# How Do They Correct A Headstone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909 "2009-07-22T21:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/1 "2009-07-22T21:26:13Z")
Suppose I get a head stone and they carve the wrong date on it. So it says Marxxx 1964 - 2071 (I’m optimistic at this point) But then afterwords I found out that I really didn’t die Dec 31, 2071 but January 1st 2072 so I get someone on Earth to fix it. Do they just grind the old date off, repolish it and then carve it in? If they did this wouldn’t make some of the letters deeper in? So do they just grind off the entire thing and start over? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/2 "2009-07-22T22:03:18Z")
Assuming there is someone down here to pay for the correction . . . it might be easier to just do a new stone, rather than fixing the old one . . . unless they have some sort of patch material to fill in the mistake and carve the correction. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/3 "2009-07-22T22:12:10Z")
They can fill in depressions with a patch and chisel in the new. Don’t expect the patch to blend super well either. You will notice on tombstones that are bought and finished years after the person dies the engraved death date doesn’t match the original text style perfectly. Very often it’s less deep too. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/4 "2009-07-22T22:15:10Z")
You get to be a zombie for a day, then they put you down again – accuracy achieved! (You don’t want to know what happens if they get the date too early. Time travel paradoxes and all…) ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/5 "2009-07-22T22:19:56Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Suppose I get a head stone and they carve the wrong date on it. > > So it says > > Marxxx > 1964 - 2071 > > (I’m optimistic at this point) > > But then afterwords I found out that I really didn’t die Dec 31, 2071 but January 1st 2072 so I get someone on Earth to fix it. > > Do they just grind the old date off, repolish it and then carve it in? If they did this wouldn’t make some of the letters deeper in? So do they just grind off the entire thing and start over? > > Thanks Am I missing something? Why would you put in a date before it was known for sure? That can be left uncarved until afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/6 "2009-07-22T22:20:10Z")
It’s amazing what can be done with crushed granite and epoxy. A while back, a shopping mall near my office changed names. The name was carved into stone and gold-leafed. Wasn’t too traumatic for someone to grind that out, fill it in with patch material, polish the area then carve and leaf the new name. Of course, this was a roughly 6x6 foot square slab of stone that was part of a building. Swapping out the piece with an uncarved and matching stone would have been challenging. For a grave marker, it probably is easier to say “Oh, we’ll fix that!” and just carve a new stone. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/7 "2009-07-22T22:24:39Z")
Are your relatives really going to spend money to change the date by a day? I know my relatives wouldn’t. They’d think it was funny. I have some in-laws who might get the monument seller to fix it for free. A couple of them can be very persistent consumers. But that’s assuming that the seller got the name wrong. If they were provided with the incorrect date: no freebies for you. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/8 "2009-07-22T23:23:58Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Marxxx > 1964 - 2071 As another strictly hypothetical example, what if the engravers left off a character in the middle of your name? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/9 "2009-07-23T01:25:07Z")
I got the idea from reading old articles about the turn of the century. Like when people had checks that said \_\_\_\_\_\__ **19** _ I do know people buy headstones and tombstones and carve them in advance so they get everything like it is and they just carve the death date in last. So I go to thinking about someone who carved 19\_\_ and lived past 2000 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/10 "2009-07-23T01:43:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > . . it might be easier to just do a new stone, rather than fixing the old one . . That’s what I’d have thought. Aren’t they mostly machine produced now anyway, using laser etching? That was certainly the case with my father’s headstone a couple of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/11 "2009-07-23T01:46:44Z")
I’m afraid it’s set in stone. ---
**Author:** ![missouri65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@missouri65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missouri65)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/12 "2009-07-23T04:08:45Z")
This actually happened in my family. It was a double headstone, and when the spouse died, they used a different font for the date. When I was told about it, I didn’t understand what the big deal was. It actually looked pretty bad, though. It was replaced free of charge, as it was their mistake. No real fight or persistence necessary after they saw it. I understood it to be a completely new stone. It certainly looks like one. There is absolutely no evidence of any patching or regrinding. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/13 "2009-07-23T12:26:50Z")
They probably will not do it. Unless you wanted to pay that is. My great grandmother’s stone is like this, except they made a mistake of 5 years on her birth date. She was born in 1904, the engraver put down 1909. I saw the original invoice and saw someone had misread it, they obviously didn’t correct it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/14 "2009-07-23T13:57:38Z")
My dad’s been secretary-treasurer of his local cemetery association since the Kennedy Administration, and I’ve seen a lot of headstones over the years. I’ve never seen a good-looking “corrected” one, although I’m sure they did their best. Better just to get a new stone, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/15 "2009-07-23T14:01:33Z")
Didn’t Mike Nesmith’s mom invent white out for granite? ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/16 "2009-07-23T14:56:40Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Am I missing something? Why would you put in a date before it was known for sure? That can be left uncarved until afterwards. As a couple people mentioned, it happened more when people got plots and burial stones prepared closer to Y2K. So there were a lot of stones that looked like: John Smith 1909-1988 Beloved Husband to Beloved Wife Jennifer Jones Smith 1911-19\_\_ But Jennifer lives on in her 90s. Other times you may have cases where the stone was correctly carved. But beloved wife, Jennifer, re-married and is now going to be buried next to Husband #2 or else has decided to be buried as Jennifer Jones Smith Parker. Or Jennifer, who has never been comfortable as a woman, finally decides to transition and becomes Jason. Stuff can happen to make pre-carved headstones inaccurate. Our family plot has stones from several generations. The headstones are all identical until my dad’s generation at which time the headstone style was no longer available. I kind of think my dad’s headstone looks out of place (it’s bigger than all the others). They left a blank space for my mom, but didn’t carve a thing. Besides, she said it would be creepy to see her name on her own headstone (although she was talked into dancing on her own grave doing a Michael Jackson zombie shuffle). ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_of_Lucan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/17 "2009-07-23T17:44:20Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > But then afterwords I found out that I really didn’t die Dec 31, 2071 but January 1st 2072 so I get someone on Earth to fix it. I’m still trying to get my head round this bit. You find out after your death that they made an error. You come back from the dead, to discuss with someone about getting it fixed. If you can work miracles, why can’t you fix a simple thing like a gravestone, with just a click of your fingers? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/18 "2009-07-23T17:49:12Z")
They had to do a new stone for my uncle - they transposed digits in the birth year. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/19 "2009-07-23T22:06:06Z")
One way to fix it would be to grind out a rectangular recess to a depth just a little more than the depth of the engraving, then polish and re-engrave the whole inscription - it could be made to look like it was always meant to be that way - text carved inside a recess. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909/20 "2009-07-23T22:08:22Z")
Alternatively, use a diamond bandsaw to cut the stone into two slices (like bread), then flip them around and cement them together with the text facing inwards, polish the cut surfaces and re-engrave. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-correct-a-headstone/503909.md?page=2)