Friends of WV genealogy and local history
Submitted by GFS Susi@aol.com
From a West Virginia Mailing List

This note is a bit political; but, I hope you will understand when you see how it affects what we as genealogists do.

Two years ago I had a call from a man in Webster County asking me how he could get permission to visit his wife's grave. She was buried in a family cemetery on land that had formerly belonged to the family. Now the land was sold and the landowners were denying him access to the cemetery. I had to tell him that there was no law permitting him access, that the landowner was within his rights in denying access.

Last year a family here in Lewis County ran afoul of the landowner when they tried to bury their mother in what was once a church cemetery. The land around the cemetery had been sold, the new property owner had built a new house across the access road and would not permit the hearse to carry the mother to her final resting place. The case did go to court, a ruling was made for the establishment of a new road (which has not yet been done), and the landowner claims that he doesn't have to permit the family access to visit their mother's grave. Recently, a son of the family, after giving the property owner two weeks notice, was met by a man with a gun when he tried to visit his mother's grave.

I know of other similar cases as these scattered around the state.

Last year a bill was introduced in the WV Senate that would have addressed these problems. The House did not pass the bill.

A couple of weeks ago, the WV Senate passed SB 90 which, if adopted by the House or if combined with a bill from the House would be a step forward in permitting access to family or private cemeteries by cemetery plot owners, heirs of deceased persons, family members of deceased persons and persons interested in engaging in genealogy research for the purposes of visitation of the grave sites, maintenance of the grave site or cemetery or research. It would also create a cause of action for injunctive relief if a person is not permitted access to the cemetery, requires visitors to conduct themselves in a responsible manner and limits the use of motor vehicles when accessing the cemetery. Now the House has HB 4370 in committee. If it does not get out of committee and if it is not acted upon in the next couple of weeks, the bill will die and there will be no relief.

You can read HB4370 in its entirety at: http://129.71.161.247/scripts/as_web.exe?hbills2000+D+7832961 (No longer linked to that topic)

You can read the committee version of SB 90 (the one that passed) at: http://129.71.161.247/scripts/as_web.exe?sbills2000+D+9151603 (No longer linked to that topic)

The genealogical and historical communities in West Virginia began acting in concert four years ago when we established History Day at the Legislature. Now is the time for us to get our act even more together and contact our delegates about the importance of this bill!!!

The property rights activists are sending negative comments to the sponsors of this bill and others.

Let us, West Virginia's genealogists, family researchers and historians, work together to preserve an important part of our history and gain access to our sacred grounds.

If you live in West Virginia, please contact your delegate about this bill and getting it out of committee. Some of the people who can help us get this out of committee and hopefully get it approved are Delegates Rick Staten, Bob Ashley, Oscar Hines and the delegates who introduced the bill: Facemyer, Faircloth, L. White, Amores.

If you live out of state and want to offer your comments, you can send them snail mail to any of the persons named in last paragraph. Address it to them at the WV House of Delegates, Capitol Building, Charleston, WV 25305 - or send to me via e-mail and I will print them out and take them with me to Charleston next Wednesday evening (for History Day on Thursday).

For further information about the legislature you can visit http://www.LEGIS.state.wv.us

Some friends and I are sending this to all the county-L lists here in WV. Please feel free to pass it on to others you know who are interested in West Virginia's cemeteries.

UPDATE 9/28/2020: Editor's Note - Some law was passed to allow for access to cemeteries on privately held property. I am not sure if it is the same law as referred to in this article, but more information can be found at http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/cemcodes.html