Isolated and abandoned family cemeteries quite common in Louisiana

Unfortunately, there are many isolated and abandoned cemeteries in Louisiana. The cold stones sit and wait for no one as time passes. Local history, banal, disorganized and unkept is shoved aside by current affairs. You drive by an abandoned cemetery or graveyard everyday. Hunters stumble upon old tombs in the thick on their way to claiming that prized buck. Tractors till the earth in heaps and mounds and suddenly, the silent speak.


From The Advertiser November 2, 2008
Expert lays down the law on home archaeology, by Judy Bastien • jbastien@theadvertiser.com

["Ryan Seideman, a lawyer and archaeologist, is the person in Louisiana whose job it is to determine if private citizens have a right to any artifacts in their possession. Seideman is also the section chief of the state's Lands and Natural Resources section for the Louisiana Department of Justice.

Some of the laws are clear-cut - like the one governing human remains. Finding human remains is a more common occurrence than you might think. It happens often enough that Seideman recently gave a talk at UL titled A Nonlegal Guide to Louisiana Archaeology Laws or What Not to Do If You Find a Skull in the Attic.

"It's very common," Seideman said. "You find, all over the state, isolated and abandoned family cemeteries."]