St. Anne's Cemetery Awarded a Trader Foundation Grant!
The Cemetery Committee is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Trader Foundation Grant. The Trader Foundation for Maryland Burial Sites assists cemetery preservation and those engaged in such efforts. The grant funding will allow us to engage an expert in Ground Penetrating Radar to use his equipment to scan our West Hill with the goal of identifying burials that have taken place over the past 234 years but have no markers to identify their locations. We believe that there are many souls who lie forgotten on that hill and the only way we can validate our belief is with GPR. This is an ongoing part of the Truth and Reconciliation Ministry as we work to uncover the truth about the part that St. Anne’s has played in the history of Annapolis. It will also help us identify unknown vacant plots that can be used for future burials.
We will also use the GPR to validate the legend that many bones were dug up from around the churchyard during the time that the first church structure was being expanded in 1775 and deposited under a mound at the top of a different hill at “the new” St. Anne’s Cemetery. Today there is nothing to identify the significance of this mound, but if the GPR validates this story by identifying evidence of multiple remains, we will create a plaque to honor those early Annapolitans whose remains are under this mound.