Are homeyard graveyard actually a common thing?

7 comments

1. No. Very uncommon. Requires special permission depending on state.

2. No, they are extremely uncommon unless it’s an old family cemetery on an property from before regulations were made forbidding it in most cases. Some people bury their pets in their yards though, where allowed (and sometimes when not allowed too)

3. No, the bodies behind my house are illegal, extremely.

4. I mean, I have one. But that doesn’t mean it’s common.

   ETA- not sarcasm. My reply was too blasé sorry. It isn’t mine personally, it is a family plot. I know many people that have them and there is actually more than one in my family.

   I think they are probably most common in the Southern US but they exist elsewhere also.

5. There are a few family plots in my area, but they date back to the late 1700s-early 1800s. Grandfathered in before burial regulations were set in the state. They also haven’t been used since the 19th century, either, in my own personal research.

6. My family has one behind their house, but it’s from way back in the day when family plots on your own land were legal. The original owners of the farm the house is on are buried there. I guess the son came home and brought a disease that wiped out the rest of the family, pretty tragic.

7. Depends on location. Not something the average suburban house has certainly. But I’m from a rural area settled by homesteaders in the early 1800s (SW Virginia) and many farms have been in the family since then, with a family cemetery located on the property.

   My half-brother’s mother’s family was in that situation until they sold off part of the farmland with the cemetery on it. (He owns the remaining land/houses, it’s down to around 120 acres from originally over a thousand.) There is an easement to access just the cemetery and my other half brother is buried there.