The best place to start is the Office of the State Archaeologist (or whatever the office is called in your state. I'm only familiar with Connecticut or Maryland). They'll be able to tell you about restoring and protecting the graves. Be ready to hear that they think you should leave it alone.

Different states have different protections for graveyards. In Maryland, for instance, unmarked graveyards have no protection if they are on private property, but you can't disturb graves with markers (and this may or may not include feildstones). It makes for some interesting landscaping choices. In other states, unmarked graves need to be respected. The state archaeologist will be able to help you with that. S/He should also have information on how to get legal protection of the site if it doesn't already have it.

The other people you may want to contact is the county cemetery board. They may have a record of the cemetery and who is in it, and they need one if they don't.

The county historical society will be another good local resource. Depending on how active it is and has been in the past, they may have information on your cemetery. If they didn't start keeping African American histories until very recently, check with the oldest African American church. It's possible they might have records or oral histories in their archives

Last but not least, once you have it protected, you could contact the historical archaeology department at your state university. This would be a great PhD project, and could yield valuable information about the lives of these people. You will probably not find their names, but they would have a voice. That is my opinion, and you have to do what you think is the right thing.

Professional archaeologist here:

Okay, so here's the unfortunate thing: in the US there are lots of cemeteries exactly like yours. Slaves, poor sharecroppers, just poor rural folks, family plots, abandoned churches, individual graves, and even just abandoned cemeteries from small communities. They're everywhere. I've come across plots as small as three headstones nestled on a flat spot on a hill in the middle of the woods. It's actually pretty amazing how common they are. People buried their dead anywhere they could.

Some of these are in far worse shape than yours probably is, some are in better. Most have been neglected, a lot have been vandalized, some have been completely demolished and are only found when a developer comes up with a earth mover bucket full of bones. But in general, the unfortunate truth is that there's not much that can be done for them.

You can clean up the under- and over-growth if you want, but much beyond that is just not possible.

I suspect that some of the stones may have fallen over, that's not uncommon at these types of cemeteries. You could (I suppose) make an effort to re-place them in their original locations, but it may not really be worth the effort.

I've seen a lot of "contact the local historical society" or "contact local university people." That's not a bad idea, but here's the truth about that:

• most local historical societies are just a bunch of old white folks who may or may not care about another slave cemetery, and even if they do care, they probably don't have any records to help you out. Slave cemeteries were not particularly well-documented even as they were being used.

• university professors (unless they specifically specialize in the history of the region and that time period especially) are simply not going to have time or funding to do anything for you. It takes a lot of effort and time to document a cemetery even if the stones are in good shape and the place has been well maintained. And tracking down records is nightmarish, if they even exist.

It could be an interesting project for some students overseen by a professor if there's a class that specifically is focused on public archaeology or public history. Or it could be an interesting service project if they want to come out and help clean it up.

But I'm sorry to tell you that these answers-- historical society, local university-- are almost certainly not going to bear fruit. These people simply won't have the time or resources to help you. Ultimately, university professors have to teach and do research. They already have projects underway that are going to yield solid data on which they can publish. Yours would be a brand new project for which there is no data other than the fact that there's a cemetery, and would be unlikely to be significant enough to provide what would be needed for a publishable piece of writing / research.

Furthermore, student research is also unlikely, although you might be able to convince an undergrad or a master's student to do something with your cemetery. Not PhD, probably. Similar to the reason above, there's probably not enough information available to make it useful. But maybe for a class project or a master's thesis... maybe.

The office of the state archaeologist is a good contact (as was suggested by one person) but they are also overworked and usually under-funded and staffed, and it's unlikely they'd do anything but mark it on a map of cemeteries in the state. Small abandoned cemeteries are actually quite common, especially on private land in older-settled parts of the US and in rural areas.

Basically...

You have an old abandoned cemetery. Sadly, this is not unique. Because it's not endangered by development, it's safe. Which makes it even less critical.

Clean it up if you want. Take some rubbings if any of the stones has anything left on them. And do let the local university know about it, in case maybe they want to do a student project out there someday.

