They bulldozed our cemetery...what can I do?

Question

Back in June of 1983 our old cemetery here in Plattsburgh NY was bulldozed...completely devastated...headstones buried, broken and lost! What can I do to make them restore it? You can read about it on this website: freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~frgen/clinton/clintonindex.htm..under Plattsburgh Old Roman Catholic Cemetery across from old barracks. Please help me fix this...my great grandfather was buried there and I can't find him!

They did not build over it..just leveled it due to miscommunication between the priest (who was out of town) and the contractor. Only a small portion next to the cemetery was to be cleared. Now it is just an empty lot.

Answer 1

There is a fiduciary responsibility between the diocese and the descendents of the deceased. Clearly that was breached. There are other examples of this, including my hometown where they claimed that they relocated the bodies to another cemetery, but in reality the coffins were too old and decayed, so they left the bodies and paved over the cemetery. Suits can come anytime after the damage has been discovered by the legal descendents of the deceased. If you just found out about it, you have a cause of action, even after 24 years.

The law in most states makes the diocese (who owns the parish and all other Catholic properties, except for those belonging to specific denominations like the Jesuits or Sisters of Mercy) responsible for damages if they fail to live up to their obligation. I don't believe there's anything remotely resembling a statute of limitations for breaching their fiduciary responsibility. Since you are the direct descendent of someone whose grave was desecrated by the church's contractor, contact a good contract attorney and challenge the diocese to repair the damage via a lawsuit. They do have liability insurance and should be forced to replace all of the headstones and repair the damage to the cemetery. Time delays don't make the desecration acceptable...especially from a religious organization.

Answer 2

Contact your local genealogical society or the Historical Society and work with them. The Historic Society may be the best since they are already familiar with State laws for your area. If you have a Landmark Association (they help to save old buildings and historical locations), you might also talk with them for information on how to handle this.

What I find unusual is that Any contractor would do something like this, knowing there are laws to protect cemeteries (so that makes the contractor negligent even if the church had said to do this) so it's possible, once you get the legal end of things going, your group needs to approach them and try to get them to agree to pay for new markers for all the graves ~ if not, let them know you will see them in court.

Check on records at the church and see if they have a record of everyone that was buried there. It might be a good idea to scan and burn those on CD so you have a record of your own and can print up the records for future use. You may also have to spend alot of hours scanning records at the Court House in order to find out who all is buried there.

It will take quite a bit of time but hopefully you will be able to find others who are willing to help so you can spread the various jobs and not tax one person too much.

There are many places where folks are going to cemeteries and recording all the names in them and some are taking pictures and including those on their sites so others have access to them. I have listed the link from back home to give you an idea what can be done.

Good luck ~ sure hope you can get this taken care of somehow.

Answer 3

as far as I know there isn't to much you can do unless your willing to spend alot of money and time to press your point upon the people who did this or now own the property.You can always contact your local Congressman or Senator. I also have had this happen in my family the Buffington cemetery in Ohio was flatten with all headstones thrown into a ditch fortantly some family members found some of these stones underneath a farmers house he had used them to shore up his foundation we removed them and brought them back to Iowa to were most of his sons are buried to save the headstones but yes it does bother me to think that people can be so cold to the dead and to know that my ancestor is still buried in that ground be walked over and no one paying any respect to the remains of the dead. It may be that all you can do is mark the place or field in your records so at least future generations will know the area were he is buried but won't have a place to stand and pay there respects.Sorry, God Bless.

Answer 4

That's awful, I can't believe that something like that could happen & that nobody's done anything to fix it. What kind of a contractor would level a cemetery? That's disrespect for the dead not to mention it sounds illegal. Perhaps you could get a petition going to get cemetary restored. The church should have records as to where the grave plots and whose burried where, are so even without the stones, you should be able to find the resting place of your great grandfather.

Good luck & I hope that you can get the cemetery restored.

