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T[_5_]

In article >, gravesend10
@verizon.net says...
>
> On Sat, 17 Aug 2013 09:12:42 +0100, Janet > wrote:
>
> >In article <2013081616440689907-xxx@yyyzzz>, says...
> >>
> >> On 2013-08-16 22:59:15 +0000, T said:
> >>
> >> > Here's how I look at it. First of all there's the real estate issue.
> >> > Then I think about the stone and I remember that since the late 1960's
> >> > EVERY single death in at least the United States is recorded and in a
> >> > database for perpetuity.
> >>
> >> Not that I care either way, but don't you think a block of grante might
> >> last longer than a "perpetual database". Having been a database jockey
> >> for 20+ years, I can assure you that they don't last forever, even if
> >> they are federal.
> >
> > Neither do blocks of granite. In a wet windy climate, engraved
> >memorial identifications erode faster than you might think. There are
> >graveyards locally with granite headstones hundreds of years old, but
> >after the first century the older names get very hard to read and
> >eventually it's just a chunk of stone marking the spot. Wealthier
> >families sometimes get the earlier, near illegible names on their
> >family stones re-engraved when the new ones are added.
> >
> > Some time in the overcrowded-planet's future I reckon most records
> >and graves will just be a hologram. You'll be able to summon up the
> >hologram records and a hologram of your family gravestone.. before it
> >was recycled to build the underground shelters.
> >
> > Janet UK
>
> That was long ago. Nowadays grave markers are engraved far deeper so
> will be legible for many hundreds of years. But it matters not, after
> a few hundred years no one will be around who cares about ordinary
> folks. Marked graves are really for those who are young enough to
> remember the departed.

Of course they are. But birth and death records are still useful to some
for genealogic research.