Mrs King's great grandmother, great grandfather and two of their sons, one who died in World War 1, are buried at the Bromley Cemetery - but their gravestones are damaged and in dire need of repairs.
Mrs King's son-in-law Steve Berry is a concrete layer and he wants to do the repairs for free himself.
However, the Christchurch City Council said this cannot happen.
And Mrs King's family will have to pay a city council-approved contractor if they want the graves repaired.
Mr Berry has installed headstones at the Linwood Cemetery and Harewood Memorial Gardens and Crematorium in the past and estimates going through a city council-approved contractor will cost about $5000.
Said Mr Berry: "I do do a bit of work for them [the city council] and when they do get contractors to do work it is I'd say extravagant but they may not say that."
Said Mrs King: "I didn't know that we had great grandparents at Bromley Cemetery so we went and had a look and the grave was disgusting.
"It had all fallen over, the headstone was off, there had been nothing done to it.
"They [the city council] won't let us tidy that grave and yet it's a disgrace, that whole cemetery," she said.
One of Mrs King's relatives' headstones has fallen over and the family wants to prop it up again so people can see the name on it.
Mrs King believes the families of people buried at the cemetery should have the right to fix the graves of their loved ones themselves.
"These are family members.
"These people came from Ireland, came over on a boat . . . started businesses, they had 12 children.
"They have to be respected. If I had a grave and it was in that sort of repair I'd be disappointed in my family that they didn't at least tidy it up and make it respectable so people could read who they were in that grave. That's all we want."