And keep people with shovels away, because in every state in the US it's still a crime to disturb a grave, marked or unmarked. Depending on the stones, you might also have to deal with people wanting to steal gravestones for various decorative projects. While this is not strictly illegal with respect to cemeteries on private land, it is of course still theft of property.

But don't count on any significant interest. I'm afraid a cemetery--even an old cemetery-- is just a cemetery.

I'd recommend contacting historians or anthropologists/archaeologists at your nearest college/university to see if they'd be willing to help.

Check with your local or state historical societies. They might have cemetery preservation guidelines and can give you some direction.

Special Collections/Archives professional here.

If you're looking for a source of DIY info, with resources linking to several state organizations, I'd take a gander at Saving Graves: https://www.savinggraves.net/

As far as identification, some archives (or historical societies, local history museums, county history clerks, etc) hold cemetery records that independent historians (usually, at least that's the case in my archives) have mapped out and identified. I have seen a few cases of smaller/"household" cemeteries mapped out in records like this. There's also the possibility of some genealogical research to figure out more information about the property and who stayed there, but it's usually a lot of effort with no guaranteed payoff, and generally that research is on you.

Source: I have worked on several historical cemetery mapping and preservation projects for pioneer-era people and Victorian pet cemeteries, and I oversee a historical cemetery tour.

Edit: I also work in an archive that holds extensive cemetery records for private and public cemeteries in my area.

Historic Preservation specialist here! You've had some great info on where to learn more and how to protect the cemetery. If you don't learn much through local historic societies and the like, I'd suggest looking through records yourself. If you don't know who owned the property before the Civil War, go to your local deeds office and be prepared to spend a lot of time searching your way back from your deed to find out. From there, you can look for things like census records related to any families who owned the land at that time. If it was a farm, there could be a record of it as well through farm records and I believe there was some sort of farm census (or something like it) in some areas. It may not offer you specifics of who is buried there but it can turn up names of the slaves who belonged to the land owner. If it does then at least you have an idea of likely candidates for who is buried there.

Now I've noticed there isn't much advice on the physical preservation so I'd like to offer what I know.. First check local laws as they can vary on what is okay and what isn't. Once you've got the all clear, get the area cleaned up by removing overgrowth. Old gravestones are often poorly kept and people don't understand how to properly repair or clean them. If there are broken headstones, repair them using lime mortar or another period and material appropriate fix. Limestone and sandstone were common headstone choices. Do not use cement as it is too strong, holds moisture for a long time, and will further damage the soft stone. For cleaning: There are specialty cleaners out there that are safe for cleaning headstones but you have to know what you're doing and research before you decide on the right one. As a rule of thumb you want to just try water and a natural brush first and see what you can remove. If you absolutely have to use a cleaner, I have heard a lot of positive feedback about D2.

I found this article about cleaning headstones which is in-depth and accurate: https://dengarden.com/landscaping/How-to-Clean-a-Headstone-the-Proper-Way

It is wonderful that you want to preserve and learn about the cemetery on your land. Preservation is tough work and you may decide it is too overwhelming. If you do but you still want something done with it, there are preservation professionals who do the research for a living. You can seek one of them out to handle the research aspect. More than likely they will also have suggestions or connections who can suggest someone knowledgeable to do the cleaning and repair work. A local university with a preservation or similar program may be able to aid in research but probably won't be able to help with physical work. Unless laws are vastly different where you are, most universities won't allow students to work on privately owned land. Only non-profit owned. (That was my experience and that of others I know) It is a legal issue that most don't want to risk.

I hope this info was helpful. I wish you all the luck and hope to see you return to this sub with updates!

Edit: Clarification.

It may be prudent to find out how much of the cost of preservation, by law, has to be borne by the landowner, especially if excavation is required. It probably varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Someone mentioned HBCUs as a possible academic department that may have the resources and interest to help. I wanted to mention Howard University, whose Professor Mark Mack was a director of and archaeologist on the team that preserved the slave burial ground in lower Manhattan.

They have a passion for that kind of work and may be able to help or point you in the right direction.

