It is estimated that between 1640 and the early 1800s most of the people who died in Hartford and the surrounding area were buried here, including parts of East Hartford and West Hartford. Many people ended up in Hartford simply because they died there.
For those doing family history and genealogy, a list of resources is available here. The book “By Their Markers Ye Shall Know Them” is an excellent resource and available in the Shop.
The sexton was responsible for supervising and making a record of everyone buried in the Ancient Burying Ground. These records vary greatly in their detail. In 1835, there were 563 stones “still standing.” In 1877, Charles J. Hoadley, CT State Librarian, compiled a list of 526 stones and their epitaphs, which is reproduced in the ABGA book “By Their Markers Ye Shall Find Them.”
In the 1930s, a Works Projects Administration (WPA) project led by Charles R. Hale inscribed headstones from more than 2,000 Connecticut cemeteries. Known as the Charles Hale Collection, it is available online at Ancestry.com to subscribers, and for free at many local libraries in person or online, including the Hartford Public Library and the Connecticut State Library.
The sexton was responsible for supervising and making a record of everyone buried in the Ancient Burying Ground. These records vary greatly in their detail, such as the record from March 14, 1759, of “Two Children of Caleb Bull in one grave.” Others were essentially anonymous, like the “French Woman Interred at the expense of the Town” on June 24, 1757.
Sexton’s records like the one for “A Negro. Interred at Expense of Samuel Drake” on February 24, 1760, are the only primary source documentation for African, African-American, and Native American graves in the Ancient Burying Ground. The “Uncovering Their History” project researched other sources, including church, vital, and probate records to identify an estimated 500 people of color who were likely or possibly interred in the Ancient Burying Ground.
An unknown number of those originally laid to rest in the Ancient Burying Ground have been disinterred, and in some cases discarded, as portions of the graveyard were appropriated over the centuries for other uses.
The Ancient Burying Ground initially was, and continues to be, municipal land, controlled first by the Town and later the City of Hartford. It is a secular spot, over which the Congregational Church has no jurisdiction. It was a utilitarian space, evidenced by the fact that sometimes livestock were allowed to graze here. The practice of designing graveyards as landscapes that would double as green spaces and parks didn’t begin until after the Ancient Burying Ground was no longer being used.