All right get the tomatoes ready but her is my take:
Would I go into a public cemetery and detect: NO, it would just look plain bad to others and they probably have close loved ones around still.
What could you find in such a place: Coins, jewelry, misc stuff dropped by people attending funerals or visiting deceased loved ones about the same kind of stuff you might find in a park.
Dectors and depth: You bet ya, in today's age of bronze and metal caskets your detector might just pick it up since it is so large, but like with pipes, and other items but you better know what it is and not dig it. With that interference it just isn't worth detecting for what you would find.
Now would I detect an old private cemetery with the owner permission: YUP, I would also offer to help clean it up, record data and info and research the folks who reside there.
Why would I do it: Well anything lost would be old, maybe a pocket watch, broach, hat pin, and coins. Would I dig..no I would surface scan not going more than 2" Worst case scenario you find some old rusty coffin nails.
Now this is my personal opinion and I am okay ethnically with it, you might have different views and might not feel its right, but I love to uncover the past, and try to re-tale a story, so that those people who lived so long ago that no one remembers might just live again, even if I invent a story around it, I am sure they wouldn't mind much. My story in such a case would go something like"
In a wooded area south of somewhere, lies a small hillside, where the trees line the northern border and whisper the echos of the past drawing me nearer. I discover as I stumble my way over the rocky terrain odd shape stones jutting out sprinkled beneath a blanket of time. In that instant, with the sun dancing methodically through the trees, the realization dawns. YADDA YADDA YADDA..it was within this peaceful forgotten plot I found a delicate broach, I could see her at that instant a young woman falling to the cold- hard- ground, her black skirts pooling around her threatening to swallow her fragile shell. A gray sky looming above, then a boom of thunder her eyes turned to reveal the all the sorrow of the world that was now laid upon her. Then as if no longer able to contain its tears, heaven opened up and cried for her. Struggling to untangle herself from the mass of black cloth, she tried to rise, and as if death itself reached beyond the grave, an invisible hand closed over the tiny oval broach nestled against her heart, plucking it away. She ran at that moment, ran for shelter, away from all she had ever known, her heart, her life, her love, and she swore as the rain lashed against her checks, she swore she heard heard his voice~ fare thee well my love, fare thee well.
--- thats why they "shock" heart attack folks "back to life"--ever heard the term "the spark of life ?"--- well when one dies that life energy in the body has to go somewhere / discharge into something or place.-- this is the basis for "spirits" in my view .
wave good bye to that spot and move on! 150 years from now would you want someone digging around where your family is laid to rest? I would personally contact my local historical society if I were you. A lot of history could be learned from that spot! Best of luck.
