked right away. We were horrified to see the dowser keep going >as he walked across the road. Then we realized the original path must have >only been 6 feet wide, not a road at all. The officer got a call that >somebody was trying to jump off the railroad bridge so he had to leave, >but another gentleman showed up (the one who has now donated the website >to the cemetery, he does that for a living) and we continued the search. >To our horror, we have discovered that all of the "roads" except for the >main one thru the center, were originally paths. There are graves under >one side road that is paved. I have no idea how wide the main road really >is. These are all roads within the cemetery, not the public streets. > Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can identify these truly > forgotten people? What records do I look for? Where? I would think before one started to think there are graves there ground penetrating radar should be use because it works and dowing has never held up in any controlled study. For GPR to locate graves. http://www.savinggraves.org/education/bookshelf/gpr.htm and example of it's use in grave location http://www.archaeophysics.com/burials/index.html The failure of dowsing to met statistical validation: http://www.csicop.org/si/9901/dowsing.html Homo vult decipi; decipiatur. http://www.lysator.liu.se/~rasmus/skepticism/dowsing.html