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In the media: Project helps breathe new life into stories of Greenwood’s forgotten dead

A monument at the Greenwood Cemetery  known as a potter's field
A monument at the Greenwood Cemetery pays respects to the over 1,200 dead buried in the indigent plot, commonly known as a potter’s field, where people of lesser means, unknown, or unclaimed, were often buried. Greg Cowan/The Sun Times

Naomi Norquay, a senior scholar at York University, and Rachel Lobo of the University of Toronto set out to work on uncovering the narratives of the people buried at the Greenwood Cemetery’s indigent plot in 2020 before the pandemic. They were pushed to continue the work virtually. Norquay and Lobo’s research spans from 1858 to 1930. 

“We wanted to write a small narrative that would point the families, decedents, the researchers and the curious to where we found the information,” Norquay said. “We wanted to make sure we have narratives on infants, kids, youth, women, men, Black citizens, a sample that would give us a nice cross-section of the people who were buried there.”

Read the full article on the Owen Sound Sun Times website.