In late October, 2025, I joined a group of people in Oak Grove Cemetery in Wyandotte County, Kansas, to learn now to clean headstones. The program was hosted by the Wyandotte County Historical Museum, and there were folks from the county Parks and Rec Department to show us what to do. It was chilly and overcast, but never got around to raining. I had a great time. I worked on a headstone that may have been provided by the Woodmen of the World group. It looked like the stump of a tree with a double trunk, a style I had not seen before. Checking later on Find a Grave, I learned it was for a mother and daughter. The cemetery hosts programs like this to help with the maintenance of the cemeteries. While they have the personnel and equipment for the big jobs, like mowing and tree maintenance, cleaning individual headstones is more than they can manage.
As we were leaving, I passed a table the Museum had set up with pamphlets and other information about their programs. I took one entitled “Trespassers Beware! Fort Conley and Wyandot Women Warriors”. It briefly told the story of three sisters who protected a Native American burial ground, when it was threatened with destruction. Their parents and older sister were interred there, along with other members of their tribe. Their fight and determination let to federal legislation to protect Native burial grounds, which was passed in 1913. The Wyandot National Burial Ground is not too far from where I spent the morning cleaning a headstone.
I was hoping to learn more cemeteries and their upkeep, so I searched for library books. One I found, which was not exactly what I was looking for, but resonated with the Conley sisters’ story, was “Cemetery Citizens: reclaiming the past and working for justice in American burial grounds”, by Adam Rosenblatt. This book is mainly about cemeteries which are mainly comprised of African American burials. He talks about several specific ones, and how they have been marginalized and neglected. Neglected by the city and state they are in, not necessarily the descendants. This book tells of the people who have tried to reclaim, with varied success, these sacred spaces. Many burials and markers have been damaged, destroyed, or lost in the undergrowth.
If this was your family, how would you research them? I am fortunate in that I know where my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents are buried. I know where about half of my 2nd GG’s are buried, and it gets a little more complicated after that. One ancestor may have been interred at her son’s farm. But for the ones that I do know the location of, they are all in well-maintained cemeteries, most of which are still active. My father even helped with the creation of the Veteran’s Cemetery where he and Mom now reside. I hope to use my new-found knowledge to keep their headstone in good shape. And I will keep looking for the ones I haven’t found yet. I would like to help others find their ancestors as well.