news & announcements archive
Soup & Salad Supper Meeting
The Friends of Ancient Cemetery held a lively, well-attended Soup and Salad Supper Meeting for all our volunteers on March 20th, 2022 at the Yarmouth Department of Public Works. Thanks to the energetic efforts of Lori Larsen, we enjoyed generous donations of soups, salads and bread from nine Yarmouth restaurants. Volunteers brought the desserts!
Bill Bullock generously opened the building for the afternoon. He discussed safety in the Cemetery and a future safety and refresher training clinic.
Upcoming events and discussion of recent additions to the website followed.
Check out the new website additions:
Laurel Gabel presented data analysis for 2021, and confirmed volunteer assignments for 2022. Volunteers are looking forward to the start of the 4th year of the Project.
Images of Ancient Cemetery Covered in Snow
Click here to visit the Gallery and see wonderful images by volunteer Sharon Thurston who braved the cold to capture these images of Ancient Cemetery after the blizzard of February 2022.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at DPW
The Yarmouth Department of Public Works hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and Open House on Saturday November 20th for their band new building.
The Friends of Ancient Cemetery set up an exhibition of our Project with before and after cleaning stones photos, a map of Ancient Cemetery and beautiful museum quality prints of gravestone sculptures.
We now have a Friends of Ancient Cemetery Shop!
Your purchase will help us continue the work of preserving, protecting, and promoting the historical and cultural significance of Yarmouth Massachusetts' oldest burying ground. All images captured by a fine art photographer and products are sourced from hi quality vendors. Get ready to SHOP!
Stories behind the Stones videos were shown on November 17th, at 7 pm
Five brief stories were presented: Ruth W. The Wilder Stones, Judi T. Lost at Sea, Kelly M. The Howland Family, Laurel The Diaries of Lizzie Ryder Taylor and Melanie, A Ship, A Pirate and the Myth of Mary Hallet. Stories were generated from the gravestones we have cleaned. Next: Hollywood! If you missed it, go to the videos page of this website to see them all.
Aerial View of Ancient Cemetery
This fall we were fortunate to have a local photographer, Peter Greer, volunteer to take drone images of the entire old section of Ancient Cemetery. Maria Ferrari used computer magic to stitch the images together to create a hi resolution map. See the aerial view of Ancient Cemetery here.
A New Video - What's in My Bucket?
Our volunteers, Deb Bianchi and Sharon Thurston have produced a short video explaing how to clean gravestones. Check it out on the Download section under the Volunteers tab of this website.
Golden Scraper Awards
October 24th was daffodil planting, a cider and donuts thank you celebration at Ancient Cemetery, and the presentation of the golden scraper awards. Everyone was a winner!
Thank you for your time and dedication.
GPR and LiDar Survey Results
A presentation by Doria L. Kutrubes, President and Geophysicist, RSI (Radar Solutions International) Waltham, MA and Thomas Elmore, Founder of GeoNAV, Suffield, CT will be announced before end of year in Yarmouth to review the findings of their gpr and lidar surveys of the southeast corner of Ancient Cemetery.
Surveys were conducted on May 25th, 2021.
Please read more under the Projects tab
Contribute to
Friends of Ancient Cemetery
The Ancient Cemetery Project is a grass roots volunteer effort to Record, Interpret, and Protect the carved records in Yarmouth's oldest burying ground. We are grateful for donations, large or small, that will help us continue preserving our community's history for generations to come.
Thank you for your help.
Credit card, debit card or paypal accepted.
Patience Eldridge, d. 1832, age 92