More and more cemeteries are going with flat-to-the ground headstones. They are more economical to create and it’s easier to maintain the landscaping around them.
But they sink into the soil beneath them.
And grass grows over them.
And the names are lost to us, sometimes forever.
A sinking headstone in St. Adalbert’s Cemetery, Niles Illinois
Every fall when we visit the final resting place of my 2nd great-grandparents, we have to dig out their headstone.
This is their neighbor to the left after just one year:
Sinking headstone in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago Illinois
And their neighbor to the right? Completely underground:
Sunken headstone in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago Illinois
So sad; headstones – and the genealogical information they contain – lost to future generations because time buried them underground.
where2look4ancestors 
This is sad. So many are like this. You pay for the spot and marker, if the family isn’t alive anymore, the cemetaries should have someone on duty to pick these stones up when they are sinking. That’s the right thing to do.
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That is sad.
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Isn’t it? If everyone cleaned up just one a week…. :o)
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It’s so true. Is this isn’t ok with you, please delete my comment from here on. I thought I’d share with you a link to a post I put up not too long ago on my other blog about headstones at a cemetery in Toronto. Take a look at the pic in the middle where so many stones are falling over! http://writersite.org/2015/11/02/our-cemeteries/
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Your post was wonderful – I am thankful you shared it with me. It feels so disrespectful to the dead (and tears at my heart) that we let cemeteries fall to ruins like this. Thank you for sharing your lovely post.
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I’m so glad you liked reading it. But, yes, it’s unimaginable that it’s been left that way. I don’t understand it. Surely there is a group taking care of it–the grass is cut, for instance.
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