‘Caring For Old Cemeteries In Connecticut’

The Genealogy Club of Newtown will hold its first meeting of the 2012-13 season on Wednesday, September 12, at 7 pm. The club will be in the lower meeting room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street.

Ruth Shapleigh-Brown, founder and executive director of the Connecticut Gravestone Network, will speak about the important work done by members of The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) in caring for old cemeteries in Connecticut. 

Since 1989, Ms Shapleigh-Brown has worked with AGS, and in 1995 organized fellow AGS members to form the Connecticut Gravestone Network. She writes and publishes a quarterly newsletter and organizes an annual symposium.

In addition, Ms Shapleigh-Brown does presentations and programs on basic burial ground/cemetery conservation.

Her passion for cemetery preservation began when she visited her ancestral family plots in Maine. Finding them to be in weed covered and overgrown state, she organized family members to clean up the site, sparking an ongoing study to protect and beautify these historic artifacts.  She states that this is a way to interact with our history.

The Genealogy Club of Newtown meets the second Wednesday of the month, September through June. Visitors are always welcome, and refreshments are served.

For additional information contact Harlan Jessup at 203-426-3981 or visit rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctgenc.