Robin Moore spent months searching for information about her great-great-grandfather, an African-American settler in Canada in the 19th century, to create a family tree for her family.

After several phone calls and extensive research, Moore, who lives in Chicago, found a possible connection in the town of Ingersoll in southwestern Ontario, east of London, where her ancestor James Hisson may have been laid to rest.

“I tried to find him in all sorts of records to find out when and where he died – all sorts of information. I happened to come across a gravesite where he could have been,” Moore told CBC. London morning.

In June, Moore made a trip from Chicago to Ingersoll Rural Cemetery and found that Hisson was buried in an unmarked grave in the back of the cemetery.

He is one of an estimated 400 people buried in the large grassy area known as the Pauper’s Cemetery. It is a resting place for people from marginalized groups, including black Canadians who escaped slavery in the United States and could not afford a funeral or a headstone.

CBC previously reported on a project led by researchers at Western University that sought to uncover the stories of community members buried in the pauper’s cemetery between 1864 and 1976. Among those buried are early Chinese immigrants and British children in care.

“For me, it was incredible to find one of my ancestors and see where he ended up and where he was laid to rest. You don’t always find information like that about people who lived so long ago, so it was a sense of closure,” Moore said.

“Finding his information and being able to share it with my family was truly an indescribable feeling.”

Who was James Hisson?

When Moore visited Ingersoll, she connected with Cody Groat, a professor of Indigenous studies at Western University who grew up in the town and is overseeing the research project.

Research by Groat and his students revealed that Hisson came to Ontario on the Underground Railroad and his family is listed in the 1851 provincial census, which shows that they settled in the town of East Gwilimbury in York Region.

“One thing that’s very interesting about James Hisson is that we really don’t have a lot (of information), and that’s a very normal pattern for people buried in the pauper’s cemetery,” Groat said. “These were community members who were economically or socially marginalized, so trying to find out anything about them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

The only information available about Hisson is his burial register and a brief reference in the Ingersoll Chronicle Newspaper dated November 19, 1874, mentioning his death, Groat said, adding that it was also possible that he was also known as John Hisson.

VIEW | How ground-penetrating radars detect gravestones:

Discover stories from the pauper cemetery in Ingersoll

Researchers at Western University are trying to find out more about the hundreds of people buried in an unmarked gravesite at Ingersoll Rural Cemetery.

While touring the cemetery, Moore discovered another relative buried in the pauper’s cemetery. It was a toddler named Arvella Henderson, who died in 1909. Henderson’s headstone was one of 14 discovered during a ground-penetrating radar analysis for the project.

“I think we were both really shocked,” Moore said. “It’s not the only headstone they found in their search, but it was the only one they pulled out, so that was a very interesting connection.”

Ingersoll had a large black population at the time, and many members of the Henderson family are buried on the field, Groat explained.

Moore said she wants to continue researching her family tree and hopes this project can connect others with their roots.

“You do these things to learn more about our history and to understand it. Maybe you think about what our ancestors went through and what their priorities were when they were alive,” she said.

“It helps to understand the huge puzzle that we are all part of.”