Middlebury Cemetery Association To Offer Seminar on Gravestones

MIDDLEBURY, CT - The Middlebury Cemetery Association will be hosting a seminar on the maintenance and preservation of new and historic gravestones. The seminar will be presented by Ruth Shapleigh-Brown from the Connecticut Gravestone Network.

The seminar is open to the public free of charge and will take place at the Middlebury Cemetery on Cemetery Rd in Middlebury on June 29 at 10:00am.

Ms. Shapleigh-Brown has been involved in burial ground preservation and gravestone studies since the mid 1980's when she visited her ancestral family plots in Maine. The Shapleigh family came from England in the early 1600’s, being some of the first settlers in the area now known as Eliot and Kittery. Finding them in an overgrown weed covered state, she thought this to be very disrespectful and she organized some family members to clean them up.

This was the tip of the iceberg for what has since become Ms. Shapleigh-Brown’s passion in life. She states that studying these historic artifacts and protecting them is a way to interact with history and those that came before us. Presently, Ruth finds herself continually engulfed in Connecticut’s early history by connecting early families though the study of these first burying grounds.

Ms. Shapleigh-Brown has worked with conservation workshops as part of the annual Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) conference's since 1989. She was conference chair in 1993 when the AGS conference was held in New London, and served for six years as an AGS trustee. In 1995 Ruth organized fellow Connecticut AGS members and founded the Connecticut Gravestone Network, which carries a membership annual average of 150 members, with many now living out of state with family ties to Connecticut.

Through CGN, Ms. Shapleigh-Brown’s goal is to sponsor programs that work with local communities to educate and support those with an interest to care for their old cemeteries. She also sets up exhibits and display tables at locally sponsored genealogy and history events as an educational service. As director of CGN, she writes and publishes a newsletter and organizes an annual spring symposium.

Ms. Shapleigh-Brown’s efforts are wholeheartedly supported by our State Archaeologist and State Historic Preservation Office at the Connecticut Commission on Cultural and Tourism.

Ms. Shapleigh-Brown personally gives presentations and programs on basic burial ground/cemetery conservation including directing community workshops. Since about 1998, she has been a board member of the Historic Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford and is on the Monument Review Committee; and Public Representative for The Ancient Burial Ground in Hartford as well as Vice President and Event Director for Friends of Center Cemetery, Inc. in East Hartford, which she has been actively involved in since 1992, organizing their annual spring activity day, fundraisers and lantern tours.

Connecticut Gravestone Network is dedicated to protecting Connecticut's old burying grounds and preserving their historic significance. CGN provides a communication resource with an emphasis on promoting and encouraging public awareness and safe conservation. They also support those interested in all other aspects of gravestone studies.

They welcome all who have an interest in preserving history, gravestone art work & old epitaphs, and have respect, in general, for the importance of our cemeteries.