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City of Boston Seeks Assistance Placing Historic Gravestones

21 Oct 2020 1:02 PM | Anonymous

From an article published in the City of Boston's website:

"In the archives of the City of Boston’s Historic Burying Grounds Initiative, 11 fully intact gravestones lie ready to be placed in the correct burying ground. We’re looking for historians, researchers, and genealogists who may have records that indicate where the person was originally interred. If you have information that could help, please contact kelly.thomas@boston.gov.

"The gravestones and fragments were removed from the site over several decades during the 20th century. Some gravestones had fallen over and others had previously broken and the fragments were lying on the ground. They were removed in order to save the gravestones from further deterioration or theft, in the hopes they could be repaired at a later date and put back in the site. Some of the gravestones were not well labeled, or the labels had deteriorated.

"Some gravestones were returned to us a few years ago from storage at the Bostonian Society. They had been found during street repair work downtown and were given to the Bostonian Society for safekeeping. An article from the Boston Daily Globe from September 14, 1907 describes how many gravestones were "unearthed during the past 75 years  in various places in the business section of the City." These gravestones were used "to make covers for cesspools, wells, and chimneys."

You can read the full article, including names of the deceased and pictures of the tombstones at: https://www.boston.gov/news/city-seeks-assistance-placing-historic-gravestones

My thanks to newsletter reader David Dearborn for telling me about this story.

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