The National Post reports that condo buyers in Toronto, Canada are paying a premium to have a condo overlooking a cemetery.

Apparently, all the condos overlooking parks and other beautiful scenery are all taken up. So, folks have found that having a view of a cemetery is just as serene and beautiful.

But not just any cemetery, only those that are filled up. The newer cemeteries often have backhoes digging out plots.

Mr. Johnston said mature cemeteries such as Mount Pleasant are the ones residents want to be next to, as opposed to active ones where burials are a regular occurrence. "They don't want to look out their window and see digging," said Mr. Johnston.

At Mount Pleasant, residents get to be near what the cemetery describes as a "park-like setting" that is home to one of North America's finest arboretums. Sculptures abound at the cemetery and, of course, there is no shortage of flowers.

The concept of the "memorial park" actually hit its "hey day" in 1800s, from about 1830 to beginning of the 1900s. The Bonaventure in Savannah, Georgia, and Mt. Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts were great examples. They were more than just park-like, almost nature-like, with ponds, trees, an assortment of flora and wildlife like rabbits, deer, and an assortment of birds. Families visited these places for picnics and social events. They also had amenities like benches, tables, fountains, even amphitheatres.

Today, most memorial parks are simply seen as cemeteries.

It's interesting that urban cemeteries are serving in another capacity, to provide great scenery. It'll perhaps help towards their own preservation.

Or should I say, "Iron Person"?

Maggie Rail, the editor of Interment.net has personally "walked" and transcribed the tombstones and sexton records of 388 cemeteries, covering several states and countries, including Canada, Australia, and the good ole USA.

About 350 of them have been published either here on Interment.net or on her personal website. The others are still being worked on.

Back in 2000, we published an interview with her.

Quite often we receive e-mail from users letting us know that they spotted an error in one of the cemetery transcriptions published here on Interment.net.

Most of the time, they're just sending us a "heads up", but there are others who insist that we change the record.

Our policy has been that we don't change these records unless we are asked to do so by the person who submitted the transcription to us. The "submitter" is almost always the person who created the transcription, though there are some instances where the "author" was someone else.

The reasons for having this policy are...

1. We recognize the transcription as being the work of the submitter, and respect their work by giving them the "right of first refusal" on all corrections. Moreover, we don't wish to act as a messenger of e-mail traffic between the submitter and the person reporting an error. If you believe you found an error, please contact the submitter.



2. Transcriptions are not "living documents" subjected to modification and correction in a public forum. They are meant to be a word-for-word copy of an original source. It's possible the original source contained the error, and got copied to the transcription. Regardless, the transcription is supposed to depict what was contained on the original source, errors and all. They are not meant to represent the truth. If we change a piece of information, then you're no longer seeing what was actually written on a tombstone or sexton record. It's your job as a genealogist to determine what the truth is.



3. We cannot verify the validity of the corrected information. When someone writes to us about an error, we cannot verify if the "correct" information actually is correct. The only person who can do this is the person who authored the transcription. Therefore, we set this policy of accepting corrections only from the submitter.

Some people have voiced concerns that the inaccurate information found in a transcription will cause problems with family histories published by amateur genealogists. Yes, knowing some amateur genealogists, that's true. But the responsibility lies with the genealogist to determine what information is accurate. Our job is to provide a place to access these transcriptions.

But that doesn't mean we publish any transcription "willy nilly". Maggie Rail, our editor, has the job of reviewing submissions for quality and thoroughness, and rejects transcriptions she feels is lacking. She has an extensive background in transcribing cemeteries, in several states and countries, and has the qualifications to make this decision.

It's because we are indeed concerned about quality that we don't accept corrections from anyone other than the submitter.

Asher Price writes an article in the Austin-American Statesman that small family graveyards, once surrounded by acres of privately owned land, now find themselves buried under the subdivisions and roadways of sprawling communities.

It's an issue that has played itself out thousands of times over, in all parts of the world. It's not so much that rising population forces the destruction of these graveyards, it's that after a hundred years, the great-great-grandchildren are unaware their ancestors are being buried under yet again.

This is perhaps why researching one's family history becomes important. It takes a forgotten name, and turns it into a familiar person again. After studying the documents and records of an ancestor, one begins to understand the legacy that he or she has inherited, and it's at that point where sentimental value is placed on such things as an old graveyard.

It's the responsibility of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to be the keepers of the family history and recite the stories and anecdotes at the dining table or around the campfire, and foster a sense of pride into the minds of their younger kin.

I also want to point out that another way to save cemeteries, if not physically, is to preserve their records. Store them in books, or store them on microfilm, or store them online. The more copies of these records that get created, the more likely they'll survive through the ages.

For the past several years now, those of us here at Interment.net have been proud to provide a place on the Internet where thousands of cemeteries can live on forever, waiting for a great-great-grandchild to rediscover them. And we plan to relish in that pride for many more years to come.

If you've thought about transcribing the records of a cemetery near you, I encourage you to do so. Read our article on Recording a Cemetery. If you like, publish it here on Interment.net, but just get it published somewhere so that people have the opportunity to use it.

Mary Norris of The Globe Pequot Press is working on an upcoming book and needs high resolution digital photographs of cemeteries and gravesites in California.

She sent me a letter asking if I knew anyone who could help her, and decided to post this here. I'll be contacting her to see if there is anything I can get for her. But perhaps you could also if you have any.

Contact her

Mary Norris
Executive Editor
The Globe Pequot Press
mary.norris@globepequot.com

Forest Lawn is celebrating 100 years of service through art, music and landscape with the debut of a new historical DVD that chronicles the history of Forest Lawn in the context of local events, cultural shifts, politics, and business.

The DVD, "Forest Lawn, The First Hundred Years," is a 36-minute film that tells the transformation of desolate land becoming the beautiful environment we know today as Forest Lawn.

The film describes how Forest Lawn became the best-known Memorial-Park in the world by combining innovative business ideas, art, and architecture to create some of the most beautiful memorial vistas in the world. The DVD allows watchers to experience countless treasures of stained glass, marble statuary, breathtaking churches, and inspired landscapes, and witness the rescuing of Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper." With this film, viewers can see the evolution of Forest Lawn through its trials and tribulations from a traditional cemetery into what is now known as the Memorial-Parks.

The DVD, priced at $14.95, will be available February 20th at the Forest Lawn Museum stores.