Gravestone Transformations

Gravestone Transformations Gravestone Transformations is a professional service dedicated to preserving monuments. Our ancestors are the reason we are here.

Gravestone Transformations was founded by Mark Smith out of the desire to preserve historical gravestones and the invaluable information they provide. You only need to drive by an old cemetery and see the leaning stone covered in lichen, moss and 150 years of dirt, to appreciate what they have gone through. They were honored when they died with a monument in their name. It is our responsibility to

insure that memorial will exist for generations to come. At Gravestone Transformations we take pride in the care and maintenance of your loved ones’ final resting place. We are preserving history, one gravestone at a time! Please visit our website at https://www.GravestoneTransformations.com/

Apparently, someone wants to test the “you can’t take it with you” theory.Anybody else have a good caption for this phot...
10/02/2024

Apparently, someone wants to test the “you can’t take it with you” theory.

Anybody else have a good caption for this photo?

This is why what we do is so important, and why we need fewer recreational activities involving young people in cemeteri...
06/02/2024

This is why what we do is so important, and why we need fewer recreational activities involving young people in cemeteries instead of more. I have seen many times as I work, adults letting young children climb onto gravestones and monuments. Cemeteries are not a place to play. I have seen people in Facebook groups promoting doing things like movie nights and Easter egg hunts in cemeteries, this is not the place for these activities. Hopefully the only long term effects this young person has from this is a respect for the dangers in a cemetery.

Where to start, that’s the question of the day! It’s been a while since I posted anything new, but Hopefully I can impr...
06/21/2023

Where to start, that’s the question of the day!
It’s been a while since I posted anything new, but Hopefully I can improve.
Starting a new project today in an undisclosed location on planet Earth. “Leave no stone unturned” might be the motto here, if you see a straight stone in these photos your eyes are surely deceiving you. Every one of the 170 or so here needs to be cleaned, repaired, and reset before Labor Day. Wish me luck and 10 weeks of good weather!

I want to recognize all of the people who follow this page, Thank You for being here!I wanted to share some photos from ...
10/29/2020

I want to recognize all of the people who follow this page, Thank You for being here!

I wanted to share some photos from a project a few weeks ago. I was asked to clean some headstones and statuary at a cemetery just over the state line in Pennsylvania, literally a half mile over the state line. The place is called Villa Maria, and the cemetery is the Sisters of the Humility of Mary Cemetery. Villa Maria Convent was founded in 1864 by John Joseph Begal and Mother Magdalen Potier of France. This has been the final resting place for over 600 nuns since the 1860’s. The ages for these ladies range from 18 to 102 years old. And since these burials are largely in chronological order, you can definitely see trends in the ages as you progress through.

In the 12 days I worked there I cleaned 600 gravestones of nuns as well as those of the founder and his nephew the chaplain. I also cleaned marble decorative panels, a beautiful cross and a statue of the Archangel Michael. I had various people both in the cemetery field and outside tell me that I was crazy for cleaning all of these by hand, down on my hands and knees as these are very modest gravestones just over a foot tall. However, I do not believe that a pressure washer has a place cleaning marble gravestones, or any gravestones for that matter.

If you are reading this you have no doubt visited a cemetery in your lifetime, but maybe not like this one. The Sisters of the Humility of Mary Cemetery has a slightly different feel to it. I liken it to a military cemetery such as Arlington, as these ladies made the decision to devote their lives to serving God and helping other people. To me, this selfless act is very much like serving in the military and fighting to defend people you don’t know. They don’t do it for the recognition, they do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.

I hope I can visit here again next year and see the transformation once the D2 has done it’s job removing the biological staining. If you’re in the area, just east of Youngstown, Ohio, stop and visit. Take a seat on one of the benches and enjoy the peacefulness while you listen to the wind chimes.

A special Thank You to Sister Winefred who kept me focused on the fact that this project was to honor these people who devoted their life to selflessly helping others.

It’s raining! After losing 6 weeks to the “stay at home” order, I was just getting close to being caught back up and now...
06/22/2020

