How to read the unreadable Gravestone Headstone Tombstone Grave Marker Cemetery Stone

[ahj71]

What people fail to realize is that this technique is only used for stones that are so badly deteriorated that they cannot be read with the naked eye. Your use of this has been appropriate. We HAVE to record these stones before further deterioration. If we did nothing and said, "Oh I couldn't read that stone" and in 10 years the stone has disintegrated, been broken or stolen, then what good are we as historians? The good FAR outweighs the bad in these cases. They won't last much longer.

[TawnyaGray]

What happens when you mix flour & water = GLUE! Do not use flour! It gets stuck in the pours.

[Champ1964]

@TawnyaGray

Ahh, Bonus! Glue acts as a sealer to prevent water and ice damage. Didn't see this effect a year after. Stone still looks better than it did. Maybe what's left of its legibility or Readability will last longer now.

[TawnyaGray]

@Champ1964

Let me say this first. I am glad that there are people that are documenting our heritage. We should never forget were we come from.

I think you are missing my point. There is no way to remove all the flour from the surface or the pores. Flour & Rain = Glue. By making glue on the surface and in the pores; which makes the mold & such be sealed to & in the stone. Within the pores the mold will still growing which makes hair line fractures within the stone until it completely cracks.

[TawnyaGray]

@Champ1964

Also every time it rains the glue will become wet again. Then more mold spores & such will be attach to the stone.

[TawnyaGray]

@Champ1964

Here is the kicker. White flour is bleached white. There are several kinds of bleaching agents added to flour: chlorine dioxide, calcium peroxide, azodicarbonamide or azobisformamide (synthetic), and atmospheric oxygen. These agents oxidize the surfaces of the flour grains and aid with developing (maturing) of gluten. Bleaching makes flour slightly acidic.

So it is understandable that the stone is whiter but it is what you can not see that is the problem.

[Champ1964]

Flour and Stones a Year Later. I went back to the cemetery after much concern of what flour does to stones for my own inspection. This cemetery is under a heavy oak, hickory, maple and pine canopy. Medium sunlight comes through causing much mold and such. The stones that I floured show no signs of any new mold, Only noted that the overall stones had a slightly whiter color than the side that was not floured. Always clean up any extra flour for future visitors. Use Much Discression doing this.

[TraceyPupDawg]

Using flour on a stone does do damage. when it gets wet it promotes the growth of mold, and no matter how much you try to remove it after some will remain in the stones pores. Using aluminum foil would have provided the same results and leaves no lasting damage.

[kharding2710]

great idea! Not sure if we're allowed to do that in the UK though?

[MCourt76]

It's great the work you're doing to preserve this cemetery.

[oltex806]

Thanks for the Gorman information and the care and interest you show in their markers. Claiborn is an ancestor on my Grandmothers side.

[ptwoodie]

That is so much quicker than using chalk to see the writing that is unreadable. Thanks for sharing!

[GaGenealogist]

Great info...thanks

[jpeak1984]

Very cool

[AmandaPizza]

Wow! So Simple! Great tip THANK YOU!!

[HISTORYBUFFPA]

That's amazing.

Thank you for sharing.

I mean no disrespect to the eternal rest of anyone.

[wackystackr]

most incrdeble, will store this in my mind for when I go hunting for my relatives, thanks

[sevencorsa]

Interesting video Jeff, good info

[sevencorsa]

Interesting video Mr. C