Preservation versus Restoration

My choice would be preservation.  I don't want it to look like a new cemetery with new-looking stones. I want it to look like a well-cared for and loved old cemetery.
-Lori

Lori,  I say Amen to that !  Even if the stones are not legible they should remain as they are.  Thank God most of us have the correct data anyway.  One might put up a small directory as we have in our cemetery.  It gives the name, date of birth and death and location in the cemetery.  We can get into this idea later on.  First things first.
-Lois

Off the top of my head, preservation would be keeping in current state with out allowing further detoriation and restoring would be going back to original state.
-Marie 

Lori, I agree with your end goal but playing on words a bit it will take a bit of restoration to get it to the point you describe.  Scot's pictures show some of the better tombstones. My ancestor Benjamin Cawood and his wife have the best preserved tombstone in the site but I suspect it was installed at a later date. It looks much like the Caywood stone installed on his son's (George's) lots in Elizeville cemetery. George was my great great grandfather. My classmate Bill Talley listed the grave stones that he could find in 1950 and could not get to all of them.  Today one could not get to all of those.  There are some missing (maybe not there or tumbled over and buried beneath the debris), some broken.  Some graves have sunk, Ground hogs have dug in the cemetery.  It is hard to describe it's condition.  It has to be seen to be believed.  Vines have covered most of it.  Trees are growing into some of the graves.  Mother Nature is rapidly taking over.  We had difficulty getting to the cemetery on our last visit.  We drove up on the old road but had to get out of the cars and walk to the side and climb over a stone wall.  You have to see it to believe it.  I am hoping to go back late in the fall or early winter and see if we can get in through the front.   I am not as physically able as I used to be.  Strange as it may seem I lived in Fleming county until I was 16 and didn't know about this grave yard.  My grandfather (Clarence) is buried at Elizaville close by.  I was very young when he died.  I have visited Elizaville grave yard at least once a year (decoration day) and had no idea.    My first knowledge of the grave yard occurred a few years ago when I starting working on family tree and contacted a relative in the area.
-Marie