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From a very young age I’ve thought cemeteries were ludicrous. It’s nice to be able to remember a loved one, but after a few hundred years is it still necessary?

From a very young age I’ve thought cemeteries were ludicrous. It’s nice to be able to remember a loved one, but after a few hundred years is it still necessary? The fact is after a certain number of generations no one is grieving or remembering or even visiting the cemetery plots. In a nearby graveyard in London the gravestones are so old and space is so tight that they moved them all out of the way to make room for a playground. Who am I to feel so important that I should take up space in perpetuity? After a few generations, document the gravestones and get rid of them and make room for a park you can run around in.

gtirloni 7y ago
It makes perfect sense but the generations that have to make that choice today (because they don't care about those dead people anymore) don't want to think tha they too will one day not matter anymore. It's a hard sell unless there are stronger reasons (e.g. housing is really really terrible that people will want to "disturb the dead"). Yeah, humans... :-)
8bitsrule 7y ago
I was amazed when I learned (from the net) that in 1900 San Francisco banned new cemeteries. But they didn't stop there: eviction notices were soon sent out. And from 1902 to 1947, bodies were moved out. Headstones were rounded up and dumped along the shores. Many of the bodies wound up in Colma ... which now has 17 cemeteries, 73% of the city's land. http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist1/index0.html#cemeteries http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist1/index0.html#cemeteries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California#San_Francisco_cemetery_relocations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California#San_Francisc...
- stevula 7y ago
  They used many of the headstones to pave parts of the walkways Buena Vista Park and some other areas of SF.
rjf72 7y ago
This may vary by person. For myself, I'm quite disappointed that my geneological tree runs dry just a few generations back. I'd love to see where it, it being me I suppose, began - but it's simply not possible. But today we're creating what may be a record that, at least ideally, people even thousands of years from now will be able to view. Imagine being able to see the thoughts and 'writings' (in a manner of speaking) of your ancestor from thousands of years past - see the lands that they knew as home (or at least what became of them), and ideally even see their final resting spot. Perhaps this does not appeal to you, but I find it extremely intriguing. I mean these people are quite literally a large part of you. I find it interesting to just ponder on such things. It has little to do with grieving or even remembrance. In my case it's mostly curiosity. In a way it's akin to visiting a museum of you. And in the future people will be able to do this. This gets even more interesting once you consider that at some point, perhaps not far from now, there is an extremely high chance that your descendants will reside on another planet. I see no reason to believe that these descendants would have any less curiosity about their heritage. That playground will eventually give way to some apartment complex, road, or place to buy crap and nobody will ever know or care that it was there. But the people of today are what will make up the people of thousands of years from now. And that lingering connection and curiosity of the past is something that I expect will probably remain with our species (and even the species we diverge onto in the future) indefinitely.
- jnbiche 7y ago
  > I'm quite disappointed that my geneological tree runs dry just a few generations back. Have you had a genealogical DNA test done and used 23andme or ancestry.com to try and connect to distant relatives? I realize many folks have reasonable privacy concerns about DNA testing[0], but it's highly likely you'll be able to connect to relatives this way and perhaps trace your genealogy out even further. 0. Although it's somewhat out of your hands if you have any relatives undergoing genealogical DNA testing.
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  Hmm, aren't keeping good records and cemetery plots non-exclusive?
mixmastamyk 7y ago
Not only hundreds but tens of years when grandparents are not well known.

gtirloni 7y ago

It makes perfect sense but the generations that have to make that choice today (because they don't care about those dead people anymore) don't want to think tha they too will one day not matter anymore. It's a hard sell unless there are stronger reasons (e.g. housing is really really terrible that people will want to "disturb the dead"). Yeah, humans... :-)

8bitsrule 7y ago

I was amazed when I learned (from the net) that in 1900 San Francisco banned new cemeteries. But they didn't stop there: eviction notices were soon sent out. And from 1902 to 1947, bodies were moved out. Headstones were rounded up and dumped along the shores. Many of the bodies wound up in Colma ... which now has 17 cemeteries, 73% of the city's land. http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist1/index0.html#cemeteries http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist1/index0.html#cemeteries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California#San_Francisco_cemetery_relocations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California#San_Francisc...

stevula 7y ago
They used many of the headstones to pave parts of the walkways Buena Vista Park and some other areas of SF.

rjf72 7y ago

This may vary by person. For myself, I'm quite disappointed that my geneological tree runs dry just a few generations back. I'd love to see where it, it being me I suppose, began - but it's simply not possible. But today we're creating what may be a record that, at least ideally, people even thousands of years from now will be able to view. Imagine being able to see the thoughts and 'writings' (in a manner of speaking) of your ancestor from thousands of years past - see the lands that they knew as home (or at least what became of them), and ideally even see their final resting spot. Perhaps this does not appeal to you, but I find it extremely intriguing. I mean these people are quite literally a large part of you. I find it interesting to just ponder on such things. It has little to do with grieving or even remembrance. In my case it's mostly curiosity. In a way it's akin to visiting a museum of you. And in the future people will be able to do this. This gets even more interesting once you consider that at some point, perhaps not far from now, there is an extremely high chance that your descendants will reside on another planet. I see no reason to believe that these descendants would have any less curiosity about their heritage. That playground will eventually give way to some apartment complex, road, or place to buy crap and nobody will ever know or care that it was there. But the people of today are what will make up the people of thousands of years from now. And that lingering connection and curiosity of the past is something that I expect will probably remain with our species (and even the species we diverge onto in the future) indefinitely.

jnbiche 7y ago
> I'm quite disappointed that my geneological tree runs dry just a few generations back. Have you had a genealogical DNA test done and used 23andme or ancestry.com to try and connect to distant relatives? I realize many folks have reasonable privacy concerns about DNA testing[0], but it's highly likely you'll be able to connect to relatives this way and perhaps trace your genealogy out even further. 0. Although it's somewhat out of your hands if you have any relatives undergoing genealogical DNA testing.
mixmastamyk 7y ago
Hmm, aren't keeping good records and cemetery plots non-exclusive?

mixmastamyk 7y ago

Not only hundreds but tens of years when grandparents are not well known.