Newtown Friends Dig into the Past
Out of the fourteen Meetings in Bucks Quarter, twelve have oversight of at least one burial ground. The responsibility usually falls to volunteers, whose duties can be far reaching, including record keeping, grass cutting, financial oversight, headstone maintenance and cleaning, and interfacing with funeral directors and grave diggers.
At Newtown Meeting, burial ground liaisons Sharon Hulihan and Wendy Kane like to take it one step further. Both are amateur genealogists and avid taphophiles (someone who likes headstones and cemeteries), and they have made it their mission to make the Friends who reside in their burial ground more than just birth and death dates – they want to make these Friends come alive (pun intended) to the members of their meeting.
At an Adult First Day School presentation this fall, Wendy and Sharon spoke about no fewer than 30 Friends that they have gotten to know through their work with the burial ground records at the meeting. Friends who lived in Newtown Borough and walked to meeting, Friends who were involved in the American Friends Service Committee, and the many, many Friends who were associated with George School.
For some, it was a trip down memory lane, fondly remembering Friends who have recently passed on. For others, it was digging back into the past, going back centuries to learn about historical Friends that until now were only a name and date on a headstone.
The program was recorded and is available on the Bucks Quarter YouTube channel; enjoy!