The headstones were under about 1.5 metres of soil.
Contractors and a digger funded by Gisborne District Council are retrieving the 88 headstones buried by Cook County Council in 1982 as they ‘‘cleaned up” the cemetery that served Gisborne from 1860 to 1916.
Back between 1971 and 1973 another 500 or so headstones considered to be in too poor a condition to save were removed and made into rubble used to fill in Houhoupiko Stream.
Mrs Bain has gathered historic data and photographs recording her family’s genealogy. Her children are accustomed to being in cemeteries.
Her mother started researching the family’s history.
“I’m adding the meat.”
Her relatives whose headstone is buried in the trench are her great great grandmother Louisa Houlden, who died on June 10, 1932, aged 83, and her daughter Kate, who died of cancer on March 21, 1911, aged 27.
Descendants of the women, named Forrest and Webb, still live in Gisborne.
It had been a long process to finally retrieve the headstones, she said.
“I’m happy,’’ said Mrs Bain.
“It’s positive.
“I’m hoping we’ll get something back.
“Hopefully the stone comes up.”
The headstone was a large one and featured a Salvation Army emblem, she said.
Louisa Houlden was a solo mother with nine children and the Salvation Army played a prominent role in supporting the family.
Mrs Houlden ran the Salvation Army home and laid the Salvation Army’s stone at their original headquarters in Gisborne.
Relatives agreed to restorationThe excavation project has been led by Gisborne District Council and the Friends of Makaraka Cemetery Trust, who have long campaigned to have the headstones dug up and restored.
The council has worked with the trust, iwi groups Te Aitanga a Mahaki and Rongowhakaata and Heritage New Zealand to ensure requirements are met during the excavation process.
The relatives of headstone owners have given consent to the trust to uplift the headstones on their behalf.
Relatives were given the option to either have the headstone removed and potentially included as part of a proposed memorial, or for the headstone to be removed and placed back on its original site at the cemetery.
Markers in the cemetery indicate those grave sites.
Of the descendants involved in the project, 68 have opted for the proposed memorial and eight chose for the headstones to be returned to their original site, depending on their condition.
No-one wanted the headstones left in the trench.
Trieve Rolls, of the Friends of Makaraka Cemetery Trust, said descendants could change the option they had earlier chosen.
There had been 10 headstones for which living relatives could not be found.
That recently decreased to eight.
Unclaimed headstones will be held in secure storage managed by the council.
Descendants had been waiting for many years to see the 88 headstones retrieved.
“It’s pleasing to see them come out.”
The headstones will be put on pallets, cleaned and identified by Brian Shepherd of Gisborne Monumental Masons.
They will be fenced off and descendants will be able to make an appointment to view them.
Mr Shepherd and Bay Stonecraft will be able to provide quotes for any repair work required.
Mrs Rolls said two headstones were known to honour an American and a Norwegian who won a bravery award.
Gillian Ward, of the Historic Places Trust, said all the headstones had a story to tell.
She hoped they would not be too damaged.
She believes the council should pay for any damage caused by a predecessor council in an act of desecration.
“It’s not the fault of the families. They did not break them.”
