THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY AMY WU, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
STUART SMITH spends his spare time combing through the back roads of Great Bridge in his purple pickup truck searching for tombstones.
When he finds one he pushes aside the overgrown weeds, stoops down and meticulously copies the names and dates of the dead in a blue, loose-leaf binder. Sometimes he takes pictures of the grave marker and sketches a map of the site, marking grave locations. At other times he'll trace over age-worn inscriptions with chalk to make them more legible.
``Some people like to play golf on weekends,'' said Smith, 55. ``I just like local history.''
For the past year Smith has been gathering information to update a 1979 publication called ``Tombstone Inscriptions of Norfolk County Virginia,'' which lists hundreds of names of people buried in Chesapeake. The book was published by the Norfolk County Historical Society in cooperation with the Great Bridge Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.
Smith said it saddens him to see gravesites, which are traditionally revered by families, overgrown with weeds and forgotten. Smith has been a Chesapeake resident since 1954, and his family's cemetery is in Great Bridge. Smith's great-great-grandparents and other relatives are buried at Woodard-Harper Cemetery about a mile from his home. The cemetery is well-kept, thanks to a neighbor who mows the lawn.
All graves deserve such respect, Smith said, but few get the attention they need as developers move in and families move away.
``I feel a responsibility. It's just something I can relate to because I have ancestors in unmarked graves, so I can understand why someone else would want this,'' Smith said.
Smith, a first sergeant for the Chesapeake Police Department, developed his interest in graveyards when he was young.
``My grandmother told me where the cemetery was,'' he said. ``There are about eight people there, but only four stones.''
Relatives told him he had ancestors buried in Princess Anne County, but he is doubtful that he will ever find them. There are no records and no markers.
``That's why I'm trying to record what I can so someone 100 years from now won't have the same problem,'' Smith explained.
He said he often finds that names on the stones are misspelled or that the dates are wrong.
``Sometimes I find a family member who can give me an exact date,'' Smith said; he's contacted family members several times to verify dates, or tell them that the grave is in poor condition.
Smith said the city doesn't keep records of grave sites. He hopes the city's planning department will use his updated information to mark grave sites on land so that landowners will know where graves are located.
``Right now a developer can say he didn't know,'' he said.
A record of grave sites would also help in case a grave is vandalized, or deteriorates, and would be a resource for genealogists.
``It's just something that I think needs to be done,'' he said. MEMO: The 1979 edition of ``Tombstone Inscriptions of Norfolk County
Virginia'' is available in the Wallace Memorial Room of Chesapeake
Central Library. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
[no photo cutlines]
Smith found this grave marker in a plot behind Oscar Smith High
School. He keeps records of the graves he finds and plans to update
a 1979 publication called "Tombstone Inscriptions of Norfolk County
Virginia.<' by CNB