Sunday, April 3, 2022

Before you clean up that tombstone...

 


...ask yourself, does it have to be cleaned?  Do I have a right to clean it? Do I want to be the person who destroys the tombstone?

Cookie is going down this rabbit hole because what used to be the history buff and genealogy nut thing to do is evidently becoming a "Pinterest" hobby for many people. 

And that scares Cookie. 

I have been a genealogy buff (aka nut) for 45 years, and in those 45 years I have seen too many examples of the "best of intentions gone horribly wrong."  Over time, preservation and conservation techniques change, evolve, and too often than naught, get discarded. 

And with the explosion of internet access, messages boards, Instagram, Facebook, Bloggr (yes, I know), and social media, there are way too many people watching videos and crowning themselves experts.   And many, many, many of these self-educated experts are doing real damage in our graveyards and cemeteries. 

It wasn't even forty years ago that people advocated tombstone rubbings as a way to preserve the writing on tombstones.  "Look!" they said, pointing at papers that they had dropped over stones.  "I'm persevering history!" 

But they weren't.  They were adding to the abrasion damage caused by chalking and crayons being scraped across the face of gravestones, which accelerated the decay.   Don't do it!

About three weeks ago, an attendee at RootsTech, the world's largest genealogy conference - which was free again and virtual this year - was pointing to all sorts of horribly abrasive and damaging technics that they claimed to learn about cleaning tombstones and then advocated making rubbings!

No. No. No, NO!

So if you find yourself with a bad case of the Tombstone Twitch, my best advice is as follows: 

1) Stop.  Seriously, don't act.  Don't do anything.  Really.  

2) Ask yourself "do I really need to do this?"  Are you the best person to do this? Are you professionally trained or self-trained?  Or are you just someone who watched a video and thinks that this is too simple to screw up?   Trust me, you'll screw this up.

3) Does the stone need to be just read, or is it imperative that it must be cleaned?  Many stones need to be recorded, but not all stones must be cleaned.

4) Should I be cleaning this stone?  Is that your family member?  Do you have the input of all of the people descended from that person and they have all given you all of the permissions needed?

5)  Can I afford this?  Can you afford the right tools? Can I afford a professional restoration should this stone break or be damaged?

6) What are the laws regarding this?  Did you even think that cleaning a stone could be classified as vandalism?  Will the cemetery association allow you to clean a stone?  If the stone is in a rural cemetery, is it owned by a local government?  Are you trespassing to get to the stone if its a private cemetery?

7) You've decided that the family has abandoned tending to the grave, or have they? Are you assuming, or do you know for certain?

8) Can you afford the correct tools?  Do you have the money for the soft brushes, the D2, the distilled water to rinse the stone?  (Never rinse a stone in chlorinated water!)

So...

Cookie's bottom line: do NOT clean a stone unless you have received proper training, do not assume anything, and understand that even the slightest mistake could be destroying history for future generations.  

And one other thing to think of - do you remember that woman in Europe who destroyed a fragile fresco of Jesus with her handiwork?  You don't want to be her.  Seriously.  No.  And it is not funny, it is not that no one cares.  She ruined a piece of work with the best of intentions and it went horribly wrong because she didn't know what she was doing.  

Don't be that person, OK?

In other words, don't clean that stone unless it's got your name on it. 

10 comments:

  1. I can honestly say it has never crossed my mind to clean a gravestone, nor even visit one, for any purpose whatsoever. Your stones are safe with me. Jx

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  2. I hate cleaning the house, so a tombstone is far FAR down the list.

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  3. Thank you, Cookie. For years, I've been mulling over how best to clean a family stone from the 1880s. Actually, it's not so much of a cleaninig that it needs, as a method of making the names and dates more visible, as they've faded so much.

    There is so much conflicting information on the Internet about how to do this. So I stopped, and did nothing, as I see you've suggested.

    But the dilemma remains. I don't know who to contact to do this sort of work. What title do they use for themselves so I can even begin to look for them? And how do I know they're professional? Any thoughts?

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    1. Without seeing the stone and evaluating it, its hard. But if the intrgity of the facing is solid (not gritty, or sugared) follow these instructions and start with the least instrusive method. So 1) Wash gently with distilled water and no contact. What I recommend is a hand pump sprayer with the sprayer nozzle on the finest softest mist, like you find at garden centers, filled with distilled water (its pure) and see what comes off naturally. Then 2) after its dried, come back with more distilled water, a soft natural bristle household paint brush (new in the factory packaging) and some pop sickle sticks that have been soaking in water and carefully work on the lichens, and rinse. Remember, you should be removing the lichens, not scraping on the stone. Rinse well with with the fine mist. Let dry, reevaluate. THEN, if their is still mold and other biological stuff gunking up the stone, move to D2, and watch some of the excellent videos online that professionals make. Just remember, rinse gently. What I like about D2 is that it continues to clean after you use it. So just focus on the spraying, using the brush to move it gently about, scrape the lichens, not the stone, rinse, and come back to it in a week or so. But no scrubbing, no caustic chemicals, not tap water (which has chlorine and added mineral to improve taste) and be gentle, like you are bathing a new born. Repeat the cycle if needed.

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    2. Thank you for your advice and instructions, Cookie.

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  4. I have a a little plaque with my name on it. I pretend I won something :) Kizzes.

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  5. The resting places for the Dead should be shown proper reverence and left alone. And like Bob, I hate housekeeping so everyone's Tombstones are safe from me getting busy trying to clean the dirt of the Ages.

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    1. Ah yes. The problem is that molds are acidic. So they can blacken and destroy the stone. So I advise, use that you use your best judgement. And if it isn't yours, leave it alone.

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  6. WOW! I had no idea that gravestone rubbings were so destructive! I think your last line sums the whole thing up completely, sweetpea! xoxo

    "In other words, don't clean that stone unless it's got your name on it."

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  7. One of our in house productions over covid: https://youtu.be/4XfRm0AIy14

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