It’s raining! After losing 6 weeks to the “stay at home” order, I was just getting close to being caught back up and now the rain. So I thought I would share a little project I did a couple of weeks ago in Kettering Ohio. I was already booked solid for months out when a lady from Sarasota, Florida contacted me about cleaning a gravestone for her. I told her it would be weeks but I would fit it in if I had a free day open up.
She sent me an old grainy photo and told me it was in Calvary Cemetery in Kettering. The cemetery is huge and Find a Grave lists over 69,000 burials meaning there are many more than that. Luckily they have a grave locater on the cemetery website and it was easy to find.
The monument was over 8’ tall and the statue on it was about 5’ of that. She said that her mother had always taken care of it but my client was in her 80’s and living in Florida so it had not had the attention it once had other than a niece who tended the flowers.
As you can see from the photos, the statue was covered in Lichen and dirt. I spent close to 2 hours with a toothbrush and wooden pick to pre-clean it prior to the actual cleaning, all in all about 4.5 hours start to finish. It was well worth the time spent on it as you can see. The detail that the carver put into this was just great. After cleaning the monument was treated with D2 and it will be interesting to stop by and see the progress in a couple of months, I think it will be fantastic!
If you are a lover of interesting gravestones and are anywhere near Kettering(Dayton) Ohio, you owe it to yourself to set aside a few hours to wander through this great cemetery. This cemetery has so many beautiful gravestones that you will not be disappointed. And, while this one is not the largest or fanciest at Calvary Cemetery, it certainly is my personal favorite, and I hope you enjoy it as well.

I’m excited to announce that Gravestone Transformations has been given the honor of preserving one of the most interesti...
04/25/2020

I’m excited to announce that Gravestone Transformations has been given the honor of preserving one of the most interesting grave markers I have ever seen. In the mid to late 1800’s there was a family of stone carvers in Cincinnati Ohio. When brothers John and Michael Keating lost several of their children at very young ages, they memorialized them on a very unique monument, a doll house! The Keating doll house is a beautiful sandstone structure with intricately carved details that perfectly mimic the architecture of the period. Originally it featured a stairway leading up to the front entrance and was adorned with a cross on the roof, sadly these items have disappeared over the years. An internet search reveals that many people love this grave marker and have posted photo’s of it on social media. Often visitors leave trinkets to “live” in the dollhouse.
Unfortunately the doll house has seen better times. The sandstone is showing wear from the weather outside and the interior is starting to flake. There is damage that may have been caused by a falling tree and some from the rusting iron hardware that keeps it together. The wooden floors are rotting or missing.
The first step is to carefully clean the stone and treat it to remove biological staining, then the foundation will be repaired. We will use conservation methods to slow future damage from the weather, recreate missing fragments, and replace the iron hardware with stainless steel. Finally, new floors will be installed.
The project is being spearheaded by descendents of the Keating’s who have created a page dedicated to the monument at https://www.facebook.com/KeatingDollhouse/ where more photo’s and information on the family are posted.
If you would like to make a donation to assist the family in completing the repairs of the Keating doll house, you can visit the Gravestone Transformations website at https://gravestonetransformations.com/, click on the “Donate” link on the left, and enter the requested information. When you get to the “Donation Information” section enter the amount you would like to donate then click “I would like to designate this donation to a specific fund”. From the drop-down box choose “Keating Doll House, St. Joseph New Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio”. If you like, your donation can remain anonymous. Since the donations are handled through PayPal, you can use your PayPal account, check, credit card, or bank transfer to donate. You do not have to have a Pay Pal account to donate. If you want to send a paper check, message us and we will provide the address for the Keating family member handling those. Even the smallest donation will make a difference in preserving this piece of history.
Please help get the word out by liking and sharing this post and the Keating Dollhouse page. Thank You!

I saw this little one the other day and I thought I would share. This is one of those I just want to clean and make even...
02/25/2020

I saw this little one the other day and I thought I would share. This is one of those I just want to clean and make even more beautiful. It’s also shifted on it’s base, probably exacerbated by water freezing under it in the winter creating an ice rink for her. I sure hope it doesn’t fall off and damage her wings!

One of the biggest questions people have is “What is the best way to clean a gravestone?” another is “How often should I...
02/14/2020

One of the biggest questions people have is “What is the best way to clean a gravestone?” another is “How often should I clean it?”. I’m not going to get into that in this post, rather I wanted to touch on something that few people probably think about. That question is this, “Can I?”. We’re not talking about evaluating your skill level to be able to safely and properly clean a gravestone which is important, but rather, are you allowed to.
There are a few different reasons for wanting to clean gravestones. Many times it is a person who has just discovered the grave of an ancestor and wants to clean it as an act of respect. Another reason is a local genealogy group, DAR/SAR chapter, or perhaps scout troop doing public service projects. Still another is the person trying to get photo’s and information for websites such as Find-a-Grave or Billion Graves. Finally there are those of us tasked with repairing or resetting the gravestone for either the family or the cemetery.
I recently came across the rules for a cemetery here in Ohio that surprised me. I know there are cemeteries that restrict what activities you can do in them, from no photo’s in celebrity and some religious cemeteries, to the more common rules governing the display of decorations. This cemetery goes a lot further in protecting the cemetery and the gravestones within, stating “No touching, scraping, rubbing, or spraying of liquids on the memorials or monuments is permitted”. A search revealed that a number of places use these same restrictions.
I personally visit a few dozen cemeteries every year in addition to the 10-15 I actually perform work in, and the majority of those do not have rules posted in the cemetery, just as this one didn‘t. In fact, I found these rules buried in with other documents on the website for the town this cemetery is located in. I can’t say how strict a cemetery governing body might be on enforcing rules like these, but I don’t think ignoring them is the way to address them. Rules tend to be enacted as a response or sometimes as a preemption to a detrimental act. In this case, there is the possibility that damage to the gravestone could occur if proper care is not used. If you are reading this you are probably someone who wants gravestones to be taken care of.
My advice to anyone who wants to clean a gravestone, even if it is a close family member’s, is to seek contact with the entity that is responsible for the care of the cemetery and get their blessing. Another option is contracting with a professional who may already have a relationship with the cemetery. Frequently we are given permission to do things that individuals are not, largely because we have insurance to cover any damages. Whichever path you take to getting your ancestor’s gravestone cleaned, be sure you aren’t going to get yourself into trouble doing it.
Please “like” and “share” this post and page, and visit www.GravestoneTransformations.com
Thank You!

