The Ancient Burying Ground Association is very proud to announce the completion of the “Uncovering Their History” project, an in-depth, scholarly research study of Africans, African Americans and Native Americans buried in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground during the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

The Board of Directors of the Ancient Burying Ground Association identified a research gap in the burying ground’s early history and wished to build upon earlier work from the mid-1980’s. The Ancient Burying Ground may be the most significant 17^th and 18^th century African American site in Hartford. Documenting these lives as comprehensively as possible and making the results public provides a model for other Connecticut communities to follow.

To make this project possible the Ancient Burying Ground Association partnered with the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office to co-fund the cost of this project. Professor Katherine Hermes and her research team from Central Connecticut State University was commissioned to conduct the primary and secondary research and to make public the results of their findings including a burial database of almost 500 individuals, relationship trees showing connections between family and community members and direct links to Ancestry.com.

The Board of Directors of the Ancient Burying Ground Association is very excited about the findings this project has uncovered. The Association plans on expanding our educational efforts to make these biographical portraits of 17^th & 18^th century African, African-American and Native-American lives available to researchers, descendants, genealogists, and scholars and introduce the general public to the many layers of the Ancient Burying Ground’s history. This will enhance the understanding of the burying ground today.

If you have questions regarding this project, please contact the Ancient Burying Ground Association by email at ABGAct@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Ty Tryon

President, Ancient Burying Ground Association

Uncovering Their History: African, African-American and Native-American Burials in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, 1640-1815  is a project of the Ancient Burying Ground Association, and was funded in part by the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Economic and Community Development with funds from the Community Investment Act.