Events

Flowers are optional but participants will be encouraged to bring mirrors and cameras, and clipboards and questions during a forthcoming Cemetery Workshop to be offered by staff of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources at Christ Episcopal Church, located at 16304 Courthouse Road, in Eastville. 

The two-day workshop, offered in partnership with Preservation Virginia, will be held May 18 and 19. On Friday, May 18th the workshop will run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On Saturday, May 19th, the workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

The first day’s presentations will cover topics ranging from funerary symbolism to training in the appropriate care and maintenance of grave yards, to genealogy, mortuary archaeology, and Virginia burial law.

The second day will feature on-location training sessions at Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery focusing on stewardship issues for cemeteries, including the cleaning and conservation of stone and masonry, and techniques for photographing historic funerary monuments, and identification of symbols used on grave markers, among other topics.

Early registration is encouraged as workshop space is limited. The fee for both days of the workshop is $60, and $40 for just Friday. Participants must attend Friday’s sessions in order to attend the Saturday workshop. Fifty spaces are available for the Friday lectures and Saturday’s training is limited to 25 participants. Both days of the workshop will be held rain or shine.

For registration information, please contact Dee DeRoche at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) by email at Dee.DeRoche@dhr.virginia.gov or by phone at (804) 482-6441.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include archaeologists, cultural resource professionals, and local history and genealogy experts.

In addition to the workshops, more information about issues relating to historic cemeteries is available through a blog established by DHR’s Jolene Smith, Archaeology Inventory Manager in the agency’s Archives. The blog is available online at http://dhrcemeteries.blogspot.com.