Problem:

After changes in ownership over 250 years the accuracy and completeness of records were in question. Minisink Reformed Church required the location of all marked and unmarked grave sites. These results then needed to be compiled into a CAD drawing and printed on a transparency to overlay on an existing hand-drawn sketch of the plot allocations.

Possible Solutions:

• Dowsing (also known as witching or divining)
• Metal detector
• Ground Penetrating Radar

Results:

• There are many skeptics when considering dowsing and currently there is no scientific evidence to support its effectiveness.
• Metal detectors are a common tool used by many professionals and hobbyists to locate objects below the surface. Because of the age of the cemetery a majority of these graves would not contain metallic objects that a metal detector would be able to locate.
• Ground Penetrating Radar was selected for its effectiveness in locating underground objects. It is also a reliable form of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) that was acceptable to the current owners of the church. The results from the GPR survey would not disturb any of the grave sites. In coordination with our east coast affiliate company, Atlantic Subsurface Imaging, Construction Solutions performed a GPR scan to locate all marked and unmarked graves. In addition an Optical Survey was performed by Construction Solutions to input these results and all monuments and headstones into a CAD program and carefully overlaid onto an existing Google Earth image.

Minisink Results