Need a category for an abandoned (historical) cemetery

Question

Hello. I would like to ask if it is possible to create categories for historic cemeteries that have been abandoned. Is this desired by the community or can only current cemeteries be created? I ask for your information. Example: The red link in the article on Kraher-7. Thanks

Comments

By abandoned do you mean everyone was disinterred and moved elsewhere or simply that it is neglected or burials no longer occur here? There are examples of cemetery categories for each of these instances currently in WikiTree so I believe the category should be created. I've added some tags to your question so that someone familiar with the CIB boxes used for cemetery categories in this area can create this.

Edit: an excellent question and thank you for posting it.

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I assume, it's this one? By looking at a photograph, it seems like there are no gravestones anymore.

It's nice that you added that paragraph about the separation of the family. Thank you for that!

 

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Thanks for adding the tags. I basically mean cemeteries that no longer exist or are used as such. There are many abandoned cemeteries in my region, where those buried have often been transferred to a new cemetery on the outskirts of town. But there are also examples where the bones were placed under the church floor or simply remained where they were and grass grew over them. It's true that you can't find a grave there, but you can still visit the physical place itself. I would like to create the category given in the example about the churchyard of St. Johannes and place it in the category for the city of Saalfelden. But I would also like it if there was an overarching category for cemeteries that no longer exist/are in use, perhaps as a subcategory of the cemeteries category? We would also need an info box that outputs the corresponding parameters, which I cannot create myself. I'm still new and inexperienced here and so I just wanted to ask whether I can create this category about the St. Johannes churchyard or whether there is anything against it. In my family history there are still many cemeteries that no longer exist today. Thank you very much for your valued reply.

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Yes, you're right, that's exactly the cemetery I meant. No, there are no more graves there, hence my question as to whether the cemetery should or should be created as a category at all. I would welcome it, but first I would like to ask the community whether they are in favor of it. Thank you for your valued reply. By the way, thank you for posting the video “Einführung WikiTree auf Deutsch” on YT. It was only through this professional introduction and your very interesting portrayal of her ancestor Kunigunda Schindler that I found the courage to join WikiTree. At first I thought that my knowledge wasn't enough to get involved here enough, but thanks to your great explanations in the video, I found my way around here pretty quickly. Thank you very much!

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I'm flattered that you like my presentation and that Kunigunda's profile inspired you. I was busy in the last days and just wanted to help you out with that category, but it looks like you already managed to perfectly fill the infobox alone. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

Answer 1

There may be two alternatives.

You could create a cemetery category, and include an estimate of the cemetery’s start year and stop year. Including a stop year tells WikiTree the cemetery is no longer active, which effectively describes an abandoned cemetery.

See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:CategoryInfoBox_Cemetery#Parameters to see startdate and enddate parameters, and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Cemetery_Categorization for a guide. In your case, if you know only about Petrus Kraher being buried in the church yard, you could use 1748 as your estimates for both start and stop year. (Others can expand the start and stop years as they discover more people who were buried there.)

Creating a cemetery category allows the other advantages that WikiTree categories enjoy. A person visiting the church yard in person (or by Web), for example, could more quickly find out who was buried there in the past and their connections to relatives.

Alternatively, you could create a WikiTree free space page for a cemetery that no longer exists. The Cemeterist Project describes how to do so at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Cemetery_Pages . For cemeteries that no longer exist, examples include https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:The_Old_Union_Cemetery and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Ksar_Mezouar_American_military_cemetery%2C_Tunisia%2C_World_War_II .

Creating a WikiTree free space page brings much more flexibility in writing about the church yard, the church, the community, why the cemetery no longer exists, and so on. Further, you can write the story once, and link to that story from any number of WikiTree profiles.

The Cemeterist Project encourages both category pages and free space pages for cemeteries.

Comments

Thank you for these answers. I will look up these links. I have all encountered cemeteries in my ancestors that are not in use. It can be difficult to find the names and locations of them and what happened to the dead and to verify who was buried there. If we are looking for a cemetery, how do we find it on WikiTree?

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My favorite trick to finding pretty much anything on WikiTree is to use a general search engine and start my search phrase with [site:wikitree.com] without the brackets. For example, I could search for [site:wikitree.com category cemeteries Ohio] or [site:wikitree.com Ohio cemetery].

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Thank you for your detailed answer and also for including the many helpful links. You anwered my question very satisfactorily and helped me a lot! Thank you very much.