WEBVTT - What Happens to the Unclaimed Dead?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogele bam here. Have you ever wondered how cities

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<v Speaker 1>deal with the bodies of the unclaimed dead, including the homeless, unidentified,

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<v Speaker 1>and unknown. Don't feel weird for being a little bit morbid.

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<v Speaker 1>Cities have always had a protocol for making sure everyone,

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<v Speaker 1>even the nameless and faceless, has an eternal resting place.

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<v Speaker 1>In Biblical times and before refrigeration or embalming, the dead

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<v Speaker 1>had to be buried as quickly as possible. All bodies

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<v Speaker 1>went into the same burial ground. We spoke with cemetery

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<v Speaker 1>writer Lauren Rhodes. She said, if you were part of

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<v Speaker 1>the community, you were buried together. If you were a

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<v Speaker 1>stranger or traveling through or whatever, you got the outskirts

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<v Speaker 1>of the burial ground. That practice continued into medieval Europe.

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<v Speaker 1>American cemeteries started taking shape in the sixteen twenties in

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<v Speaker 1>New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement that eventually became New York City.

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<v Speaker 1>Burial grounds at churches there designated separate land for strangers.

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<v Speaker 1>Rhodes says these New Amsterdam cemeteries are the first accounts

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<v Speaker 1>she was found in the United States of potter's fields

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<v Speaker 1>burial places for people who remained unclaimed, usually because they

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<v Speaker 1>were unidentified or didn't have enough money for a cemetery plot.

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<v Speaker 1>She said they were drawing a distinction between the people

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<v Speaker 1>that belonged and the people that didn't belong. In a

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<v Speaker 1>potter's field, the city paid for the burial of the dead.

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<v Speaker 1>The term originates from the Gospel of Matthew, part of

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<v Speaker 1>the New Testament, when the high priests of Jerusalem paid

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<v Speaker 1>for a burial place for strangers and the poor. Rhodes said,

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<v Speaker 1>when the city buries you, they bury you at the

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<v Speaker 1>least possible expense, And so the grave isn't all that deep,

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<v Speaker 1>the coffin's not very nice. If there's a marker, it's

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<v Speaker 1>the cheapest possible marker. So anybody who could afford it

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<v Speaker 1>would choose to be buried in a cemetery rather than

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<v Speaker 1>the potter's field. Every city had a potter's field, but

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<v Speaker 1>many details and laws rely on the given place. In

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<v Speaker 1>some cities, the wait until a person was buried could

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<v Speaker 1>depend on something as mundane as the cabinet maker's schedule.

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<v Speaker 1>Creation wasn't popular, so everyone was buried. The cabinet makers

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<v Speaker 1>also worked as coffin makers, so burial been as soon

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<v Speaker 1>as they could finish a coffin. In other places, cities

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<v Speaker 1>skipped the coffin and instead wrapped bodies in a sheet,

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<v Speaker 1>though that changed around the mid nineteenth century. Most cities

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<v Speaker 1>switched from burying their dead in Potter's fields to cremating

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<v Speaker 1>bodies by the mid twentieth century. Today, almost every city

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<v Speaker 1>in the US cremates unclaimed people, and Potter's field burials

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<v Speaker 1>have fallen out of use. As Rhodes said, it's a

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<v Speaker 1>whole lot cheaper to put an urn on a shelf

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<v Speaker 1>than it is to bury a body. However, New York

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<v Speaker 1>City is rare to this day. The city fairies unclaimed

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<v Speaker 1>bodies in pine coffins to Heart Island, an uninhabited island

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<v Speaker 1>with a Potter's Field of more than one million people.

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<v Speaker 1>Cities have deals with local funeral homes to handle unclaimed

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<v Speaker 1>bodies after cremation. Every city has different rules for how

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<v Speaker 1>it handles remains. Los Angeles County, for example, stores them

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<v Speaker 1>for three years and buries them in a mass grave

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<v Speaker 1>if they go unclaimed. Finding people in Potter's fields can

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<v Speaker 1>get tricky. Cities don't usually pay for markers, so Potter's

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<v Speaker 1>Fields are mostly filled with unmarked graves. If you think

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<v Speaker 1>you know someone who might be buried by the city,

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<v Speaker 1>Roads advises you go to the city and request the

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<v Speaker 1>death certificate, which should say where the body ended up

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<v Speaker 1>if the city handled it. Some of those records are online.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, you first have to know where a person died,

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<v Speaker 1>and if a person dies without identification, that can easily

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<v Speaker 1>create a situation where a city ends up with a

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<v Speaker 1>Jane or John Doe. Rhodes said, it's really easy to

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<v Speaker 1>slip through the cracks if you're elderly, and if you

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<v Speaker 1>have a heart attack on the street or something like that,

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<v Speaker 1>or if somebody robs your body and you've never been

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<v Speaker 1>arrested or fingerprinted, it's really hard for them to know

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<v Speaker 1>who you are unless somebody can recognize you. At the

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<v Speaker 1>Potter's Field in New York City, the Heart Island Project

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<v Speaker 1>strives to create a map and listing of the sixty

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<v Speaker 1>seven thousand and four people who have been buried there since.

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<v Speaker 1>Not Unlike other cemeteries across the country, Potter's fields also

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<v Speaker 1>speak to the shaky ground that cemeteries are built on. Literally,

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<v Speaker 1>many Potter's Fields have been moved or have had other

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<v Speaker 1>structures built on top of them in the name of progress.

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<v Speaker 1>Even cemeteries full of markers have met this fate. In

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<v Speaker 1>New Orleans, two of the Mercedes ben Superdomes parking garage

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<v Speaker 1>sit atop an old Protestant cemetery. The remains removed and relocated.

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<v Speaker 1>Graves and remains were also moved in Fremont, California, in

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<v Speaker 1>the San Francisco Bay Area for a new housing tract.

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<v Speaker 1>Rhodes said, we think of cemeteries as permanent and monumental,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're not. They're really fragile, and all it takes

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<v Speaker 1>as an earthquaker, hurricane, and the monuments are all damaged

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<v Speaker 1>and they're really expensive to repair. It's easier to take

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<v Speaker 1>them down than to fix them, and that history is

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<v Speaker 1>just lost. Today's episode was written by A. Dina Solomon

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil. Rhod's latest book, By the Way,

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<v Speaker 1>is one and Cemeteries to See Before You Die. Check

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<v Speaker 1>it out, and for more on this and lots of

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<v Speaker 1>others slightly morbid but entirely interesting topics, visit our home

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<v Speaker 1>planet how Stuff Works dot Com.