Interest growing in family cemeteries.

With the recent death of a well-regarded farm owner and businessman who was laid to rest on his family farm, inquiries regarding the establishment of family cemeteries have outnumbered every other topic in the Ask The Director mailbox this month.



The flag-draped casket of Mr. Vernon Mason was carried from the gate of his farm by friends from the neighboring Amish communiy on a horse drawn caisson.




Once atop the hill overlooking the Broadrun Dairy Valley, family and friends gather for a final committal service.



Most of the funeral cortege walked behind the caisson to the gravesite.


First, we'll examine the legalities of burial at home, and then take some time to cover some of the practical considerations you and your family should consider before deciding to form a family cemetery.


The Ohio Department of Commerce requires that every cemetery in Ohio be registered with its Division of Real Estate, unless there have been no interments in the past 25 years, or, the cemetery is considered a private family cemetery.


Ohio Revised Code 4767.02 defines a family cemetery as one "containing the human remains of persons, at least three-fourths of whom have a common ancestor or who are the spouse or adopted child of a common ancestor". Thus family cemeteries do not require registration with the Ohio Department of Commerce.


Because zoning in most cities and villages have rules prohibiting burial of the dead within a village or city outside of a dedicated cemetery, it is important to note that the establishment of family cemeteries will not be an option for readers who don't own property in the country.


In townships, where property owners have a right to burial on private property, trustees are vested through Ohio Revised Code 517.10 with the joint responsibility of care of cemeteries within their township, and therefore, can establish rules and regulations for family cemeteries within the township. Trustees have little liability while a family maintains the cemetery, but ultimately assume all liability when a family caretaker ceases to exist.


If you are considering establishment of a family cemetery, you would be wise to contact your funeral director, who can advise you of the regulations for establishment of a family cemetery in your specific township.


Many townships require the use of a burial vault in a family cemetery, because of the likelihood for a family cemetery to become abandoned over the long term. Once abandoned, trustees may remove the vaults and re-inter them in existing township cemeteries.


Townships also usually require a family cemetery to be fenced, clearly marking the boundary of burial grounds. One township in southern Tuscarawas County even specifies concrete columns for marking the boundaries of family cemeteries.


Funeral directors are required to notify the township of burials in family cemeteries by providing the trustees with a burial-transit permit issued by the local health department stating the name, date of death, date of interment, and cause of death. Trustees must retain the permit as part of their cemetery records.


When considering whether or not to establish a family cemetery, families would do well to consider the following:


Is it likely that the family will continue to own the land surrounding the cemetery in the long term? If the answer is no, then it might not be practical to consider such an option. The sale of land would likely be hindered by the responsibility for care and maintenance of the cemetery.


In counties that have experienced urban sprawl, many townships are vacating long-abandoned family cemeteries, removing the graves to a larger township cemetery, and reducing the township's expense in maintaining a cemetery abandoned by a family that no longer owns the land upon which the cemetery was established.


Will access to a proposed family cemetery be possible for descendants if the land surrounding it is no longer owned by family members? Some townships require that a family establishing a cemetery also provide a public right of way to the cemetery to ensure access, as an obscure law in Ohio Revised Code, 517.02, requires a township to provide a public road to any cemetery in the township when petitioned to do so by 25 "interested" persons.


In many ways burial at home in a family cemetery is not unlike the practices of our early ancestors – who made gravesites on the tallest hills of their homelands. In the words of one funeral director friend of mine – who has a cottage in the woods where he likes to spend time.. "I told my kids that when I die, I want to follow the rules of golf – If I die while in the woods – play the ball where it lies – and bury me there too".


Brian Hanner answers "Ask The Director" in The Bargain Hunter every other week. Hanner and his wife, Anne Geib Hanner own and operate the Geib Funeral Homes, Crematories and Remembrance Centers in New Philadelphia and Dover, Ohio. Send your questions via e-mail at bhanner at geibfuneral dot com.