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| GENEALOGY/CEMETERY
INTERN PROGRAM Federal stimulus money for summer jobs for youth enabled the Mayor’s Office to have 17 Interns (during June, 2009) who were trained in genealogy research and historic cemetery preservation by City of Houston librarians and volunteer genealogists, archeologists, historians, and cemetery preservationists. Each Intern researched and documented the identity and life of at least one person buried in College Memorial Park Cemetery, used the skills they learned to locate and print collectively hundreds of death certificates confirming the burial of persons in the cemetery, and performed manual labor at the cemetery, which facilitated the visual inspection of many gravestones that had not been seen in decades. The document research and cross-checking of headstones will enable the City of Houston to post a partial list of those buried in the cemetery and help researchers and others discover more of the history of the cemetery and the thousands of people buried there. Many of the interred were residents of the Fourth Ward, helped build Houston, and include people such as the Reverend Jack Yates, who was prominent in Houston history. In addition to the burial list, a book will be compiled from the Interns’ work and program materials for deposit at the City’s African American Library at the Gregory School and the City’s Clayton Library for Genealogical Research. Status (as of 07/2/2009): The College Park Memorial Park Cemetery intern genealogy/cemetery project ended for the interns on June 26. Each intern wrote a report on a person buried at the Cemetery. Additionally, death certificates for many people buried there were collected by the interns. These will be usedd to help update the spreadhseet of burials compiled by Randy Riepe and Meredith Spencer from the original records in Bethel Church's possession. Jenny Bailey (Mayor's Office) will compile a unique product that will give many researchers access to information that has never before been compiled and that will facilitate searches by possible descendants . Other Resources: ABC 13 News Story Video on College Memorial Park project Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum | ||
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Interns at Cemetery Clean-up: The Genealogy/Cemetery Interns and two City of Houston Supervisors in front of a pile of debris they collected throughout College Memorial Park Cemetery and staged for removal. | Interns at the Church Site: Genealogy/Cemetery Interns view the braced facade of the Historic Bethel Baptist Church. | |
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Interns at the R.B.H. Yates House and Museum in Freedmen's Town: The Genealogy/Cemetery Interns visited the Museum and Freedmen's Town to research historical context of people buried at College Memorial Park Cemetery. Also pictured are Debra Blacklock-Sloan, genealogy specialist and member of the Harris County Historical Commission Cemetery Committee, Dr. Carol McDavid, archeologist, and Catherine Roberts, Co-Founder of the Museum. | ||
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| College Memorial Park Cemetery
| Olivewood Cemetery | | Evergreen Negro Cemetery | Genealogy/Cemetery Intern Program | | ||
