March 14, 2019 at 6:30 pm
On Thursday, 14 March, Claire Woerner, a Huntsville native, will present, what she describes as Historic Cemetery 101. Her emphasis will suit civil war enthusiasts and genealogists and will include the basics of grave marker identification and cemetery symbolism. Additionally, she will describe various methods of gravestone maintenance and repair. Ms. Woerner will illustrate and describe the different types of military markers and their significance as well as how to set the modern military stone tablet to prevent them from leaning. Her presentation includes guidance of how to select the right craftsman to preserve aging cemeteries and the best criteria to use to measure the quality of their work.
Claire Woerner graduated from John Paul II Catholic High school in 2009 and earned a degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Warren Wilson College in 2013 with an Archaeology emphasis. She was extensively involved with Huntsville’s Glenwood Cemetery Project in 2015 and worked for the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area from 2016-2017 where she spent an extraordinary amount of effort addressing issues with the recreation area’s 270 public rural cemeteries. Her community outreach has resulted in many presentations to groups interested in cemetery maintenance and the proper care of historic monuments. Ms. Woerner is an active member of the Association for Gravestone Studies which equipped her to share her experience in monument preservation and historic cemetery maintenance. She loves studying and visiting cemeteries as a tool to better understand local history and has a special passion for concrete folk markers. Ms. Woerner is currently working at the Huntsville Historic Depot as a tour guide and a researcher and conservator for Alabama Constitution Hall Park.
