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MomTo8
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| Posted: Feb 23 2015 at 10:35am | IP Logged
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Hi, I wanted to get your opinions on buying an old farmhouse that includes a family burial site on the property. The farmhouse was built in the 1880's and includes a family cemetery with 66 burial markers. The history buff in me thinks this is so neat, but my kids say they would be creeped out! Any opinions/thoughts? The property is 5 acres, but the cemetery is very close to the house, not on the other end of the property.
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MaryM
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| Posted: Feb 23 2015 at 10:51am | IP Logged
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Wow - what an interesting opportunity - and likely a great house and property. I would vacillate being being completely enthralled and being creeped out. I love cemeteries - I think they are fascinating and so full of history. But I am not sure how I about this proximity. My head would say fine, but emotions can be a factor. The fact that the kids are against it could be an issue. I have one child that is very fearful of so many things and his reaction could have made a similar living situation very trying - he was always scared. When I was in middle school there was a girl in our class whose father was a caretaker at a big cemetery in the city -they lived in a house on property. She always used to host a Halloween party  .
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Feb 23 2015 at 10:58am | IP Logged
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You might ask your family if anything could take away their concerns, such as fencing off the cemetery or having a priest bless the house and cemetery. But, as Mary said, if the worries go beyond the superficial, living near the cemetery might be difficult.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Martha
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| Posted: Feb 24 2015 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
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How would this affect your property rights
Can you legally remove the graves? Are you legally required to maintain them in a certain manner or allow public access to them? Could the graves affect the property in other ways, such as contaminating water lines? (They shouldn't in theory bc that should have been avoided, but people don't always build and plan ahead like they should.)
My dh would be an adament no way no how.
Wouldn't bother me in the least.
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Martha
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: Feb 25 2015 at 11:24am | IP Logged
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I don't think it would bother me either. I was wondering if anything is known about the religion or faith of those buried there. When I first read your post, I thought it would be an amazing opportunity for your family to do corporal (caring for sites) and spiritual (praying for the dead) works of mercy. The whole things sounds fascinating to me.
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MaryM
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| Posted: Feb 25 2015 at 11:48am | IP Logged
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Erica Sanchez wrote:
| I thought it would be an amazing opportunity for your family to do corporal (caring for sites) and spiritual (praying for the dead) works of mercy. |
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That aspect never occurred to me. That is an awesome way to think about it.
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Mary M. in Denver
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JodieLyn
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I would be fine with it most of the time.. but I know that there would come a time, sooner or later, when I'm by myself, or dealing with a bit of insomnia and my imagination would start to get the best of me and I'd scare myself silly. 
It would have been worse as a child. I loved the old cemeteries during the day. There was one we'd go by when out horseback riding and it was always so cool and peaceful (lots of mature trees). But after dark it would be way to easy to get caught up in imagination.. I had a toad outside my bedroom window that scared me to death.. his slow hops sounded like footsteps.
I really don't think I would choose it because of that. Worse now.. I would have been scared of ghosts but Zombies are so popular that it's hard to miss references to them.
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: Feb 26 2015 at 3:55pm | IP Logged
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We grew up on a farm with an old family plot. I guess I never really thought about it much.
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Erin
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Wouldn't bother me either, but then I'm the mother who drags my kids off to cemeteries to do headstone rubbings and bring along a picnic. Kids think it all soo boring. 
However if your children are generally creeped out I guess that's a big obstacle.
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Erin
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JennGM
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I would have no problem with it at all. And if you had the right to bury your own family, that would be just heaven for me. There are so many restrictions and expenses with burials and plots now.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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SallyT
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| Posted: March 06 2015 at 8:49am | IP Logged
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My grandparents' house has a very old graveyard -- family graves dating from before the Civil War through the very early 1900s. I can't remember whether it creeped me out as a child, though in general I was a really creeped-out child: at my other grandparents' house, I was terrified of a portrait from the 1850s that hung over the living-room mantel, because I thought the young man in it looked like a vampire.
In the daytime, anyway, I was always really interested in the graves and wanted to look at them. And one of my sons' names comes straight off one of the headstones.
The house has been sold several times over since the early 1990s when my grandparents died, but the family retains ownership of the tiny plot that the graveyard is on (in the corner of the huge back yard). Since my uncle died, I'm not sure who, if anyone, maintains the graves. There has been talk of moving the bodies, but it hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, I think I would think that was cool and fascinating, and would "adopt" the people spiritually. All Souls Day would be amazing!
Sally
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: House With Cemetery on Property
