The Experiment Continues!

Ok. This headstone cleaning stuff is hard work for OFFs (Old, Fat, Far...). Fortunately the day and weather conspired to make the odds in our favor. Cool, light breeze, overcast (sunny would have been nicer) - not bad.

First stop was Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta and the family plot with TW's paternal Great Grandparents and Great-Great Grandparents along with a few other kin including a distant cousin who passed as an infant. The Great-Greats have full size slab markers so those are going to be a pain. The infant has a slightly ornate memorial clearly from the late Victorian era. All the others are basic granite markers.

Walter and Margaret - the Great Grands

A Great-Grand Uncle

A 1st Cousin, Twice removed. This child posed a big question in TW's family as no one knew who she was until the extended family tree was traced. 

The 2nd Great-Grands. Winzor Campr purchased the original plot in the late 1800s.

Nothing has been done to any of these markers in the past 57 years for certain, and possibly never since they were originally installed. We know the 57 year period as the last interment was in 1963, and TW's grandmother and father were responsible for the lot since then and until her father formally transferred power of attorney for it to her a few years back.

So that was everything before we did any cleaning. For these stones we opted for the "fast results" approach: Wet, apply D/2, wait a bit, scrub, rinse.

We did do some work to expose the edges of the flat stones - remove any accumulated soil and such from the stone edges.

Working on the smaller stones was relatively easy. Those big ones, though, were a PAIN in the BACK! Watching videos for D/2 you see the people using pump sprayers to  apply it. We were not so keen to buy one just for this so opted to reserve the one sprayer on hand for water application and relegate the D/2 to a hand pump spray bottle. This was great for small stones. Not so much for the large ones. Not by far. But we made it work!

I will not lie. We were stunned by the results.

Surprise! Her name is Lillian, not Jillian as recorded in Find A Grave. Yes, a correction has been submitted.

Rather a nice improvement, if I do say. As with prior cleanings, these should continue to improve with time.

From there we took a long, meandering drive making a stop to update the GPS coordinates for one of her 2nd Great Uncles in Hollywood Cemetery. Turns out that she has a 1st Cousin Thrice Removed, daughter of that 2nd Great Uncle, and her husband and child in the cemetery as well!

Hollywood has multiple sections, only some of which are Perpetual Care. The older sections, one of which is where TW's kin rest, is sadly NOT in the area under care. These uncared for areas are several acres in total. And there are some substantial hills involved - seriously, I would NOT want to have to conduct a burial in some of these sections even when they were new and pristine. The only places I have ever seen that are comparably ugly are some of the hillside graves of Mother's family in West Virginia. Oy! Mountain Goats would love the place. Tragically there are sections where headstones, monuments, walls, and such are literally falling or fallen due to erosion.

No cleaning was planned here, Just GPS updates.

But I had to take some establishing photos.

One section of Hollywood that is separated from the others by a main road. These additional shots give an idea of how abandoned the non-perpetual care areas are.

If it isn't clear in the image, the grave in the center is seriously deeply sunken - as in 2 to 3 feet deep sunken!

A child's grave with a little stone girl holding a scroll giving the child's name and dates.

The headstone in the center is TW's 2nd Great Uncle and Aunt. We did not know about their daughter and husband at the time. They would logically be marked by the fallen stone to the left. The granddaughter's small marker is barely visible to the right of the center marker, between it and the wall, right in line with the sapling.

This is what remains of the road leading to some of the old, unmaintained sections.

Careful looking will see headstones and walls atop the hill, to the right of the middle tree.

The hills are festooned with graves. Most are barely visible.

 

Would but that I had the funds to restore the cemetery. This site alone would easily need over $100,000. Probably much more.

From there we headed over to Crest Lawn Cemetery for more of her people and a difference D/2 experiment.

This time we are trying the 'long game'. No scrubbing, no rinsing. Apply and leave.

We took the time to clear away the edges and brushed off the debris. After that we applied the D/2 and left. Let's give it a few weeks then go back and see what is to be seen.

And lastly, seeing as how we were a couple of hundred yards away, we stopped at Casey's Hill Cemetery and did the same experiment - spray and walk away - for a couple of MY distant kin. I didn't grab any photos so stole these from Find A Grave.

Now to let time and the elements do their thing.