At the request of Rev. Ruby Brown-Thomas we returned to the Carroll Family Cemetery off Poseytown Road in Nanjemoy. Rev. Brown-Thomas is a minister at Mt Hope Missionary Baptist Church and has ancestors buried in the Cemetery. A historic marker that included the cemetery had recently been placed nearby by the Charles County Commissioners, and there are plans to restore the farmhouse and mark the cemetery.
In October 2017 [Cemetry Volunteer Work] CCASM members and Esther Read identified, flagged, and documented over seventy unmarked graves in a wooded area that oral history indicated was a cemetery associated with the Carroll family and with the early Mt Hope Baptist Church. Jim created the map showing the locations of the graves.
On April 26 CCASM members Elsie, Denise, Linda, Mary, Ned, Peggy, and Carol as well as volunteers Kathy and Antonio joined archaeologist Esther Read to make sure all the unmarked graves were still flagged and numbered. Jim's map was a great help since some of the flags were missing and many of the flags no longer were numbered. As you can see there was a thick layer of leaves on the site that had to be brushed away before we could see the impressions indicative of graves.
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| Looking for unmarked graves (flagged and unflagged) |
About halfway through Rev. Ruby Brown-Thomas along with members of Mt Hope Church, members of the Carroll family, and a few CCASM members started adding the crosses made from PVC to the graves. The white crosses really stood out.
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| Adding crosses |
Hear is a closer look at the volunteers verifying the flags and grave locations posing with Rev Brown-Thomas and William. (Sorry I didn't get a photo of all those helping install the crosses.)
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There are plans to enclose the cemetery with a fence and to add a sign.
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