I'd like to jump into this thread, if I may.

A few years ago, I visitied the Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, NY. It's the oldest and largest cemetery in the town. This is the town where my family lived in the 1850s and 1860s. Most of my family from this time is buried there.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I was told by the people in the cemetery office that they had a policy of reusing grave sites after a period of about 100 years. The man and woman who told me this assured me that NY State law allowed for this practice.

Can someone tell me if this is so?

If so, I can't express my horror.

On an aside, this cemetery has great documentation. The records included birth dates and locations. It also included spouse and parents names. Unfortunately, the records are kept in a series of books that they keep in an old medal filing cabinet. The pages in the books have already begun to crumble and I was told (in 1996) that the local genealogical society did not have copies of these records)

Anyway, I'd love to have someone answer the question about "reuse" of old burial sites.

-Bob