Ancient Burying Ground

The Ancient Burying Ground is Hartford’s oldest historic site and the only one remaining from the seventeenth century. From 1640 until the early 1800s, it served as Hartford’s primary graveyard. During that period, anyone who died in town, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnic background, economic status, or religious faith, was buried here. Approximately 6,000 people are thought to be buried in the Ancient Burying Ground, including an estimated 300 to 500 Africans and people of African descent, and Native Americans. Those named and unnamed individuals are profiled on the website in several ways, as individuals and in collective narratives. Ancestry.com family trees are linked where possible. We have also developed RelationshipTrees to show connections between people that are not based on family ties. Artwork by Cora Marshall depicts what the people may have looked like, based on descriptions in newspapers and other documents.