Re: Grave Dowsing: Finding Old Unmarked Graves

Dowsing For Graves

By

Thomas A. Markham




"This is My Fathers World"



He is not, he insists, a graveyard ghoul or an occultist.Yet this retired pharmacist in Jackson, Miss., admits to an uncanny ability to find ancient gravesites. Not only to find them but to determine which way the body lies, and whether it is male or female.



Robert (Bob) Grantham - [email protected] found a method that has eluded scientists and technical experts of various disciplines, who require vast sums of money and tons of equipment to do the same thing with far less success for developers wanting to build over old cemeteries, governments wanting to flood lands with new lakes and families just wanting to find out where Grandpa lies.



Grantham is the first to admit that he has no idea why his simple tools –the dowsing rods– work. He has tried to find out, he says, but without success. He just knows that two metal rods coated with wax, or even a metal coat hanger in a pinch, can locate graves.



Time and time again he has proved it. He no longer tries to explain the phenomenon. "Many feel that one must believe that they will work," he says. "Keep in mind that they won’t work for everyone," he cautions.



But for him, they will locate suicide and murder victims, persons of different lifestyles and races and ages and even animals. And, oh yeah, just like the water witching devices, they will locate water as well.



He uses two 36-inch sections of steel welding rod, 3/32 of an inch in diameter (0.0937") which can be obtained from any welding shop. Clothes line or a straightened clothes hanger will work, but it must be made of steel. At one end he bends a six-inch handle at a 90-degree angle.



Here’s how he does it. He holds one wire in each hand with the long portion protruding in front. He bends his elbows at a 90-degree angle. Away from his body, his forearms are straight out in front. Both arms and rods are parallel to the ground, and the rods are parallel to each other.



Most cemeteries, he notes, bury a body with head to the west and feet to the east – but some do not.



He approaches a suspected grave site at about midpoint, shuffling very slowly. ("Pick a day with little or no wind," he advises.) As he moves over the body, the two wires will cross. Now he backs up and approaches a little to one side - if he is still over the body the wires will cross. Slowly he outlines the length of body - "As you cross over, one rod will go straight ahead and the other will point toward the body," he says. If he is very careful, he can determine actual length within two or three inches.



He keeps a pocketful of red, white and blue poker chips, and drops a white one at each marked point. Marbles or any other small object may be used as a marker.



Now, extending only one wire or rod overhead, he walks slowly toward the midpoint. The rod will slowly turn clockwise if a woman is buried below, or counterclockwise for a male.



Again he starts at midpoint, holding one wire only straight from his body, about waist high. It will turn toward the head of a female, or the feet of a male, he claims. Now he drops a red poker chip at the lady’s head, a blue one at the head of a man. He makes careful measurements and makes proper notations. He may use a couple of small stakes for more permanent marker.



He first heard of these dowsers a few years ago from a cousin in Fox River Grove, Ill. Linda Grantham Stengele, he claims, has become so adept in the dowser use, with such dependable accuracy, that the local courts have accepted her findings in deciding whether to permit a developer to build over possible gravesites. Some companies have spent up to $700 per potential gravesite to determine the same thing, and the length of time to take soil samples, core samples, examine old records, and go through all the other procedures can be expensive as well.



Grantham has found several hundred graves to date,the oldest being about 175 years old. One of his most notable successes came in an Old Catholic Cemetery, St. Michael’s, in Pensacola, Fla., with a TV camera aimed at him. Church officials claimed that their records were accurate, but he found several "empty" graves without a body, and he found several bodies lying several feet away from the marked gravesite.



People have told him that the dowsers will not work witha suicide or a murder victim or an animal, but he has proved them wrong also in the field. Grantham, who filled prescriptions for more than 50 years, has inquired many times into the Why of the dowser, and still has no answer. "It does not work on the principle of magnetism", despite using steel. "No more than the old water witch’s green willow forked stick worked on magnetism"he says.



He asked his son, a nuclear physicist/engineer for an explanation. He checked with other scientists and could offer no good reason. Grantham also asked a nephew, a noted geologist who found ten pages in a Geophysics publication outlining a procedure which locates lost graves with complicated electronicequipment and knowledgeable operators. Granthamwas pleased to note that most of the methods recommended were deemed highly inaccurate as wellas expensive. "And so it remains for us amateurs,with a couple of metal rods or bent coat hangers, to find Grandpa’s grave," he says.



And if you are a believer, and if you are careful, and if you follow Grantham’s directions, you just might succeed.As a personal testimonial I can say with confidence, that Dowsing for Graves worked 100% for me.Last year with a group of my relatives, on a mountain side in Botetourt County, Virginia, we cleaned a The John Marshall Markham Cemetery.This cemetery is over 200 years old, and many of the graves are not marked.Using the method described by Mr. Grantham I dowsed for these unmarked graves.In the course of the day, I found over 50 graves and could determine what sex the body was.On graves that were marked with tomb stones, I was able with complete accuracy to determine the sex of the body, and had verification by the inscription on that stone.So it worked for me, what about you?



http://www.tommymarkham.com/BedfordCounty/dowsingforgraves.htmhttp://www.tommymarkham.com/BedfordCounty/dowsingforgraves.htm

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Note:Posted for your information. No other info, sorry.
I do not know if this works. I've never tried it.