Group looks for more history at cemetery Matawan Historic Commission hopes to mark unmarked graves By Alison Granito Staff Writer Mary Lou Lovino, a member of Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organiza-tion (BRAVO), uses a metal detector to search for possible artifacts at the St. James A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery in Matawan, where at least four known black Civil War veterans are buried. MATAWAN — New imaging technology may help uncover some of the mystery behind the people laid to rest in the St. James A.M.E. Zion Church cemetery. The cemetery, located on Johnson Avenue, is considered among the borough’s most significant historic sites since it is the known resting place of at least four black soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Robert Montfort, vice chairman of the borough’s Historic Sites Commission, said that radar surveys conducted in previous years have identified at least 65 potential graves in the cemetery, even though only four to six grave markers remain visible. According to Montfort, the historic sites commission is currently involved in an ongoing project in cooperation with the Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO), Freehold, to locate other potential graves, as well as grave markers. PHOTOS BY SARAH McCOLGAN Montfort said that the latest round of radar imaging, performed on July 14, yielded promising results. Several objects, believed to be headstones, were discovered just below the surface of the ground. Excavations and shallow subsurface digs are planned for the near future to identify more accurately the objects below the surface that were picked up by radar. "Our ultimate goal with this is to take the computer-generated map the radar will get us and use it to eventually mark all the graves in the area," Montfort said. "We would like to put up a headstone for everyone when we’re done," he added. An unexpected break in locating one additional grave marker for the cemetery came last year, when another local historical group contacted the commission after the headstone had sat for years in its storage space. The group had received the stone from the Old Bridge Township Police Department, which had found it abandoned and lying by the side of the road. "We think some kids may have removed it as a joke, but the important thing is that such a significant piece found its way back," Montfort said. The headstone bears the last name Jameson and can be dated to approximately the 1860s, said Montfort, noting that the marker probably belongs to the grave of a member of the Jameson family which sold the property to the church to create a cemetery. Montfort said that the roundabout way in which the Jameson headstone found its way back to the commission is evocative of the restoration process of the cemetery in general. Montfort noted that the cemetery was forgotten for many years with no one maintaining it, becoming "completely overgrown." "Mother Nature just covered up whatever fell down in there," said Montfort. Montfort noted that although the commission was putting a large-scale effort into restoring the cemetery and identifying grave sites, exactly who occupies those graves may remain a mystery. "We have little indication of who is buried in that cemetery. We do know that the original church burned down and that the records may have gone with it," Montfort explained. "We’re hoping that is not the case and that one day some boxes will pop up in somebody’s attic," he added. Radar imaging works by the emission of pulses of electrical energy directly into the ground under a mobile unit roughly the size and shape of a push lawn mower, explained Middletown archaeologist Gerard P. Scharfenberger. When a disturbance is encountered, the visual representation is characterized by a series of arcing lines.