You may be able to get some information on the enslaved people through your own research using local property records and census records.

I'm not sure what state you're in, but the property deed records should go back hundreds of years (assuming they weren't destroyed in a fire, which has happened). You can then identify who owned the land when, and then use that to identify the enslaved people.

The local deed records contain a record of every sale of the property. Title companies use them to make sure that the person selling the land really owns it. You could research it yourself by going to the county office with deed records (name differs by state). Since your family owns the land, you probably have a legal description of it that will be used to find records. The legal description is different than the address.

The US census records are online digitized. Ancestry.com and other sites have it. You should be able to find information on the people who owned the land during the early 1800s that way. The census is by county, subdivided into parts of the county. So you'd be reviewing a relatively limited area of records.

The 1850 and 1860 censuses had slave schedules that listed the enslaved people by owner. It seldom listed names, but listed age and sex. If the graves have names and ages/years, you may be able to link that census information with the graves.

Depending on the state, there may be other information. Some of it is available online. I've been researching my own ancestors who lived in South Carolina. The county had records of slave sales, and the online records identified the enslaved people by name and age.

The key will be figuring out who, exactly, owned that land in the antebellum period. They will be in the property records and the enslaved people might be mentioned in them.

If you happen to be in Florida, the Florida Public archaeology Network has a running project for recording cemeteries across the state. Feel free to PM me if you want more contact info.

Thank you so much for the excellent information, everyone! I will definitely be pursuing some of these options. I'm very interested in genealogy but haven't had much in identifying the identities of the people buried there. It just broke my heart to know that there are people who have essentially been erased. I really appreciate all the thoughtful replies, and I will be doing my best to figure out some options for the land.

If you haven't already, the most useful immediate thing you could do is take photos and upload to findagrave.com in the appropriate State/County as an unknown cemetery. That can be incredibly useful for people looking for information, even if the graves deteriorate or nothing else ever happens, having the location and photos uploaded is a record of its own. I know I'd love to come across something like this and in fact someone just like you is the reason I know where some of my ancestors lie in a middle of nowhere place in upstate New York.

The above comments regarding how to care for it are good. However, if you’d like to learn the extent of the area of burials Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be used to help identify the grave shafts. It isn’t terribly expensive and I’ve even had university departments who want to train students do work for free.

It is possible that your State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has documentation of the cemetery as well. I work for a local government in Virginia and probably document 2-3 of these per year as well as keeping a GIS layer updated with locations and condition information.

Good luck!

Just to add to this, recorded wills! I help a local researcher who has spent many years tracking down lost structures and family graveyards in northern Kentucky dating from the early 1800s. We've turned up a couple slave graveyards, as well as small family cemeteries.

Wills often included the distributions of the decedent's slaves. In your case, it could at least put a name to the cemetery. Local tax rolls or censuses might give the number of slaves at that location at the time of the survey.

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Genealogy nerd here - it'll probably be hard to identify them, but if you can figure out who owned the land, the slaves may be listed in their will, if it was a big plantation, might be more records, which could help.

Hello everyone,

We've already had a couple of people suggest OP contact a local historical society, college or university. We don't really need another dozen answers along those lines, or "wow cool that's so interesting but I have nothing to say."

IF you are a person who has expertise in grave preservation or historical preservation which can add meaningfully to what's been said, you are welcome to do so. If you're just commenting to comment, please don't -- our rules are intended to facilitate high quality discussion.

We remove comments which don't follow them for reasons including unfounded speculation, shallowness, and of course, inaccuracy. Making comments asking about the removed comments simply compounds this issue. So please, before you try your hand at posting, check out the rules, as we don't want to have to warn you further.

And if you just want to check back in a couple days, see this discussion for how to do so.

Thank you!

Hello, very late reply, but hopefully OP will see this. A really simple technique to make the gravestone engraving more visible without physically damaging the stone is Reflectance Transformation Imaging or RTI.

Here's a link that describes it generally:

https://hiddenheritage.org.uk/explore/graveslab-photography/

And this is a link that teaches you how to do it:

http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads/

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