Grave markers with no dates?

Question

For grave markers with no dates can we add a different kind of ref to the date field so they can be added.  (Special character known only to cemeterists, and only to be used with grave markers with no date info.)  I have about 3 grave markers to add with no dates, and I don't think guessing would help add them to the tree.  Or maybe a click box for grave marker source available, no date?

Comments

If you have what looks to be a husband and wife, and one has dates and the other doesn't. It is one of two possibilities.

A. No one bothered to add the second set of dates

B. The person didn't actually get buried there.

---

Do you know the other person is dead? My 93 year old aunt's name has been on a stone for 51 years but she is still going strong.

---

Mostly I have infants.....

---

If it is infants, it usually means that is the day that they lived and died.

Answer 1

I am doing civil war graves and sometimes I find markers without dates.  I then go look for death records of the person on the marker.  Most times the person is there.  If I have a marker that has no date, I make an estimate of the year he may have died.  Once, that date has been found, I edit the profile and add it with the source.

Comments

I think these are infants with no birth or death record.  Unless we find a family bible these will be lost.

---

ah, I see what you mean.  They may have been stillborn or died when real young.  Maybe the markers were put there as memorials.

---

I think I'll attach another Free Space to the cemetery, and attach the photos.  Best I can do.

---

I don't see why you'd need a separate free space page.  Just indicate on the cemetery page that there is no date

Answer 2

In regards to civil war stones not having dates it may be that they were strongly believed to of died in battle, but their bodies may of been to mutilated to canon fire etc. to really confirm death.

Comments

Actually, most of the Military type markers for civil war soldiers have no dates on them. You know they died and are buried there, but not when. I think the GAR paid for or arranged for the stones.

---

The government arranged for and paid for a large number of stones for Union Veterans.

Answer 3

The cemetery I am photographing in has lots of very large markers with only a last name. Small individual markers are in front and beside. Sometimes they do not even have the same last name. I assume they are still family. My puzzlement today was two markers with first names and initials but no last name and no large family marker in sight! Do these large markers with only the last name on them count in our total?

Comments

I have several with just initials, and not in a family plot....

---

Sometimes a large surname stone just marks the family plot, and folks are buried nearby as they die. I see this in Oakland Cemetery near Warren, Pennsylvania.