I thought this was beautiful and might brighten somebody's day.
01/10/2020

I thought this was beautiful and might brighten somebody's day.

This past summer I was contacted by a man in his 80’s in Alabama who was representing family members in four different s...
11/14/2019

This past summer I was contacted by a man in his 80’s in Alabama who was representing family members in four different states. They had been searching for their ancestor for 30+ years and thought they finally found him here in Ohio. They asked me if I would go to the cemetery and determine if the text on the stone matched who they were looking for. The Sandstone tablet was worn and had some biological growth on it, but by using a high powered LED flashlight on a cloudy day I was able to verify the text and photograph it for the family.
With the verification completed, they wanted to place a Bronze plaque or other more robust memorial stone. We decided on a design for a Granite memorial stone with the exact text as the original and a statement that it was done by the family in 2019. We then designed a cast base that would place both the original and memorial stones on a shared foundation containing a slot for the tablet and a platform for the memorial stone. The new base has two levels so that the memorial stone sits below and forward of the original so as not to obstruct it at all. As you can see in the photo’s, the base has a good buffer space around the edge and is raised above ground level to guard against mower damage, although sadly this cemetery uses w**d killer around the stones to save money w**d eating.
The tablet was broken off and just stuck in the dirt and it was not taken up prior to the day it was set in it’s new
base, so we got a big surprise when we found more script that was hidden by the dirt. It reads: “Stop stranger stop
nor dare presume, without one silent tear, to tread the earth ware lies entomb’d, a friend the husband dear.”
Ebenezer Condit(Condict) was born in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. He and his family moved to Ohio in 1817, 10 years before his death. Thanks to his descendants, there will be a monument to him for many years to come.

Mystery Solved!
09/16/2019

Mystery Solved!

One thing that I, and I know others, hate to see is a gravestone in concrete. Unfortunately, I see a lot of it. Over the...
08/13/2019

One thing that I, and I know others, hate to see is a gravestone in concrete. Unfortunately, I see a lot of it. Over the last 11 months, with 4 months off for winter, I have removed over 1 cubic yard of concrete from gravestones. That is more than 4000 pounds of concrete! The most common situation is that someone with good intentions digs a hole, pours it full of wet concrete and inserts a grave marker. They "know" that this will provide support for this gravestone for many years to come, and they may or may not be right.
Rarely does concrete come off without some damage, so a decision has to be made as to what extent you are going to go to to try to remove it. Sometimes you leave it alone and straighten the marker the best you can, sometimes you trim it down so it's less obvious, and sometimes you go all in on removing it.
Many times we benefit from the laziness of the person who placed the stone in concrete because they frequently didn't take the time to clean the stone. This is especially fortunate if it is a smooth Marble tablet, as if you know what you are doing, you can make the concrete release with almost no surface damage to the stone.
The gravestone in this before/after photo was one of these uncleaned ones. The bottom section that fits into the slot in the base was crumbling so someone many years ago poured concrete around it to support it. It looked okay just sitting there, but when I lifted the tablet, it came right out of the base along with the concrete. The concrete wasn't even adhered to the base, only the tablet. After trimming the concrete as closely as possible to the tablet, I carefully chisled the remainder off in large slabs, one from the front and one from the rear.
The crumbling bottom was trimmed off and the tablet was reset into the original base, which was raised and leveled, with proper mortar not concrete.
Concrete can be a very useful and inexpensive alternative to having a natural stone carved. However, you don't just stick a gravestone into wet concrete, you cast a new base from the concrete and mate it to the stone using soft mortar. If someone tells you otherwise, find someone else to work on your gravestone.
Thanks for reading this long post, and please share my Gravestone Transformations page and www.GravestoneTransformations.com

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Peebles, OH

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