# Straight Dope Cemetery Answers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 24, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187 "2007-06-24T03:20:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rsixftunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@rsixftunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsixftunder)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187/1 "2007-06-24T03:20:14Z")
In your response regarding cemetery rights and priviledges. I need to correct you on one very important point. Cemeteries in many states do not actually have to seek permission to move a body, if they can prove they needed to correct a problem, and contacting the family wouldn’t be prudent at the time. This has caused all manner of problems. Imagine being a family and arriving at the cemetery to find removal of your loved ones casket taking place. I am working toward the end with the government/s to change the verbage in the law that will require the proper permits before ANY excavation can take place in the space of an existing burial. Some states, like Oklahoma, require a disinterment permit from the State Health Department, for even so much as an exploratory excavation. Most states do not have this level of regulation or compliance. Many states don’t even require cause of death be reported prior to disinterment. What a health risk! Thank you. I just wanted to point out this incorrect answer in your posting. Sincerely, Bob Roberts > **[ENJOY☆SOUND - カラオケ定番曲から雰囲気を盛り上げる曲の情報をお届け！](https://cemops.com/)** > > カラオケ定番曲から雰囲気を盛り上げる曲の情報をお届け！ ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187/2 "2007-06-24T03:46:04Z")
Welcome to the SDMB **rsixftunder**. I’ve moved this post to the Comments on Staff Reports forum, because it’s not one of Cecil’s columns, but a staff report that I wrote. Also, it’s customary to include a link to the staff report in question, which I’ll do: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcemeteryrights.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcemeteryrights.html) **Gfactor** , General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187/3 "2007-06-24T04:50:30Z")
I’m aware of some cases where bodies have been moved with perfunctory notice to family members, or by court order without notice to family members. I’m not sure I see what you are talking about for New Mexico, though. Here’s the statute that I see: > [@](#): > > 30-12-12. Disturbing a marked burial ground. > > Disturbing a marked burial ground consists of knowingly and willfully disturbing or removing the remains, or any part of them, or any funerary object, material object or associated artifact of any person interred in any church, churchyard, cemetery or marked burial ground or knowingly and willfully procuring or employing any other person to disturb or remove the remains, or any part of them, or any funerary object, material object or artifact associated with any person interred in any church, churchyard, cemetery or marked burial ground, other than pursuant to an order of the district court, the provisions of Section 24-14-23 NMSA 1978 or as otherwise specifically permitted by law. As used in this section “marked burial ground” means any interment visibly marked according to traditional or customary practice. > > Whoever commits disturbing a marked burial ground is guilty of a fourth degree felony and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or by imprisonment for a definite term of eighteen months or both. [Conway Greene แทงบอล ค่าน้ำดี เรทสูงอันดับ 1 ครบทุกแมตช์การแข่งขัน เว็บเดียวครบจบ](http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll/nmsa2007feb/9b0/df38/e288/e2d6?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm) > [@](#): > > 24-14-23. Permits; authorization for final disposition. > > A. For deaths or spontaneous fetal deaths which have occurred in this state, no burial-transit permit shall be required for final disposition of the remains if the disposition occurs in this state and is performed by a funeral service practitioner or direct disposer. > > B. A burial-transit permit shall be issued by the state registrar or a local registrar for those bodies which are to be transported out of the state for final disposition or when final disposition is being made by a person other than a funeral service practitioner or direct disposer. > > C. A burial-transit permit issued under the law of another state or country which accompanies a dead body or fetus brought into this state shall be authority for final disposition of the body or fetus in this state. > > D. A permit for disinterment and reinterment shall be required prior to disinterment of a dead body or fetus except as authorized by regulation or otherwise provided by law. The permit shall be issued by the state registrar or state medical investigator to a licensed funeral service practitioner or direct disposer. > > E. A permit for cremation of a body shall be required prior to the cremation. The permit shall be issued by the state medical investigator to a licensed funeral service practitioner, direct disposer or any other person who makes the arrangements for final disposition. Unfortunately, I’m away from home right now, so I don’t have my books. Can you point me to what you are referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187/4 "2007-06-24T06:49:31Z")
My grandmother had two siblings who died in childhood ca. 1910-1920 and were buried in a small cemetery near her birthplace. At the time the cemetery was on dry land not very close to any major body of water, but the formation of Lake Martin (at that time the largest man-made lake in the nation [but now several spaces down the list]) in the 1930s literally converted the cemetery from pastureland to lakefront. About 10 years ago or so I got a phone call that the lake was reclaiming a part of the cemetery and was causing some sinking and that several graves needed to be moved. As the only relative of my grandmother’s that they were able to find (actually they called my mother but as she was not a blood relative it fell to me) they needed to know what I wanted done with the remains, and they stated they would pay for new coffins and to move the headstones. Since they died 50 years before I was born and 10 years before my father was even born I of course had no great emotional attachment to their remains (or anybody else’s- I don’t even visit my mother’s grave= I’m a huge believer in cremation as I think inhumation is up there with augury and animal sacrifice as a barbaric ritual) and I basically told them whatever they wanted to do was absolutely fine, I’d sign anything if they needed it signed so long as there was a clear “no financial liability” waiver, etc… Out of curiosity I asked them what they’d have done had they not found me (and that family has largely died out) and they said the bodies would have been placed in a county owned cemetery in numbered plots (basically the county Potter’s Field) and the headstones stored in a county warehouse until they were claimed, and if they were never claimed then they’d remain there indefinitely or until the cemetery had to be closed or the warehouse ran out of space, and they said that was exactly the case with a few graves from this cemetery that needed moving- the families had died out or nobody had any idea who the relatives were and the county lacked the resources to hire an investigator. They also said, I remember, that there have been lawsuits over these things, even when as in this case it was a distant relative the “next of kin” had never even met, which is why they were calling me and why they sent me a form to sign and notarize. I considered going to watch the exhumation just as a matter of curiosity- what condition is the coffin in? Was anything buried with them? etc., but they didn’t know the exact date since I’d waived a ceremony and my work schedule was hectic at the time. There’s a very old cemetery in Montgomery that has some exposed graves. For a while kids went through some of the worse condition ones as a skull was the ultimate find. The city had investigators working quite some while to find the heirs before cleaning up those graves (some of which were antebellum) and signs were posted that anybody interfering with a grave in the meantime would face mandatory jailtime regardless of their age. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-cemetery-answers/409187/5 "2007-06-24T12:17:52Z")
ETA: Nevermind.