There is a small unmarked cemetery about a mile from our home. There are only three headstones there. On Memorial Day, 2009, someone had placed 30-40 Veteran's Flags on the land around those three headstones. Curiousity won out! We have lived here for 15 years - never saw flags there before. Upon re-inspection of this cemetery, we noticed that there were hundreds and hundreds of brick-sized markers that someone had recently brought to the surface - each with a number on it.

Further investigation led us to the Toledo State Hospital Cemetery Reclamation Project. A group of concerned citizens have been working to reclam the forgotten souls buried by the State Hospital nearly a century ago. It is an awesome project!

We have volunteered to research the interments at the Toledo State Hospital Cemetery. While the State DOES have record of who they buried there - and the corresponding brick number for each soul, they claim it is a violation of the patients' right to privacy - HIPAA? You've got to be kidding me... HIPPA!

The State Hospital SOLD the land the TWO cemeteries are on... thereby transferring perpetual care to another owner... like transferring from one institution to another, however, those records did NOT transfer with the land??? (Isn't that a violation of HIPAA? To transfer a patient without the needed records for continuation of care?)

Anyways, us cemetery junkies don't need no neat and tidy list to work from - now do we? I have been taking the PUBLIC census records which NAME the patients (violation of HIPAA) and then pulling PUBLIC death certificates to see where each of the patients died and were buried. Tidious! There are 1,994 people buried in the 2 seperate sites the State Hospital used!

After completing the 1900 census, I have squeaked out 201 interments... that's 10% of the total number buried there. Now comes the BIG CHALLENGE... to learn the corresponding brick number, a living family member has to call for that information. I hope and pray that descendants will find the memorials on Find-A-Grave and contact me! I am happy to share where you need to call to learn the brick number so we can start to put a name in place of a number.

On a side note, We have been addicted to genealogy for over a decade. We vacation in remote places and spend most of our time in cemeteries. There are more stories in a headstone than there are in Hollywood.



We hope our efforts help someone out there!

Happy digging!

There is a small unmarked cemetery about a mile from our home. There are only three headstones there. On Memorial Day, 2009, someone had placed 30-40 Veteran's Flags on the land around those three headstones. Curiousity won out! We have lived here for 15 years - never saw flags there before. Upon re-inspection of this cemetery, we noticed that there were hundreds and hundreds of brick-sized markers that someone had recently brought to the surface - each with a number on it.

Further investigation led us to the Toledo State Hospital Cemetery Reclamation Project. A group of concerned citizens have been working to reclam the forgotten souls buried by the State Hospital nearly a century ago. It is an awesome project!

We have volunteered to research the interments at the Toledo State Hospital Cemetery. While the State DOES have record of who they buried there - and the corresponding brick number for each soul, they claim it is a violation of the patients' right to privacy - HIPAA? You've got to be kidding me... HIPPA!

The State Hospital SOLD the land the TWO cemeteries are on... thereby transferring perpetual care to another owner... like transferring from one institution to another, however, those records did NOT transfer with the land??? (Isn't that a violation of HIPAA? To transfer a patient without the needed records for continuation of care?)

Anyways, us cemetery junkies don't need no neat and tidy list to work from - now do we? I have been taking the PUBLIC census records which NAME the patients (violation of HIPAA) and then pulling PUBLIC death certificates to see where each of the patients died and were buried. Tidious! There are 1,994 people buried in the 2 seperate sites the State Hospital used!

After completing the 1900 census, I have squeaked out 201 interments... that's 10% of the total number buried there. Now comes the BIG CHALLENGE... to learn the corresponding brick number, a living family member has to call for that information. I hope and pray that descendants will find the memorials on Find-A-Grave and contact me! I am happy to share where you need to call to learn the brick number so we can start to put a name in place of a number.

On a side note, We have been addicted to genealogy for over a decade. We vacation in remote places and spend most of our time in cemeteries. There are more stories in a headstone than there are in Hollywood.



We hope our efforts help someone out there!

Happy digging!