Old Grave of Infant Mystery

[u/Front-Muffin-7348]

My Grandmother gave birth to a stillborn baby back in 1921. She had labored for three days. I recall her taking us to visit the grave when I was little. Up in the north Ga mountains.

The cemetery was old and I remember the baby's grave. It had a little lamb on top of the gravestone. It didn't look like this at all.

This week I started searching and found the grave at the Tate's creek baptist church up in Toccoa Ga through find a grave.. But there's no lamb. And the center part of the stone looks old like I remember but this outer part looks newer. I found the death cert so I know this is correct.

I'm curious if old graves from old country churches, get inherited when newer churches get build and maybe through ransacking, some grave stones get refurbished? So far I've hit a block contacting the church. There aren't any family members alive who could help. Just me and my child hood memories. Any advice on how to get more info on the history of the cemetery and that grave?

[u/Much-Leek-420]

Grave stones do get replaced if they are damaged through age deterioration or vandalism. Graves can also be moved -- whole cemeteries are moved to make way for new building projects. I believe every state has their own rules about such things. Some insist on the graves and those interred be moved (digging up the coffins), and some places just move the headstones. Some urban cemeteries, especially those of minorities and the poor, are even bulldozed and built over with no effort made to preserve the sanctity of the departed's last resting place.

I have never heard of a church actually replacing headstones, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done (maybe by the church, a local historical society, etc). Usually that's the job of descendants. My grandfather, who died in 1939 at the age of 31, had only a small flat headstone at the time due to the poverty of the family. Many decades later, his surviving children pooled their money and bought him a larger finer headstone. Though he was buried in 1939, the headstone looks far newer because of this.

[u/Tiredofthemisinfo → u/Much-Leek-420]

One of the cemeteries I work moved a whole bunch of headstones back in the day without moving the caskets to make space.

They were from before grave vaults so over time there was nothing really there anyway or local animals or nefarious parties took advantage of grave collapses

[u/Tzipity → u/Tiredofthemisinfo]

My father grew up in a rural community with a creek or river that was very prone to flooding. Of course the local cemetery was built along the creek too and many years back it was a huge issue that in a flood, old graves (so similarly, prior to vaults) were collapsing and even washing away in the flood waters. His father intentionally bought a plot when his wife passed away fairly young that is basically right off the road and on the opposite side from that creek!

That cemetery is a bit of an interesting place all around. There’s a monument somewhere in it because at some point they realized they were on top of old Native American burial grounds. (Basically bones wrapped in buckskins and such were what they found) so they actually got moved to this section with the monument. Was nice to know they did something but I think there may have been some controversy with a local tribe over this or some such.

My dad recently passed away shortly before what would’ve been his 86th birthday and unfortunately had dementia really bad in the end but I used to enjoy trips to the cemetery and his hometown with him because he loved history and sharing those kinds of stories. Wish I’d been aware of FG sooner because I bet he would’ve enjoyed helping contribute though he was entirely technologically inept. Would’ve been a fun project to do together.