I recently read a printed article from Milwaukee Public Radio that you can read here.  The article deals with the defunct Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery that operated from 1882 until 1974.  According to the article the cemetery served as the final resting place for many of the county’s poor, as well as those who died as a resident of one of the county institutions or were unidentified or unclaimed.

According to the article, for the past two decades their has been interest in and a project proceeding entitled the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project.  Again according to the article, researchers have been systematically disinterring the bodies in the cemetery to try to identify them and bring their stories to life.

The article states that about 300 of the 2,480 people excavated have been identified.  The project continues on and you can see photos of some of the disinterred remains by clicking to the article.

Funeral Director Daily take:  This article has bothered me.  I see tremendous significance in learning history and what goes with that.  However, on the other hand, I’ve always felt that the resting repose of the dead was sacred and hallowed.  I look to the balance on what might we learn from these people and compare that knowledge against the right to rest eternally undisturbed.

It appears from the description of the project which you can read about here, that the only graves that may have been disturbed were already disturbed from construction on the area beginning as far back as 1932.  However, I would greatly favor doing no disinterments on property that was not already disturbed.  What do you think?

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