Cemetery Rescues in Voluntown & Griswold, CT.
The Old Kinne Cemetery, Rt. 165, Voluntown... Reclaiming a forgotten cemetery...
We have some CGN members in the towns of Voluntown and Griswold that have been working diligently for a few years now to find and rescue their communities heritage. Being located on the eastern side of Connecticut these eastern towns have many small family cemeteries scattered about the countryside, many are out of sight, overgrown, neglected and forgotten about. Iva Arpin (DAR representative) and her CAR (children of the American Revolution)
The General Ebenezer Huntington Society have adopted and totally restored the small and earliest of Kinne family yards. The Kinne name is one of the oldest in the area and being descendant from that line, Iva who is also a professional genealogist, has done a great deal of research on these cemeteries. She has managed to find documentation and references that even allows us to establish a direct association for the many fieldstone markers that were discovered in the first days of clean up, to the many infants deaths of the early Kinne families who settled there.
The oldest known grave in this first endeavor is in an old burial ground actually located in Griswold. The second Kinne family cemetery is located about 1 mile away in Voluntown. Iva has found the original family deed for this cemetery along with the original Kinne Family Association incorporation. Most stones in this cemetery are of marble. However this cemetery probably dates back to an earlier time as unmarked graves have been located in the back.
Tom Wilbur, Voluntown's first selectman (and a genealogist), has been instrumental with this endeavor as he has taken a personal interest in overseeing that all the neglected cemeteries in his community are located, documented and cleared of brush. These two Kinne family burial places have been "taken back" by those that have respect for their heritage and wish to preserve it for future generations.
Any one interested in more information about these projects can contact: Iva Arpin at mamabear@spininternet.com
Calling all Bitgoods. If anyone would like to join the Bitgood family in restoring their family burial yards in the Voluntown area please contact: Wilfred Bitgood at Frell@Earthlink.net
