Establishing Community Priorities for Descendants of Louisville’s Intentionally Overburied Historic Eastern Cemetery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/29437Keywords:
historic archaeology, cemetery, necroviolence, community surveyAbstract
Louisville’s historic Eastern Cemetery has suffered decades of grave reuse and overburial at the hands of its caretakers. As part of a court decision that removed the management company and installed new protections for the cemetery, the University of Louisville agreed to curate surviving historic records that document the overburial practices. Each year, staff archaeologists respond to hundreds of email requests from families seeking answers and information about their loved ones. In this paper, we analyze email records search requests and conduct a survey of descendants. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of the priorities of this traumatized, dispersed descendant community that will help guide future work.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Thomas Jennings, Codi Goodwyn, Angela Storey, Kathryn Marklein, Ashley Smallwood
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