Answer 5

If I'm reading the New York laws governing cemeteries correctly, they were at fault if they couldn't prove they'd removed all bodies from the land. You should consider contacting an attorney to see what the options are... then, contact a city councilman or other elected official responsible for that district... If no one has fought it for 24 years, it's probably gonna be up to you to rattle their cages and make it right. The church or property owner could end up having to pay for a lengthy excavation and/or restoration project.

See below.

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/cmty/cemlaw.html

Section 1506:
(i) Sale or disposition of cemetery lands. (1) No cemetery corporation may sell or dispose of the fee of all or any part of its lands dedicated to cemetery use, unless it shall prove to the satisfaction of the supreme court in the district where any portion of the cemetery lands is located, either: (A) that all bodies have been removed from each and every part of the cemetery, that all the lots in the entire cemetery have been reconveyed to the corporation and are not used for burial purposes, and that it has no debts and liabilities, or (B) that the land to be sold or disposed of is not used or is not physically adaptable for burial purposes and that the sale or disposition will benefit the cemetery corporation and the owners of plots and graves in the cemetery, and (C) that the sale or disposition is not to a funeral entity as defined in paragraph (c) of section fifteen hundred six-a of this article. (2) If the sale or disposition is made pursuant to subparagraph (A) of subdivision one of this paragraph, the cemetery shall satisfy the court that it is in the public interest to dispose of such cemetery land in the manner proposed; that the subject land is not suitable for cemetery purposes or is no longer needed by the community for such cemetery uses or purposes; and that the subject land is being sold for its current market value. (3) If the sale or disposition of the land is made pursuant to subparagraph (B) of subdivision one of this paragraph, the court shall order that the consideration received by the cemetery corporation, less the necessary expenses incurred, shall be deposited into the permanent maintenance fund established by the cemetery corporation pursuant to paragraph (a) of section fifteen hundred seven of this article. (4) Notice of any application hereunder shall be given to the cemetery board, to the holders of certificates of indebtedness and land shares of the cemetery corporation, and to any person interested in the proceeding pursuant to section five hundred eleven of this chapter (Petition for leave of court).

Answer 6

The link doesn't work.

Also, this was done over 20 years ago. What could have been done should have been done then. If your parents and grandparents were either unaware or didn't care to protect the cemetary then it is too late now. Whatever hope you had of restoring it was lost when the ordinance was signed to destory the location.

However, odds are that the church relocated all remains. Contact the local diocese and they should be able to tell you where the remains were moved because as someone else said, what you are claiming they did would be illegal but relocating the bodies is not.

Answer 7

Ouch. The first two things that come to mind as strategy are communicating with both that church, and the local historical society. In some areas Boy Scouts and other groups with civic ventures, even from the city jail, have even pitched in to help restore old cemeteries but this sounds extreme.

Answer 8

Call your local K.C., this is a problem and must be fiexed. If we neglect our roots we will never learn from our past. Don't let some psi fi into your head that Great Grandpa is not really dead and you might meet him at a factory town dance hall and have a nice chat over some ice cold coca-cola.
I did this over a poor young knight of the Temple named Jason and I was so flustered that he was not anyone I really was aware of that I went batty for 9 years. Until this issue is resolved commit random acts of kindness and look the other way when Baum Margera and the boys are shreddin. Love in Christ to you!

Answer 9

If you want to fix it, you will be in it for the long haul, maybe as long as being a great grandparent yourself.

Speaking from experience, local authorities will push it aside and state will plain out say it's not worth tax payers dollars to resurrect a damaged plot...let along a whole cemetery. And once you did find your g-pa's headstone, where is his body? Where is anyone's body?

Just look for your great grandfather's headstone yourself, and if you find it, forget his body and just put the headstone in a special place at home.

Answer 10

Try this site and see if his name is listed
http://home.comcast.net/~patsam33/genealogy/oneil/headstonesoneila.htm

Second thing is you can try calling or emailing

Richard D. Fishman, Director
New York State Department of State
Division of Cemeteries
41 State Street
Albany, NY 12231-0001

E-mail: Contact Us
Phone: [phone] or New York City: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

I use the one here in Maryland and they have helped me a lot