Posted on 05/25/2018 7:44:47 AM PDT by dirtboy
I’ve never heard of a situation where access to a cemetery wasn’t allowed, even the old ones.
Part and parcel (pun intended) of getting land w/burials.
Access doesn’t mean folks can wander willy-nilly all around your property. They can go to site directly.
In that situation, I’d put a fence around it and a path leading to it, but I’m a cemetery-friendly person. I actually considered buying a lot once, that had an old family cemetery on it. Thought it would be neat. Something to research, etc..
We’re planning on being buried on our property. Heck, if my wife dies first I’ll just bury her and send an email to the kids. (hyperbole) Hmmm, maybe I could keep getting the SS payments. :)
My wife got in a lot of hot water with her parents in law when her first husband died at age 27. She honored his wishes and, after he was cremated, scattered the ashes on a cascade mountain foot trail. She couldn’t find the site now if her life depended on it.
My wife and I are very old school and a bit anarchist when it comes to our bodies. God, not the state, gave us them. If I die and my wife wants to thrown my body on a bonfire, that’s nobody’s business but hers. Same if she dies first and I throw the body in a pit and bury it. The body is nothing after you die. It is an irrelevance.
But then, I’m coming from a Christian perspective. Non-Christians may see it differently.
They never fully forgave her.
I would grant permission, if asked, but with some mutually-agreed restrictions on frequency, duration, and timing. If the first I heard was a lawsuit, I would fight to the death to block such a predatory person from any access to my property. People who file suits before talking with neighbors are dangerous and not to be trusted.
The cemetery is obviously landlocked. Landlocked parcels come with an automatic access easement to a public highway. It’s happened thousands of times. It’s not a question of “taking” at all. It’s going to get thrown out.
So after not being interested for at least 40 odd years, this is suddenly a burning issue for Vail?
We don’t know wen the 85 yr old Mr Vail found the burial record.
Was working on an estate. The old man died in 1840 and there was an existing cemetery on the property. When it was divided between the heirs (1841), the wife got 34 acres (1/3) and it contained this little cemetery. The cemetery was NOT even mentioned in the deed.
The bounds of the cemetery weren't defined until 1905....about 100 x 300....Access was by an old path between the highway and the cemetery....and there was nothing in the 1905 deed about access. And yet, it always existed and still does.
This really is a conundrum and sounds like it’s just two grumpy old people butting heads. ;-)
ALL cemeteries have visitation rules etc etc...
This is NOT a "taking" case per se. It's the right to access a landlocked property.
As it should be.
The outcome will be interesting.
If you come on this ranch without our permission under the claim that you wish to visit your ancestors then you will be joining them.
This issue came up in MA recently. Court found for the plaintiffs. No private rights to old cemetery on private land.
My comment to you was dripping with sarcasm. Reverence for human remains predate Christianity, to wit Romans and Jews certainly, but Neaderthals and most pre historic societies did it as well. Who built the Roman catacombs with Christian burials? The municipal sanitary brigade? All early Christians adopted the traditions of their society whether Roman, Eygptian, Jewish, Celts, etc. Christian graves very early on became unique within local tradition and Christian grave are easily recognized when discovered.
Massachusetts objects to private property rights across the board so their ruling is no big surprise.
You want public access to your ancestors then bury them on public land (or land with access rights), or retain an easement when you sell the property. After a few generations thousands could claim access the private property.
I’ve got four private family cemeteries in my family, three of them all under one surname, mine. There’s the active one dating to the Civil War era, the second one which is inactive and the third one which is inactive and dating to the colonial era. The colonial era one has several Revolutionary War veterans buried in it, but the town grew away from it, the road was moved, the land fell out of descendants’ hands in the Depression. It’s been interesting to get it maintained and to prevent looting or vandalism., even though the law in NC is favorable to descendants having a right to visit family burial sites regardless of where they’re situated or who currently holds title to the land. There should have been an easement recorded in this instance, that runs with the deed as the property is sold and changes hands. And, maintenance of the easement falls to the descendants, not to the property owner. Only obligation on the property owner is to not obstruct access and not damage or alter the graveyard. One family burying ground of mine is so old the road doesn’t go anywhere near it anymore. That one is back in the woods and a pretty good hike to get to. We try to clean them all up for Easter and try to maintain them but old marble tombstones will eventually erode and break. Big expense to replace, so they’re often not replaced.
I guess I’m the sentimentalist.
I know the gravesite does not contain the person I remember. But it is a tangible, physical reminder of them. A place on earth dedicated — on earth, where I knew them — to them and to our memories of them.
I don’t go there in the illusion that they are there. But I know that I am.
And Christians have historically been as devoted to the respectful preservation of human remains as anyone. Christ Himself was honorably interred, even though He had no intention of staying long.
We have had a problem with unrelated, unknown individuals turning up buried in our active private family cemetery. The funeral services are supposed to contact to make certain they’re entitled to be buried there but they don’t always. What are we supposed to do, spend money to dig them up? So they’re there. Like cowbirds.
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