Background

Join Joni to learn about Appalachian burial history and customs as well as how to identify, document, clean, and repair gravestones during this hands-on West Virginia Cemetery Documentation & Preservation Workshop Series. The 2024 series is funded in part by a West Virginia Humanities Council Grant and taught by the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia's 'Preserve WV AmeriCorps' member, Joni.

This project aims to increase the number of West Virginians who have the knowledge to locate & document cemeteries as well as increase the number of West Virginia cemeteries that have been GPS located and digitally documented, making this information more publicly accessible for families, researchers and genealogists.

Workshop Schedule

9:00-12:30 Classroom portion at Jackson County Public Library

 Mooresville Community Building, 680 Mooresville Rd., Core, WV 26541

This is a full day workshop starting at 9:00 am with a classroom portion at the community building. In this section you will learn how to document cemeteries using digital applications currently available, preparation of the WV State Historic Preservation Office’s Cemetery Inventory form, gravestone conservation and cleaning, stone iconography/epitaphs & meanings, stone types and styles and cemetery vegetation and significance. You will also learn some basic Appalachian funerary/ burial history and customs, historical context of the cemetery we are using for fieldwork, West Virginia Cemetery Codes and SAFE ways of reading “unreadable” stones. 

12:30-1:30 Lunch (provided)

1:30-5:30 Fieldwork at cemetery

Mt. Harmon (Herman) Cemetery, Long Drain Road, Core, WV 26541

The afternoon fieldwork portion in the cemetery will include using what you learned in class to digitally document graves using available apps, “adopting” a stone or stones and cleaning them with provided D2 Biological Cleaner, and participating in hands-on learning of how to level, reset and repair a gravestone. 

Please wear closed-toed shoes or boots and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Most of the fieldwork is “hands-on.”You may bring work gloves if you have them. Nitrile gloves, brushes, D/2 and other materials etc. will be provided. 

PLEASE NOTE: The cemetery is approximately 2 miles up a gravel/dirt road from the community building. 

Contact Joni Morris at jmorris@pawv.org or 304-841-1510 with questions.